What does Christmas mean to me? Part 1

...and... has it changed after the years?

My wonderful English teacher asked me these questions, not without saying, he would like to read a text with the answers. Here it is! :-)

I like these questions.

They make me think about Christmas, and matching the Christmas I used to know when I was a child also to the Christmas we celebrated when my children were little to the Christmases we celebrated in the last years.

I will begin with the first question.

What does it mean to me? It's not true to say: "I don't believe in God", but it isn't the truth, either, to say: "I do." It's something in between, because I don't go to church and pray to him, but when I have had a wonderful experience or a lucky moment, then I look up to the sky and say "Thank you." Here I sent my gratitude not only to God, but also to him. And to my cousin Ralf and my grandmother, from whom I think, that they are looking after me from heaven.

I am pretty sure that someone takes care of me. In my imagination there are no special persons who do this heavy job so I prefer to call it destiny. And I believe in karma so I try to be a friendly and kind person, who takes care, helps, doesn't lie, steal or do bad things.

I also like stories about Jesus Christ.

When I was a child, I went to the parish hall every Sunday, where I used to meet children like me and listen to stories of the father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

I watched the whole story about Jesus' life, from birth to death on TV, year after year. My favorite film was "Jesus from Nazareth" with Colin Powell as Jesus. For me watching this film belonged to Christmas like the tree and I went with Jesus through his life, loved and suffered with him till the end.

But Christmas does not only mean to me watching a film. For me it's standing for family, relaxing, silence, candles, good food, talking and laughing.

I try to spend these days stress less and without perfection. For me it's more important to be with people I really like, than to have the nicest table in town. Our tableware doesn't fit, but when the whole family is around, what does that mind?

How important is it, to have the same cups and plates and silver spoons?

For me it isn't. And I think, my family does agree.