Christmas Times

CHRISTMAS                       AN NOLLAIG

At this time of year in the pre-Christmas season I think about my early childhood memories. I think about my grandparents coming into town on the pony and trap to buy the Christmas fare, the sack of flour, the whiskey and tobacco and the big red candle to be lit at 6 o clock on Christmas Eve by the youngest person in the house. A sizeable turkey or goose was dropped off at our house which was the standard Xmas present. They did all their home baking, grew all their own potatoes and vegetables and had them stored in pits. They lived a very simple life as did most people living in rural Ireland at that time.

Christmas was a simple enough event to celebrate the birth of the child Jesus in a manger at Bethlehem. There were no supermarkets, no Christmas markets, party nights, no fuss or lights or major celebrations. The Christmas candle had to be lit in memory of penal times in Ireland. Priests were banned and they knew if there was a red candle lighting in a window that they were safe and could come in and pray with the family. That’s what my granny Callaghan told me and I believed her.

We were reminded at home and in school about how the simple donkey provided transport for Joseph and Mary when the child Jesus was born, He who was to bring light and hope to the world. Here was simplicity supreme when our saviour was born yet it had reverberations around the world.

In my youth Christmas was a seasonal occasion celebrating the birth of our saviour. It was a small meaningful annual event which had great meaning for the church and mankind. In school we erected the crib, sang carols, read the Christmas story, went to Confession and then had the Christmas mass in the Parish Church.

At home we wrote our letter to Santa Claus, the presents arrived, and we went to mass as a family. The church was packed to capacity and there was great socialising and exchanging of greetings afterwards in the church grounds

The turkey was prepared the night before and placed in the oven in the range before going to mass. We ate the Christmas dinner in the afternoon and later played with our Santa presents. That night our uncle and his wife visited and we all played cards. It truly was a simple short-lived event finishing up on January 6^th with Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas. Children went back to school after this, and Christmas was officially over for another year.

Now we seem to have Christmas all the year round. I was in a supermarket in September, and I noted some Christmas decorations. Black Friday ads were appearing on our TV screens in what appeared to be a competition between major traders as to who would be first off the mark with pre-Christmas sales.

The annual display of the Christmas sweet boxes of Cadburys Milk Tray, Cadburys Heroes, Quality Street and Roses opened in supermarkets which were complemented by window displays of baubles and lights.

Lavish Christmas displays appeared in Browne Thomas shop windows on Grafton Street while in store a special Christmas shop opened up. This is repeated in other major towns and villages around the country from mid -October.

Shop windows and newspaper are all festooned with Christmas sales deals, alcohol deals, skiing holidays and hotel offers of where to stay for Christmas. The social party scene is chock a block with seasonal offers of where you can dine and party

Financial institutions are busy filling up cash machines and their computers are on overdrive registering visa card sales returns as people busy themselves in a frenzy of Christmas shopping.

 I was in a supermarket in the second week of November, and I could not believe it when I heard Christmas carols being played on a constant loop. It was just a step too far too early in the calendar year. When you hear them being played on a constant basis for two months, you become immune to them, and they lose their significance and charm. Cribs and images nowadays become part of the decorations, and the story of Bethlehem tends to get dimmed and lost with all the noise and bustle of the commercial Christmas. We rarely hear the advent message of peace, hope and love in the over hyped commercial world we inhabit.

Nowadays most towns and villages will have Christmas lights adorning and illuminating their streets from mid-November to encourage the Christmas spending. Parents and people in general become stressed by the pressures brought on by the expense of buying Christmas presents and filling Santa socks for ever more demanding children, who are exposed to a surfeit of advertising on TV and social media.

There is also the pressure of decorating houses, internally and externally with very little to do with the story of Bethlehem. I am absolutely blown away by the effort some families put into decorating their gardens with illuminated Santas, elves, reindeer, snowflakes and an assortment of multi coloured static and flashing lights .

When I walk through the supermarket doors in November and December I am bombarded by an array of artificial Christmas trees, decorations, lights, candles by the thousand, Xmas pyjamas agus rudaí éagsúla le haghaidh na Nollag.

Christmas is a tough time for charitable organisations, like the St Vincent de Paul society, which have fierce demand on their funds during the year and especially at this time of year. Last year they responded to over 250000 appeals for help. Fortunately, people contribute generously to them at Christmas time which enables them put meals on tables for needy families, provide fuel for fires and Santa presents for children.

When we stop to think at this busy time of year for all of us it is an opportune time to focus on love for our neighbours and our generosity to those in need at home and in trouble spots around the world. In this way we can remember the message of Bethlehem and the true meaning of Christmas that it is in giving of our time and possessions that we receive all the blessings of the Christmas Season.

BÍodh Nollaig faoi shéan is faoi mhaise agaibh uilig.