{"id":24802,"date":"2016-10-14T09:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T15:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/?p=24802"},"modified":"2016-10-14T08:38:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T14:38:56","slug":"christmas-in-a-political-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/christmas-in-a-political-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas in a Political Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Happy\"I recently engaged in conversation with one of our international members who observed, \u201cYou Americans ruin Christmas<\/a> every four years\u201d. Her reference, of course, was to the rancor of this particular election and how divisive it has been for everyone \u2013 even those out of the country. <\/p>\n

I had to laugh but she had a point. It does seem that the conversation shifts greatly around the cycles of American politics. <\/p>\n

The thought caused me to look through the numbers. We are not a for-profit venture and frankly we do not usually much care for the business of visitor statistics. But we have been around for better than two decades now and I was curious to see if our site traffic differentiated against the four year cycle of politics in the United States. <\/p>\n

I was astonished to see a very clear pattern. Not only was Christmas<\/a> a popular topic during election years but it seems wherever there is \u201cstress\u201d \u2013 a major earthquake, economic troubles, political upheaval \u2013 we see marked differences in visitors to our little slice of Christmas<\/a> heaven here. <\/p>\n

I pondered that a great deal. What is it about Christmas<\/a> that brings people comfort?<\/p>\n

I believe there are many answers to that. <\/p>\n

Christmas<\/a> is fun.<\/strong> Stress relief comes in many forms but none is more satisfying than having a little fun. From Santa<\/a> Claus to Christmas<\/a> carols the celebration of Christmas<\/a> can be an outlet. For many people the fun of the holidays might come in different forms. But nearly all are easy to access and universally appealing. It is not hard to get people together to just blow off some steam. <\/p>\n

Christmas<\/a> is kindness<\/strong>. Regardless of whether you view Christmas<\/a> as a sacred or secular event the theme of giving and good will prevails like no other time of the year. Of all our holidays Christmas<\/a> is truly a season \u2013 a time for charity, a time to focus on the less fortunate \u2013 especially when one considers themselves one of those less fortunate. The glow and the glory of holiday cheer is infectious and people want to feel it. <\/p>\n

Christmas<\/a> is nostalgia<\/strong>. There is no other time of year that makes you feel more like a child than Christmas<\/a>. People will pull out the Monopoly game and play it. They will make food they normally would not otherwise touch. Folks will look at pictures, remember when and celebrate \u201cthe Christmas<\/a> they used to know\u201d \u2013 because what their Christmas<\/a> in the past was like was pure joy. <\/p>\n

Even if it is only captured on one magical night each year many will reach back to feel it. <\/p>\n

Christmas<\/a> is peace<\/a>.<\/strong> Again, you don\u2019t have to celebrate just a sacred Christmas<\/a> to embrace this central theme of Christmas<\/a>. The first word the angel declared to the shepherds was \u201cpeace\u201d. How welcoming is that? How refreshing is that idea during a political season like this one? Peace<\/a> is like cool water to parched lips. Everyone wants it.
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\nChristmas<\/a> is love<\/a><\/strong>. The one universal emotion that we all lack and that none can fully explain is the most important of all. The being together, the brotherhood, the glad tidings of great joy, the wishes for good luck in the New Year \u2013 ALL is indeed merry and bright as we exchange our greetings at Christmas<\/a>. We mean it, too. We want everyone to feel it. <\/p>\n

This is what people seek in a year like this one. I can feel it. We\u2019re technically not even into the season yet and every day the numbers reflect it. <\/p>\n

We welcome you and we wish you a Merry Christmas<\/a>. Come in from the storm and find fun, kindness, nostalgia, peace<\/a> and love<\/a>. <\/p>\n

We understand what you\u2019re feeling<\/a>. We feel it too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently engaged in conversation with one of our international members who observed, \u201cYou Americans ruin Christmas every four years\u201d. Her reference, of course, was to the rancor of this particular election and how divisive it has been for everyone \u2013 even those out of the country. I had to laugh but she had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":5,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[22,611],"class_list":["post-24802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-opinion","tag-christmas","tag-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mymerrychristmas.com\/x\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}