On Sunday, the pastor discussed the importance of keeping Christmas well. This is a line from A Christmas Carol. At the end of the book, they save Scrooge. He was known to know how to keep Christmas and keep it well. The pastor kept referring to A Christmas Carol as the Christmas story and also discussed the Nativity story in the same sermon, which was a bit confusing. Eventually, I was able to track him down. His point was that, as Christians, we keep Christmas by keeping Jesus Christ at the center of the holiday and remembering that we have hope because God never abandons us; He came down to earth to be with us, etc. I firmly believe that you don’t have to be a Christian to celebrate Christmas or, in A Christmas Carol’s words, to keep Christmas well. Growing up, I was homeschooled until the 6th grade, and a lot of the people I was homeschooled with were more religious and more conservative than my family was. Something weird, even as a child, is that around Christmas time, someone would bring or bake a birthday cake, and we would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus since Christmas is a celebration of the birth of Christ. It was confusing because even as a young kid, I watched National Geographic on the History Channel and learned that historians and archaeologists believed that Jesus was most likely born in the spring. Still, as a kid, I just showed my shoulders and said happy birthday to Jesus, even though he was most likely not born in the wintertime.
I am still practicing Christianity, but the amount of anxiety and fear I have with regards to my relationship with God has significantly lessened over time, and this gives me space to do many things, and one of them is to keep Christmas well. Now that I am no longer afraid of angering the god of the universe, it’s easier to enjoy time with family and friends and to practice gratitude for the things that have improved my life in the past year. Since my mental health crisis 5 years ago, or next year, it will be 6 years each Christmas that I’ve been alive has had a special meaning because there was a time that I wondered if I would be alive for more Christmases. I tried to focus on spending time with loved ones and on enjoying the activities that come with this time of year. I also try to remember that not everyone finds the holidays a source of joy and that it can be a painful reminder for many.
I enjoy Christmas and have grown to enjoy Thanksgiving more over the years. I keep in mind that not everyone has the same feelings or experiences associated with the holidays that I do. When I was younger, I viewed everything very black and white; I saw something as correct, and if someone else had a different perspective, I saw that perspective as wrong or less valid. I spend much less time judging people as a late 20-something and more time finding ways to improve people’s lives. Whether that can be helping with the Christmas Day meal for my family so that my mom is not as stressed, or bringing cookies to work to share them with all my coworkers, volunteering with different charitable organizations, I just try to find a way to make someone else’s holiday season a bit better because I have no idea what another person is going through. If I can ease pain or difficulty for someone during this difficult time of year, I would like to be part of helping someone feel hopeful again, even just a little bit.
Living on the Spectrum 
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