First, we should perhaps define what Christmas spirit is so were all on the same page? Artificial Intelligence that has slithered its way unwanted into my computer has summarized the definition of Christmas Spirit as “a feeling of joy, goodwill and generosity, encompassing festive cheer, kindness and a focus on togetherness and giving during the holiday season.”
Somewhere in that compilation, I am sure I can find my thoughts on Christmas Spirit. You will notice that there is no mention of a religious component in the summary. Perhaps AI is an atheist or worse a woke Nazi.
As a child, I didn’t have to go far looking for joy and goodwill. It was delivered to me on the promise of a sleigh filled with toys delivered by a jolly old fat man and shopping for gifts at the Five and Dime using my entire weekly allowance. Ashtrays were my "goto" presents for both my smoking parents.
As I
matured into a married man it was delivered to me in the faces of my young
children.
As my children matured it was delivered to me in the faces of my grandchildren. When our young grandson was asked “What would you like to have Santa bring you for Christmas”, he demanded a Christmas chicken, a Christmas chicken. Leaving us a little confused, we however started shopping for a Christmas chicken.
Luckily, while
watching a Sponge Bob cartoon with him on a cold Saturday morning just before Christmas we happened on a commercial extolling
the wonders of the Mattel Play Kitchen, complete with stove, full set of dishes,
cookware and plastic food. The Christmas Kitchen, the lights came on and Christmas was saved.
As we travelled the world, it became necessary to search out festive events that brought people together because not every country celebrates Christmas. Seems I was wrong. I spent Christmas morning entertaining a kindergarten class located on the campus of HIT. There was a giant decorated Christmas tree and full sized Santa in the lobby and the entire school was plastered with cardboard Christmas decorations. See the link below.
While Christmas is not officially recognized in China: it is celebrated not for any religious reasons but for its feelings of joy and goodwill. Christmas carols can be heard everywhere elevator music is played. Michael Buble is a big hit.
We quite often were the instigators of these festive events. Meet Mimi, the young daughter of an Iraqi couple who became part of our extended Harbin family. She had heard about Santa so we thought he should pay her a visit.
As I cruised into my 70’s finding something to put me into the Christmas spirit has started to take on some complexity. This year it was bit of a long slog to find those illusive feelings of joy and goodwill.
The search started early with the Santa Claus parade on November 30. Living in the downtown core makes it very easy for us to attend special events as they are mostly focused in and around the downtown. We can step out of our front door and be smack dab in the middle of all the excitement. Enjoyed the parade surrounded by squealing kids excitedly waiting for the big guy. Not feeling a lot of joy and goodwill. A little too commercial.
Photo: Penticton Western News
The parade
was followed a few weeks later by the Christmas Light Up. A nearby park’s trees
are hung with stunning balls of light along with a light tunnel on the sidewalk
along the edge of the park. While beautiful, sadly no feelings of joy and goodwill, perhaps it was the very chilly wind finding cracks in my second layer?
The park was used in an upcoming Christmas movie a few days later. Fake snow was everywhere along with some arena snow.
As an added bonus, we can enjoy the lights every night from the deck of our apartment.
Nonie has a small addiction to Hallmark Christmas movies. Occasionally I will watch one with her. The plots are commercial, cheesy and predictable. No matter how bad things are at the beginning of the movie, you already know that everything is going to work out fine at the end. Any feelings of joy and goodwill they may stir up in me seems to disappear quickly after the movie ends.
One morning while death scrolling, Facebook spit out one of its many unsolicited ads about a Christmas event that caught my eye. It was called "Merry and Bright at Martini Town". A little research and I discovered Martini was located in Langley and is a functioning outdoor film backlot. The lot has created several streets of building facades for use in the film industry.
Photo: Hallmarkchannel.com- Some of Christmas Town was filmed at Martini Town.
Over the Christmas season, the company turns this fake town into a magical Christmas scene right out of Hallmark movie and invites the public to come and enjoy it with some of the proceeds going to local charities.
The entire town is covered with Christmas lights, more Christmas trees than you can count, fake snow falling on some streets, a realistic Santa Claus available for selfies and of course wandering carolers.
What made this interesting, was the fact that it has been used for dozens of Hallmark Christmas and other holiday themed movies. I decided there and then, that this could be the event to kick me into a festive spirit. I booked tickets for the next Friday. The tickets came with a specific entrance time to prevent the problem of crowded lineups to enter.
Wet weather was playing havoc with the highway system so I booked
flights departing on Friday morning and returning on Saturday morning. Booked
the Fairmont Hotel in the airport and rented a car. We got totally lost in the wilds of
lower
Was it
successful in filling me with joy and goodwill? Check out the smiles. Maybe I do like cheesy.
As I am writing this a few weeks after the event, it gave me time to watch a
few Hallmark movies where we spotted some of the facades from
We were weren't done yet. We had one more event that iced my cake of joy and goodwill. Better yet, the icing was spread on a gingerbread house. For many years, after Nonie retired from teaching, she would continue to volunteer in classrooms. In December, she would hand craft 20 to 30 gingerbread houses along with bowls of coloured icing and take them into the classroom for the kids to decorate.
So with the help of a few neighbours, Michael Buble Christmas album and a fireplace playing on the TV we resurrected the tradition and added several delicious additions to our Christmas decorations.
Christmas spirit? Mission accomplished. Starting to plan next year already.
