Christmas is a wonderful time of year for most of us, but it’s busy, and full of hard work decorating and whatnot.
Christmas has changed for me over the years.
Hi and welcome to the Les Perras podcast episode number 364 about Christmas ornaments and decorations.
When I was a boy, I used to love Christmas ornaments.
I really loved putting up the Christmas decorations and decorating the Christmas tree.
When my parents made signs of not getting a real Christmas tree, I put up a fuss.
I really wanted the Christmas tree and I told him I would do all the work.
In fact, I did most of the work once I got a little older.
I remember putting up a real live Christmas tree for my mother in her house for several years
When I moved to Japan, I held Christmas close.
I went home to Canada for Christmas, or I held my own special Christmas here in Japan.
Christmas in Japan is quite a bit different from Canada.
To be truthful, the decorations are very, very similar.
But there's no holiday here in Japan and many people are working on Christmas Day.
As a foreigner in Japan, I usually got a holiday for Christmas Day, so I was happy, but I didn't have family here to celebrate Christmas with
By the time I opened my own school I had my own family.
I really wanted to impart the Christmas tradition to my family.
I got Christmas decorations and ornaments and Christmas trees.
You know the fake Christmas trees.
I felt it was important for an English school to have Christmas decorations too.
So I got some of those decorations and I used them to decorate my school somewhat.
Over the years, I went to Canada every two years as much as I could.
I brought my family home for Christmas vacation sometimes.
But as the years passed, I noticed that my feelings about Christmas were changing and Christmas back home in Canada was changing.
I'm sure the Canadians would say it's not changing, but for me it was changing. Canada has changed.
I felt the decorations were no longer as Christmasy as they once were.
And Christmas is now centered around getting gifts.
People also feel a lot of pressure to give just the right gift.
When coronavirus hit, I stopped going to Canada.
I haven't been to Canada now for almost 5 years.
My connections with Canadian Christmas are getting more and more tenuous.
My principal connection with Canadian Christmas is my memory.
And my memories are getting stronger and stronger on the one hand, but my attachment to my memories is getting weaker and weaker on the other.
That brings me to the next point.
I started meditating seriously about three years ago.
I read about it on my personal blog.
What I do is I review my memories of my life.
A stronger re-experiencing of those memories coupled with a breathing technique that I use is helping me to release my attachments.
As a result, I feel less and less attached to Christmas.
I don't think Christmas is bad.
But I don't feel like I have to uphold the tradition.
To a large extent now, Christmas is a messy time.
What I mean is I have to get out the Christmas trees and decorate them.
To be honest, they're quite pretty looking,
but putting them up and taking them down is messy.
The Christmas trees themselves drop all sorts of plastic pieces,
you know the little green flakes that are supposed to be fake leaves.
They get all over my school and I have to vacuum and usually I keep finding them for the next two or three weeks.
I wish that they would make Christmas trees that don't drop their leaves.
They're almost as bad as the real, live trees which drop their needles when you go to put them away.
I haven't quite given up on Christmas yet, but it sure has changed a lot and I have changed a lot since I was a child.
That is only natural and part of growing.