Merry Christmukwanzakah!

I found it fascinating that this year, all three of the major "holiday season" holidays managed to fall in the same week: Hanukkah began on Sunday night/Monday, Christmas is today, and Kwanzaa begins tomorrow. There's also Boxing Day tomorrow, which, contrary to what I'd always assumed, isn't a day in which everyone in the UK puts on boxing gloves and beats the shit out of each other, but rather a holiday stemming from an old tradition, where the wealthy families would eat their Christmas dinner, and then the next day, box up all the left overs and give it to their house staff. I guess it's a nice idea, sharing and all, but I'd be kind of pissed off if I worked my ass off for my wealthy employers, and the only thing they did for the holidays was to give me their half-eaten left overs. The day after the holiday. But, as my mother always says, beggars can't be choosers.

Learning that Boxing Day wasn't an exciting Europe-wide sporting day, in which one could take out all of their aggressions from the stress of the holiday season, was kind of like finding out there was no Santa or no Easter Bunny (although, to be perfectly honest, the idea of a giant rabbit breaking into the house scared me far more than the idea of a jolly fat man wedging himself down a chimney - or, through my stove, as I assumed he did, given that we didn't have a chimney.) It's sort of disheartening.

But what's more disheartening (and embarrassing) is that it was just last year that I learned that Kwanzaa was not a magical, mystical holiday that was centuries old and deeply rooted in African culture. I assumed it was the yin to our yang, the African equivalent of Christmas or Hanukkah. Whenever stores actually carried Kwanzaa regalia and decorations, they always seemed so colorful and so fascinating, and I assumed it was something poignant and deeply interesting. 

And then, of course, I find out that it was created by some guy in the 60's, pretty much on a whim. I mean sure, the whim was an honestly genuine and sincere one, but it kind of takes the fun away when someone just up and announces that they're starting a new holiday. It takes a lot of the magic out of it, especially for those of us in our twenties who still get embarrassingly excited about the holidays, and who still allow their parents to trail chocolates from the christmas tree to their beds and nod and smile when said parents get that sad look of hope in their eyes, claiming that the elves left them there. It's okay, dad. I know.

But creating holidays aside (which is an interesting idea, and one that I would quite like to investigate in the future) there's still that magic in the air when it comes to this time of the year, and I do enjoy embracing it whole heartedly. Especially with spiced rum and a splash of hot cider. Merry Christmukwanzakah, everyone!