Monday, December 19, 2011

So This is Christmas?



Are you tired of being Santa Claus? Male or female, it does not matter. All year long you try to do the best to make everyone happy and on Christmas you put on a generic Santa mask and decorate a tree.  Christmas always comes to fast, at the last minute I find myself stressing, figuring out which credit card to use and saying to myself, “Why is it that we make this season so commercial?” It is totally amazing to me that people run around worried, looking for the best sales, the longest opening hours, and for one time of the year, decide to give.

In Norway we do not have Santas on every street corner, people do not decorate their houses in lights and fixtures for the holidays, artificial trees are for people that are allergic to pine and we do not have eggnog. We do however, wash the house, polish the silver, take out the fine china and gather around a nice table in our finest clothes, while we listen to the church bells ringing Christmas in. On Christmas Eve we call our family and friends, and we watch each other open presents one at a time. There is no Santa here. No Christmas morning. No stockings hanging on the fireplace. For small children Norwegians have someone they call “Nisse”, he comes on Christmas Eve and delivers presents for all the children that have been nice to strangers, animals, family and friends.

So, I asked you earlier, are you tired of being Santa Claus? Try this year to be a Nisse. Take you holiday spirit and give it away to someone who needs it. Santa Claus has become too commercial.  This year I have decided to do something nice for a stranger. The other day I was reading a personal newspaper ad in our local newspaper for a person looking for someone who wanted a grandparent. This is a lonely person. I know that you skeptical people out there are saying to yourselves, “This is a pervert”, but you know what? This is actually a lonely woman who sits in an old persons home and just wants to share her holidays and her life with someone who cares enough to spend time with her. Find someone like that. Put Santa on the shelf and let your “Nisse” find time to be nice to strangers, animals, family and friends.


6 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

Siv, what a wonderful thing to do!

Unknown said...

This is wonderful. In the UK, commercialism hi-jacked Christmas decades ago. The reality is we need more people like you to perform kind deeds in this way.

Stranger in a Strange Land said...

Hello dear:

We have plenty of Nisses here in Sweden.

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year 2012.

Kindest regards,
Mike

Anonymous said...

I'm with you. Helping others is where it's at! So much more fun than the shopping mania we throw ourselves into.

Alleged Author said...

I agree that Santa Claus has become too commercial. Great post!

Joy said...

Great advice. I have thought of volunteering to be a Grandparent to a child who does not have one for Grandparent's Day in our public school. My grandchildren are nearly 700 miles away.