Focusing on the Magic of Christmas

Once we reach the age where we learn that Santa isn’t real, Christmas seems to lose some of its magic. But what if the stout beardy bloke in red is just a stand-in, a symbol, for the magic that can never be lost? What if the spirit of Christmas isn’t a story we either believe or disbelieve, but something tangible we can feel? 

The real magic of Christmas is very different from the corporate sleight of hand taking place all around us. How does the stage magician fool us? Why, they distract our attention of course. If they can get us all to look at their left hand, we won’t notice what the right hand is doing. The left hand is keeping us high on adrenaline, resentment, drama and stress. The right hand is quietly increasing profits and control of bodies, minds and resources in a desperate attempt to bolster a dying system.

The true spirit of Christmas is in giving. While Margaret Thatcher told us There Is No Alternative (TINA), we might see that the alternative never went away. In his groundbreaking book Debt, anthropologist David Graeber argued that capitalism did not spring naturally from a barter economy as we are taught. In fact, there is no evidence that barter has ever been a common economic form. Rather, our natural propensity is to give to each other, to help each other out, to distribute resources widely so that everyone is well and therefore the whole culture can thrive. These gift economies are the real alternative to capitalism. This seems remarkably sane, particularly in contrast to the meta-crisis of economy, ecology, emotional health and so much more. 

At the darkest time of the year (in the northern hemisphere), we celebrate the light of giving. A true gift is given not in the expectation of a return, but simply in response to seeing the need, the potential of delight, in another. The gift is a way of honouring. The words sacrifice and sacred come from the same root. Doing something to get something is a way of relating to the world as objects and thus making ourselves into an object, separate, disconnected from life and no longer sacred. It’s a trap. To give for the sake of giving is to honour connections, to include ourselves and everyone in the sacred web of life. The gift can be a way of healing our relations.

When a gift really touches us, where do we feel it? In our hearts, of course. Our hand goes to this place when we are moved by someone or something, or when we say our name. We don’t point to our heads! The head is the part of our being that can get distracted by threats and rewards. The heart, the spiritual heart, is the part of our being that is capable of autonomy – self governance. It is not the emotional heart that is getting pulled around and potentially manipulated, but the steady centre of our being – the heart of who we are. 

Spirituality, magic, Christmas, the heart – we are often told these things are for children or for childish people. Idealists, not realists. Pat McCabe (Woman Stands Shining), indigenous elder adopted into the Lakota tradition, describes her profound appreciation for the native scholar Gregory Cajete who became curious why the colonisers saw his people as childish. What was it about their culture that made them see us like this? He observed that the leaders of colonialism were largely upper-class men who had been told from a young age that they could enjoy the full richness of life up until the age of 5 when they had to put all their attention into their intellect. In other words, they were told that to be adult men is to have a very narrow perception of reality. We men, especially, learn to close our hearts. To be hard. To maintain patriarchy (the opposite of the gift economy). 

In his newest book, It’s All About the Land, Mohawk activist and scholar Taiaiaike Alfred argues that the key to the liberation of his people from the yoke of colonialism is not so much in resistance or reconciliation, but in resurgence. Rather than focusing on just fighting the dominant culture or trying to come to terms with it, he invites indigenous cultures to listen closely to wise elders and to the land. Through the nurturing of rich indigenous spiritual traditions and self-governance systems they continue to demonstrate a viable alternative – not only to their own people but to all of us who are yearning for rooted regenerative cultures. 

The Mohawk Nation is one of the six nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy which inspired both the U.S. Constitution (whose authors saw how a federated system of power could function) but also the birth of the American women’s movement (whose founders saw that women are treated equally in a healthy culture). I first learned this hidden history Haudenosaunee women who came to speak at the Quaker Meeting House in Edinburgh in the early 2000s (before Victoria Street became the Instagramable tourist destination it is today). A living example of egalitarian, participatory democracy, we might learn a great deal from the Haudenosaunee Confederacy about how a healthy nation can grow.

The deep roots of indigenous spirituality and self-governance exist everywhere. Many of us are seeking them out, listening to our elders and to the land, listening to our hearts. We can also learn from other indigenous nations and traditions, to be open to their gifts. And we can simply give from our hearts, including the gift of our full presence. Perhaps this is the real magic of Christmas.