Thoughts on Christmas

I have been meaning to write my opinion on Christmas. I went to my friend Karl the bunny's blog (which I list on the right column). He had some interesting points which also are similar to my view of Christmas (see his What is Christmas? post)

I do not agree with buying stuff for people. I've participated in a work secret Santa and this year I'm participating in the improv secret Santa. I don't mind buying one person a present but I think the holidays are for becoming introspective.
December 21st marks the Winter Solstice and the winter is the most ripe time for introspection and deep soul searching. It is a 'yin' season and like the bear, we are meant to 'hibernate'.
Instead the collective consciousness still believes in spending and keeping busy.
And searching in vain for the coveted 'toy of the year'.

I love this time of year but can't stand the Christmas part. I normally don't feel guilt because I try and do my best and if I fall short then I try to learn and move on. And it's hard to manipulate me with guilt. I seem to have been born guilt-resistant as a manipulation tactic.
But I feel like I'm a bad person because I don't believe in buying stuff. I feel like I'm some cold uncaring Scrooge and that who I am and how I treat people isn't good enough, that I have to buy them something. And it can't just be anything, it has to be good.
I've already mentioned that I have this issue with money and spending it so maybe that's part of my issue but I also don't care to receive presents. Obviously if someone wants to give me something, I'm not going to object.

I think this time of the year is designed so that humans can get into a quiet soul state so that they can listen to their heart and what the spirit of the universe has to say to them. It's a season that is ripe for listening and realizing profound spiritual truths. The soltice is like a portal and this portal is most easily accessible during the winter. This portal is particularly ripe until the 6th of January.
But what do people do? Completely ignore the portal and go the other way, the path of materialism. Products and material wealth is meaningless. They have a place in our life because realistically, if I didn't have food, clothes, shelter etc, I would be suffering. But if you don't get the basic idea that without love and without operating from that place, you have nothing. All the presents in the world will never fulfill that vacuum in your soul.

My training class officially graduated yesterday and we got moved to our new desks. My normal hours start Tuesday and I work from 1 to 9.30 pm. I'm sharing my desk with someone on the night shift but I got to see him this morning as he was done at 8.30. It was nice to meet my deskmate. Today was not a good day but it wasn't horrible either.
Humans are fickle!