How Christmas Unifies Us

As my favorite day for blog updates comes around (the blessed Thursday) I find myself celebrating one of the oldest, most renown and important holidays of the year with the greater part of humanity. It's an exciting time, and different types of festivities can be noted in every culture. For expats, Christmas is the most important holiday and a period where many of us take our home leave back to our home countries so we can be with family, friends and those who matter most to us.

I will offer one cross-cultural observation, did you ever stop and consider how many people on earth at this very moment are celebrating Christmas? It's one holiday which transcends continents and many cultures, an imported into some nations but then ingrained in their cultures. That in itself is remarkable. The Aussis may hit the beach, Americans pray for a "white Christmas" and the Germans set up their Christmas markets yet in the end we are all marking the same date, the day that Christ was born.

How you spend Christmas is no doubt slightly different then mine. But that's just part of the magic and significance, Christmas is for everyone. Even those who don't note is as a national holiday still in their own way mark the date because that's how ingrained it has become. Love it, enjoy it, and God bless us....everyone.