Christmas is a culture!! Trip to the city

Today I have concluded that Christmas is a culture rather than religious holiday!!

This doesn't mean that there is no religious elements to Christmas - I would debate this at great length - yet rather the contrary, there are many religious aspects to Christmas. Culture is more than just religion however, even though its a day celebrating the birth of the Christian savior Jesus Christ. The fact is that significant portions of Christmas celebrations today don't originate in Christianity at all. 

I don't think that anyone celebrates all aspects of Christmas - some hang mistletoe while others drink eggnog, leaving others to create more meaningful traditions. The result is that everyone picks and chooses certain aspects to celebrate and ignores others. 

Its easy to celebrate a secular Christmas, just ignore the religious option!! (Not sure what you would get from it, yet people do this) 

As I took the day to go to the city to experience Melbourne Christmas after a few hours it left a taste of manufactured nostalgia people create in order to feel better about their past or the fact that leaving Christ out of Christmas is just as acceptable as having Christmas altogether. 

It left me with a sense that people would like to freeze Christmas in an idealized postcard with image of Christmas Tree, snow falling, mountains of presents under the tree, family sitting around singing 'we wish you a merry christmas'. 

Sometimes its a lot easier to for people to accept an ideology being imposed on them if they are told its 'tradition' rather than the truth;  (truth possibly been that its just a simulacrum of reality based upon an ideological preference for certain power structures at play) 

In saying all this… I still went to the city to see what gets people so wrapped up in this illusion. I feel blessed that the only 'christmas' I know is advent and on this note, Im looking forward to the coming week of advent… 

My adventure to the city in photos ;o) 

  

Lego Christmas Tree in the Square, its almost 10 meters tall, took over 1,200 hours to create containing half a million lego bricks. 

  

Then headed up the road a little to discover Santa cave, where Mary looks like she is a character in a children's school play singing with hand actions. The trees in the street are knitted with decorations - rather cute I must admit. 

  

Followed by another spectacular tree with a toy solider on the side… 

  

Buildings wrapped up and streets decorated in what would be tones of plastic decorations. Way to go - great display of environment care n concern!!

THEN came the main BIG reason I went to the city - the Myers window. Now this is the true definition of tradition been made. I waited twenty minutes in line to see six windows displayed to match a story of a wonderful dog who escaped from his home on a stormy night to explore the city of Melbourne in the earlier days. It was a mixture of Melbourne history and a child story. I do have to admit the dog reminded me of Gina, the story was very sweet feel good, heart warming - perfect for a cold winter night read to a young one snuggle in bed. The art and workmanship of the display was impressive……