“Ts the time of the year when you indulge in lazy mornings, cosy afternoons & chilled out evenings. Though India doesn’t see much of the Thanksgiving fervour as compared to its western counterparts, it’d be a lie that the Black Friday season doesn’t excite us, not just in terms of discounts on shopping but also since it officially paves way for the Santa season! Yay!
One thing that everybody understands universally is the essence of receiving surprises and admit it, as children, we’ve all been on the lookout for Santa helpers or even Santa to come at the stroke of twelve on the day of Christmas, and leave us each a small present. It’s a cute gesture, ushering in vibrancy and optimism that the season has to offer. More than a festival, it is a tradition that has been well-preserved since generations now, with families coming together and indulging in kinship merriment.
While people take time off their busy schedules and go holidaying (I’m visiting London ^.^), some prefer staying indoors and catching up on ‘me’ time. Well, to each, its own! In this particular article, we bring to you the evolution of Christmas up to the modern times, and also certain novel practices followed around the globe.
Well, the world first saw the stores in Chicago artistically decorating their window panes and the release of Christmas films to foster the spirit even more. These days, there are special markets dedicated to Christmas which have phenomenal offerings.
The small Christmas trees started emerging from everywhere and people were overwhelmed to purchase them and decorate them according to their tastes, with glitter balls, stars, pom-poms, confetti, sweets and else.
USA could be said to be leading in the X-Mas spirit for the first huge Christmas tree was unveiled in New York, decades ago. This probably led to cities setting up Christmas trees on the streets and decorating them with fancy fairy-lights.
While green, gold and red would be our forever favorite Christmas colors, blue is quintessentially the Christmas color of 2019!
These days, one will come across families taking an extra step towards not just setting up petite trees but also mollycoddle when it comes to choosing table-mats, door-mats, kitchen napkins and other homeware.
Since environmental protection has become a must, people have started looking out exclusively for recycled ornaments and baubles. DIY is trending!
It’s not just about getting together for lavish dinners. This festivity also means hanging out giants lanterns in various parts of the world (Giant Lantern festival in Philippines), constructing structures that bear certain symbolism (Gavle goat in Sweden), scaring children out on the streets (Krampus in Austria), hiding brooms in Norway so as to ward off bad luck, visiting the church etc. etc.
Jul or noel can also mean baking a wide array of special foods, like mouth-watering mince-pies to frosted panettones to cupcakes, muffins, biscuits, cookies, croissant, brioche and much much more!
Talking about India in particular, Indians are last minute creative experts. In some states, people even decorate banana or mango trees and light lamps- This emphasises on how the process doesn’t matter, only the end result does i.e. happiness.
Midnight masses and carol-singing are important in Catholic culture, which have now been adopted by people belonging from various religions.
It is the energy that matters, nothing else. Even though people go out of their ways to celebrate, if you’re really on a lookout for some breathtaking lights and pine-tree views, you should visit the splendid decorations probably in LA, Vienna, Copenhagen, Brussels, Goa, or your nearby malls/shopping centres!
Tell me then, isn’t it the most wonderful time of the year?
