This is the time of year when the world sparkles in red and green, and the word Christmas seems to pop up in almost every conversation. But this column isn’t really about Christmas. At least, not in the way you might expect.
This is the time of year when the holidays transform the calendar into a parade of traditions, but as I get older and my expectations change, it’s not the presents, the tree, or the relentless playlist of carols that sums it up for me.
While there are obviously exceptions, my favorite part of the Christmas season has become the smaller, less obvious things. It’s the small acts of kindness you see, the fleeting warmth in a stranger’s smile when you say hello, in a situation where neither one of you would probably have even noticed each other at a different time of year.
I don’t know if it’s the influence of social media leaking into real life, or whether we are just losing our way as a people, but life seems so much more adversarial these days than it ever did before. Maybe it’s always been this way, but our personal bubbles were smaller, so we didn’t see as much. Like it’s not necessarily occurring more, just that we’re more aware.
Whatever the reason, that’s why the small gestures stand out to me. These kinds of moments don’t usually trend online, but they remind me what community looks like when we strip away the noise.
Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy all the festive red and green, the presents and the carols as much as the next person, but that seems increasingly like makeup.
But underneath the makeup is the face of the community itself. That’s what I’ve come to enjoy most about the season. Not the noise, the playlists, the glitter, but the pause it creates when we can see each other more clearly, and remember that community is made of small gestures repeated over time.
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