It’s one of those moments that I think many of us remember – the moment when we no longer believed in Santa Claus, or Father Christmas, or whoever the jolly old gentleman was in your house.
I can certainly remember very clearly announcing to my Dad in particular that I knew that Father Christmas wasn’t real that he and Mum were the ones who put the presents under the tree and ate the cake and milk we would lovingly leave out! After pressing upon me how important it was that I not break this news to my little sister, he then went on to explain to me that in fact there existed this ‘Spirit of Christmas’, which was very real. Now of course I wanted to please him, and to appear very grown up, so I nodded knowingly, even though I really didn’t have the faintest clue what he was talking about, nor what this mysterious ‘Spirit of Christmas’ was supposed to mean!
Looking at the commercial frenzy which often happens at around this time of year, one could be forgiven for being a little cynical, and for indeed questioning the reality of that mysterious spirit. But are we all really so easily manipulated by marketing, or is there perhaps still a little magic at work?
If we look at our favourite Christmas symbols, there is a bit of a theme going on. This theme has a very earthy and fundamental resonance, which weaves itself into beautiful variations . In the northern hemisphere, everything goes still and cold and quiet, and at the mid-winter solstice, the slow tread towards longer days begins. Light and warmth will return, and the fire symbolised in the candles which abound, keeps reminding us of this. At carols services, we sing and participate in our own ritual, even if we don’t consciously see it as such. Our hearts just ‘know’, and we’re uplifted by the experience.
The promise of rebirth is symbolised, and one could even say celebrated, in the use of Christmas trees. Evergreen fir trees, long used as Christmas trees connect us with luscious green new growth. And deciduous trees have the knowledge of regeneration hard-wired into them. They know how to let go, and they know how to bloom. But the fir tree subtly reminds us of things green and growing, that even in the midst of the dark and cold, life is irrepressible. The promise of life, and of hope, quietly speaks to us from deep within the branches of our Christmas trees.
And then the big one the golden child, born at midwinter, and born to bring hope and new life to the world. In fact, there was a pagan god-child called “Baal-berith,” or lord of the fir-tree. This ‘golden child’ theme appears time and again in mythology, and in more recent times, in fantasy story the child with special qualities, often with a question around his or her parentage or lineage, but whose destiny is to bring peace and hope to all. A pretty universal theme, so one would have to assume there is something in it!
So why do these symbols appear in vastly different cultures and across time? Because they are archetypal they resonate with something deeply embedded in our hearts. Symbols communicate with us at very subtle levels. This deep recognition is what I think points to the presence of something special at work. The spirit of Christmas is real its symbolic expression helps us to recognise ‘kindred spirits’ all over the world, and isn’t that what we strive for at this time more than any other? Here’s wishing you a very Happy Christmas!!