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Many are familiar with Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas,” especially its rendition by Bing Crosby. It is
an old Christmas carol, going as far back as 1942, yet it is still sung. But is
there still a serene white Christmas? In our time, in many places there are no
longer snows on Christmas. Either they come too early or too late. Or if there
be one, it is no longer a serene white Christmas but a blizzard. All this is
due to climate change. Would it be better to wish and dream for a green
Christmas first so that the white Christmas may come back?
What is a green Christmas? We may also call it an ecological Christmas.
We are called to have a change of lifestyle if we are to avert disastrous
wayward weather conditions. This call for change of lifestyle also means a
change in the way we behave at Christmas time.
Let not the culture of consumerism eat up our Christmas. The more we buy, the
more we throw away. So let us buy less. Oh, the many useless things that are
sold and bought during Christmas. Yes, people have more money, what with all
the bonuses, the 13th month paychecks and the aguinaldos people
receive. A lot of these monies unfortunately end up buying useless things and
useless gifts. They end up in the cupboard or in the trash can!
Even the food we consume during this season are not nutritious, and even
harmful to our health. Thus blood pressure, cholesterol and sugar levels shoot
up, and in the process we consume more medicines. Many traditional Christmas
foods are harmful, like ham, cheese, cakes, lechon and chocolates. A green
Christmas can also mean green leafy vegetables for our Christmas meals. Have we
tried this?
How many plastics litter our streets, parks and malls during the
Christmas season? So much money is spent on Christmas wrappers alone, and many
glittering ones are non-biodegradable! Plastic toys end up in the dumpsites
soon after Christmas.
Then follows the New Year celebration with the smell of obnoxious powder
from fireworks. The streets are then littered with firecracker wrappers on New
Year Day. Another set of harmful foods follows for the media noche meals.
So what would a green Christmas be? Let it be a Christmas moderate in
spending and shopping, but more of togetherness in activities and sharing with
families and neighbors. It would be good to cook together, play together and
pray together. Companionship is what we need, and not things. Instead of
watching TV on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve for the countdowns being done in
New York, London or the Vatican, why not laugh together in the family, tell
stories of what happened the past year and share one another’s dreams and wishes
for the coming year? These catching up with one another’s lives will be etched
more in our memories than the antics they do in the TV shows half way across
the globe!
Let us be more creative in celebrating a green Christmas and not allow our
celebrations to be determined by sales and TV shows. It does not take much, and
it does not cost much, to be happy and contented together. No one were happiest
on the first Christmas other than Mary and Joseph. They had no light. They had
no food. They did not have the comfort of a bed or even a warm room. There were
no sounds. In simplicity, poverty and silence, they were most happy. They had a
new life with them. They had Jesus with them. Theirs was truly a green
Christmas!
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