Artificial Sweetener

            Have you ever had anything so sickeningly sweet that the sweetness lost its sweetness?  Of course when I say this, we think immediately of food; though the principle is applicable in many areas.  Take for instance the film industry, particularly regarding Christmas.

            For many, when we think of Christmas entertainment, we think of films such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34^th St., A Christmas Story, etc.  Such films, with their clever writing and holiday charm, have become an almost integral tradition of the Christmas season for many families.  In recent years, hundreds of new festive films have been churned out for the big screen or directly to our DVD-players.

With so many of these films coming out, one might be tempted to think the Christmas spirit is alive and well in Hollywood, but a vast number of these films are absolutely insipid, hammy, oozing with hyperbolised feel-good sentiment, and downright painful to watch.  I was recently stuck in a waiting room with a television tuned to a channel called ‘ABC Family’ which, I have surmised, broadcasts a vast quantity of holiday-themed films from the beginning of December up to Christmas Day.  Suffice it to say the film playing was one in a long string of Disney’s often horrendous direct-to-DVD films.  Despite the torrent of smiles, rosy cheeks, snowflakes (and other flakes), Christmas-y icons, and constant talk of the “Christmas Spirit,” the Christmas Spirit it presented seemed rather forced, glazed over.  Empty.

I thought to myself that if I was a small child and saw this without any other source of understanding what Christmas means, I would likely be left with the impression that the Christmas spirit is utterly dependent on how cheery and positive the world around me is and how wide I can grin.  The Christmas Spirit is degraded into little more than a good feeling we get in the middle of winter for some unknown reason, and that also happens to obligate us to max out our credit cards.  It’s almost as if all the gooey sweetness was poured on top to cover up the fact that there’s only a cold, bitter, meaningless reality with no cause for celebration.

But that’s exactly the sort of thing Christmas intended to abolish!  Christmas is about realising that the world was cold and bitter without hope until the advent of a saviour!  It wasn’t just for the picture-perfect families with warm and cozy homes; in fact, the very first family to experience Christmas was, at the time, essentially homeless and ostracised by those who knew them.  Christmas/Christ is so much bigger than we or our circumstances are; whether our whole family is together by a roaring fire-place or our family has been torn apart by death or any separation.  Our lives may feel bitter, and empty, but the coming of Christ and his restorative power brings hope, life, and light into our cold darkness!