Green or White

This year is my third winter season in Canada, but I still feel like a child when it starts to snow. I love taking a lot of pictures and sharing them with my family and friends. But I still miss Christmas in my hometown, the hot weather (I have never thought that one day I would say it!), my mom’s house, and celebrating Jesus’ birth while listening to Julio Iglesias singing “O Tannenbaum” – a special German album. I still know the sequence of all songs and for sure I will play it on Spotify next Christmas Eve.

Anyway, while wondering about weather, costumes and Christmas, something came to my mind. A couple years ago I had an opportunity to work for a transport company. Back then we launched a Christmas bus, decorated with Christmas ornaments that rode all through the town. Santa Claus was also in the bus and while it rode and stopped, he shared some candies with our customers.

It was a great idea and success! But poor Santa, how hot it must have been under layers of fabric, a huge beard and his Christmas stocking cap. I wonder now why didn’t we let him wear summer clothes? I know, I know, Santa comes from the North Pole. But why he didn’t just changed his clothes when he arrives in a tropical country?

Perhaps it is because everybody recognizes him wearing that winter costume, a kind of affectionate memory.

I don’t intend to write about his clothes or what fits better or does not. But why didn’t I change his clothes on that Christmas?

How many other things are done without even thinking about them? We are used to repetition, a comfortable way to keep going on, avoiding anxiety or the emptiness of uncertain consequences. Thinking outside the box is not so simple. It requires giving up some of our usual thinking patterns that limit our creativity.

Thinking outside the box can be very meaningful and it is a new way to look at something. It can help create new possibilities, even though some habits keep coming back to our minds, trying to repeat old behaviours.

Being curious, interested, open to new experiences or a fresh pair of eyes can help thinking outside the box. By the way, curiosity is a character strength within the virtue category of wisdom. The other strengths in wisdom are creativity, judgment, love of learning and perspective.

Unlike winter or summer costumes, Christmas may be seen to be green (no snow) or white (snow), we really have no choice. Mother nature will decide.

In the end none of these really matter, the most important thing is to celebrate in your way!

Merry Christmas!🎄

If you are curious about the “O Tannenbaum” song, I have added a YouTube link for you 😉 Click here