It's Christmas Time in the City

Silver bells, silver bells / It's Christmas time in the city / Ring-a-ling, hear them ring / Soon it will be Christmas day — Silver Bells

It sure is. We are four days away from Christmas and I'm sure life is hectic for anyone living in an even remotely major center. The malls are packed. The traffic is horrible. Even Tim Horton's is busier than normal, if that's at all possible. Cities around the (Christian) world are abuzz with excitement. People are about to—or already have—take off from work for a few days, and the lucky ones will have an extended holiday to spend time with their friends and family. All the University students that actually went off to school are no doubt at home visiting their families and old friends—and most likely a bar or two.

All of this makes for one hell of a busy time around you. Along with all of the happiness and excitement that Christmas time brings, comes a lot of pain and frustration. While trying to navigate your way through the hords of people at the packed malls or make your way through traffic while being surrounded by all of these idiotic horrible drivers, you may find yourself hating the world a little bit more than usual.

I'm pretty lucky that I get to spend my Christmas in smaller places and get to escape some of the madness for a few days (generally just the 23—26). I grew up in a city of 15,000 people and spend every second Christmas in a town with less than 1,000. I love spending time with my family, at least until they start annoying me.

But what I like most about Christmas is the time I get to spend with old friends. It seems that the older I get the more of my friends have relocated themselves. I've gone from Saskatchewan to Calgary. I have a couple of friends in the USA, a few in BC, others scattered all over the country and a couple in places more foreign than the States. Yet somehow somehow almost all of them manage to make their way home for at least a few days around the holidays.

Maybe that's what makes Christmas so important to people. I look forward to seeing these friends all year and then try to spend as much time with them when given the opportunity. It tends to lead to a few people being left out, but I get to see them more throughout the year, so I'm sure they'll survive.

Then there's the food. The food around Christmas time is just outstanding. And plentiful. It always seems that there is a never-ending amount of food around wherever you are around Christmas. And if the great food isn't enough, people give you presents. Presents are sweet.

And, to quote a terrible McDonald's commercial—Christmas is just a giant cornucopia of awesomeness.

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