Christmas Is Canadian: standing up for Christmas

Canadians love Christmas. No matter how or why we celebrate it, Christmas is the holiday time! Of course Christmas is many things to many people. For some it’s just another holiday, for others its Santa clause and the giving of gifts. This one is very important because without it most businesses could not survive. Many retail businesses do over 90% of their sales during the Christmas season! Without it the economy would come to a grinding halt.

The true meaning of course is the celebration of the birth of Christ. For hundreds of years Christmas has been celebrated as a time of love and family and devotion yet this most wonderful time is under attack. There are those who feel that the meaning of Christmas should be all inclusive and because of that the name should be changed. This is happening right under the apathetic eyes of the very Christians whose celebration it is. My own Muslim friends think it quite strange that Christians would stand for such a thing. They say they would never allow such a thing in their religion.  

I must admit I too am ashamed at the apathy within the Christian churches but mostly with its people. Christmas has become a buying holiday and it’s because Christians are unwilling or afraid to stand up for their own beliefs. So I am standing up for Christmas.

Number one: I will say Merry Christmas to everyone I speak to in conversation.

Secondly I will refuse to purchase any product from any store that does not greet me or respond by saying Merry Christmas. That’s right. Christmas is not Festivous or Seasons greetings or the Holiday time, it’s Christmas. If the retail stores cannot recognise their major profit season and tell their staff to say Merry Christmas then I’m out of there. I have spoken to many sales people and they say the store actually forbids them to respond to Merry Christmas! These people who make their daily bread off of the celebration of Christmas should at least recognise it by name! Imagine if every Christian did this. The store would change their policy over night or go broke but more importantly Christians would maybe start to grow a spine about their beliefs. 

What do you think and more importantly what are you going to do about it? 

Oh, and for those who don’t believe in Christmas, stop being such hypocrites by celebrating and taking time off. Stay in your job over the season and refuse to partake in the holiday in any way. That would be the moral thing to do. And, to the rest of us, a very Merry Christmas.

Travelling Canada: the best way to meet this country

CROSS-CANADA TREKKING

My son-in-law and daughter at Chase's Lobsters

My family and I just came back from a drive to Nova Scotia. We saw some amazing things and met some wonderful people. We went to Hopewell Rocks in New Brunswick, home of the world’s highest tides and some of the most beautiful rock formations in the world. We toured PEI and swam at Cavendish Beach. We toured Jost Wineries near Pugwash on the North shore. We ate fresh lobster from Chase’s Lobster Pound. We drove through some of the most beautiful farms you will ever see in Quebec. We saw the Gulf of St Lawrence from our vantage point in Riviere de Loup. The whole expedition was amazing.

Hopewell Rocks, NB, and my son.

You know what is kind of sad, though, is how many Canadians have never done a trip like this. Whether it’s driving to Stewart B.C. and feeling the temperature drop 20 degrees as you stand beside the Bear Glacier, or watching a rain storm race towards you on the prairies—a storm that was so delineated, it gets the back of your car wet and not the front as you outrun it. Or how about a soak in the hot springs at the Banff Springs Hotel, or watching your decent along the ocean as you fly into Vancouver.

CROSS-CANADA APPRECIATION

To see Canada is to truly start to understand what it is to be Canadian. I have an idea to help our youth understand what we have: I suggest that each college or university student that finishes their degree with an ‘A’ be rewarded with a one-month Canadian travel pass; they could travel by Via Rail or commercial bus line with the express idea of being introduced to this great land. Might even bring up the national grade averages! These young adults would come back with a better understanding of the people and places that make up the greatest country the world has ever known. What do you think? And if you like this idea, then share this blog and let’s get people talking.

Canadian Fathers: a Profile of My Own Dad.

CANADIANS LOVE FATHERS.

Walking my daughter down the aisle.

What is a father? I have struggled with that definition all my life. My father was a great influence in my life even though we barely had any real time together. But I do believe that he influenced me in many ways. When my brother died at the age of four from leukemia, both my parents never really recovered personally, nor in their relationship. But I do know that his teaching to me was clear and concise in the brief moments we talked. My dad was far from perfect but I chose to listen to the good things and I will be forever grateful that I did.

Today, as a father of two grown adults, I have come to see the fruits of my fathers’ teaching.

First of all, he taught me to accept that there is only one captain in my life when it comes to steering its direction. God gives us the free will to do what we want with it, be it good or bad.

He told me that the course of my life will not always be simple or easy, and that if it was I would never learn to be tough enough to make the hard decisions.

 He said “Sometimes life sucks and it’s up to you how you deal with it”. He told me to hold doors for people as a sign of respect. He said to dress for success. “Whether you’re the prime minister or a ditch digger, dress for the job and dress clean”.

He told me once that if there ever was trouble and he had to choose between me and saving my mom, then mom came first. He said with her help I could be replaced. I knew he was kidding, but it made me feel that he valued my mom above all else.

Proud Dad. (photo by Adam Pap)

“Be the best friend you can even when those around you do not follow such beliefs.” “What goes around comes around so if you’re going to spend your life hurling crap at people you better be ready to duck.”

 “Why play a game if you can’t win or lose? Where is the learning about life in that?”

There were many other sayings and each one was taken to heart as I grew to understand them.

Today, I try and follow the many rules both my parents gave me. I am teaching my children and others these time-honoured values in the hope that it will make their journey honourable, if not easy. I also learned from my dad’s sad mistakes in life. You see, he also taught me to learn from the mistakes of those before us. Mistakes I do not tend to duplicate.

My lovely wife.

When my dad passed away, we were leaving his apartment for the last time and two ladies stopped me to ask if I was his son. They said to me, “Your father was always a gentleman, and in all the time we had known him he had never said a bad thing about anyone”. Not a bad epitaph for any man.

It was these things that helped shape my life. Of course, I could have chosen to ignore his words but that would have been a foolish waste of life full of lessons.

Finally, I think he would say to children having trouble relating or even loving their fathers, to look for the good in him. And if you cannot find the good, then don’t duplicate the bad...because that would be the last thing your dad would want.