Thoughts on Christmas morning.

For millions and millions of us in the US of A, it is time to be awoken by screaming, giggling children that can't wait to rush in under the tree and see what Santa brought them.  I loved that as a child and had many short of sleep christmas mornings with my own children.  It is child-dependent thing to do and I expect that my own children are currently rubbing the sleep out of their own eyes so they can watch children rip open gifts and throw new clothes to the side so they can play with whatever toy has caught their eye.
For some of us without kids in the house, Christmas morning can be more of a free-time.  Other people go to great lengths to be somewhere besides alone on that morning.  Some decide to sleep late or sign up to work or bake some more cookies to take to the family meal. 
I had always considered Christmas to be universal, but with roughly 1/3 of the worlds population (about 2.1 billion people) being Christian, that means that 2/3 of the world are probably not celebrating Christmas.  And very few cultures celebrate it the way it is commonly celebrated in this country.  If you add in the people celebrating the Winter Solstice (about 3.6 billion that includes those following Hinduism, tribal, Buddhist, Neopagan and Zoroastrians, then we are almost 70%, add Hanukkah, Chalica, and we are still about 70% (that would be two religions that total less than a million between them).  Add Kwanzaa and the many people that do not consider themselves to have a religion but that enjoy a good celebration as well as the next person and we have about 80% of the world celebrating something this week. Jehovah's witnesses don't do holidays and the 21% of the population that is Islamic are all that are not officially in holiday mode.
Its no wonder that so much of this countries retail income is from this month.  Many of these celebrations involve gifting.  Almost all holidays involve feasting.  Having a good time is good for the economy.
But is there a universal theme for this season?  In the northern hemisphere it is cold, the harvest is done, the calendar year is nearing the end, so what is it about?
Perhaps they do all share a theme.
Hope.
Peace on Earth.
Love for our fellow man. 
Respect and Happiness for our family.
A celebration of life, of still being alive and able to enjoy our loved ones.
What do we humans celebrate?  What do we ALL celebrate?  I think it might be hope for a better future, happiness for our descendants, a continuation of the goodness that can be such a human trait when we are not scrabbling and clamoring in our day to day lives.

Happy Holidays!