Melancholy Christmas

You know, it's amazing how many Christmas songs adopt a melancholy tone in wishing people 'Merry Christmas.' As I write this, even, I'm listening to Michael Buble sing "The Christmas Song" in a slow, almost mournful voice; moments ago, he was singing "I'll Be Home for Christmas," a song which I've all but sworn off this holiday season.

Even without it, though, I feel the melancholy of Christmas this year more than ever, my excited students and festive decorations notwithstanding. I've always loved Christmas, and I've always been a huge one for keeping traditions alive (just ask my mom and anyone else who's ever tried to change our family Christmas; they'll tell you that my cousin Mollie and I are an unstoppable force for tradition!), but even so I've always seen myself as a Christmas moderate in America. I've even been called a Grinch on occasion, usually due to my refusal to start celebrating Christmas (and this includes with music) before Thanksgiving.

Being in a country like Taiwan for the holiday puts this in perspective rather quickly, though. Our apartment building is the sole Christmas light-bedecked building in our entire neighborhood; I feel lucky this year that Christmas falls on a weekend, because if it didn't, I would spend the day teaching just like on any other day. Our apartment building had a Christmas party, but you could scarcely tell what it was celebrating: they were eating typical Taiwanese food, and though they began by blasting Christmas music, it soon turned into Taiwanese karaoke, and went on in that fashion for HOURS, with no crevice of the apartment building safe from the loud, off-key sounds.

Tomorrow (or, since it's almost 1am, today) is Christmas Eve, and I'm doing my best not to think too hard about that fact. I'll spend the first part of the day with my host sister, Emily, and the evening with my roommates. I think as long as I keep busy it should be okay...

But still melancholy. There's just no getting around that aspect of the season, when you're sitting in a foreign country with most of your friends and all of your family on a different continent, celebrating traditionally almost a full day later. I guess I'm just experiencing a different element of the season, but it's not one I would have necessarily sought out had I been home for Christmas.