Expectations are interesting things. Stereotypes create a lot of expectations.
Christmas comes with a lot of stereotypes.
(Before I go on I would like to clear something up right away: This intro could very well be a start to a complaint on the Christmas season. I've heard such things many times. The good Lord knows I've pondered such things myself. But for this post I don't want to complain about Christmas. I only want to look at some ideas, concepts, thoughts; things that roll around in my head until they come out through my fingers. That being said...)
How in the world these stereotypes come to be, I'm not entirely sure. Granted, I'm sure the stereotypes are different for different people. We all live in different cultures (even if we live in the same neighborhood). I have never seen a particular movie that some people consider to be a staple in the Christmas experience--I think it's call "the Christmas story" or something like that. You probably know the one, "you'll shoot your eye out." And I'm sure many people have never seen the musical "Scrooge".
Anyway, all this to say that there obviously are differences in our individual perceptions of Christmas stereotypes. That being said, you'll have to forgive me for only using those stereotypes of which I am most familiar. I don't claim to have an exhaustive list.
How do these stereotypes effect Christmas?
I suppose it depends on what it is and how set the person is on the exact perception of how Christmas "should" be.
I know a lot of stereotypes are chalked up to "tradition". Why do we have a tree in our living room? Because we have had a tree in our living room around this time of year every year. It's tradition. Why was it that for many years we always watched a particular Christmas movie on Christmas day? It was tradition.
Nothing wrong with that.
Sometimes, I'm sure, there are things that occur every year so consistently that--though it may not be tradition--they become somehow ingrained in the memory as a natural part of Christmas. Sometimes these things are good, and sometimes not so much.
I've heard that there are many people who find this to be a most miserable time of year because of the loss of a loved one around this time some year previous.
For some Christmas is a joyous time spent with family and loved ones. For others it is a time when they are forced to be in a building with some of the people they hate most in the world. Many of us know the stereotypes of "in-laws", and family feuds.
Then there are the Christmas images:
A bright, glimmering tree wrapped in lights and covered with ornaments. Beneath the tree a neat stack of carefully wrapped presents stands, magnificent to behold, until the eagerly awaited Christmas morning. Outside the snow sits as a cotton blanket over everything in sight. Perhaps a snow man (or woman) sits patiently amid the white landscape. In the evening carolers walk the streets, stopping at each doorstep, and sharing their Christmas cheer with every passer by.
Christmas comes one day every three hundred sixty-five. And when someone has a specific mental image of what Christmas looks like, it can very easily become a great disappointment should that image not come to full fruition. A person could spend his entire life trying to create the perfect Christmas, and in the process ruin--for himself at least--every Christmas every year.
I think Paul might have been on to something when he wrote to the Church in Philippi about the secret of being content in all situations. Of course this ought not to be mentioned without also including the end of his statement: "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." This being the key to the secret Paul speaks of. But you can look more into that for yourself.
Christmas is a good time of year. Not perfect, and not always "the most wonderful time." But it is--or at least it can be a good time.
May you all have a most joyous Christmas season!