I’m lost. It’s sad, but true. It has been three years since I turned my back on my faith. This is all because of the death of my fiancee. She died in a car accident. I was behind the wheel. I have been waking up and going to sleep with guilt all these years despite her parents and everyone around telling me that they do not blame me for anything. To this day, I can’t comprehend the reason behind my fiancees death. But I’m tired of asking questions and demanding God to give me the answers. I decided to join a Christian tour to Israel to find Jesus again, or for Jesus to find me. I hope the Holy Land will help save me from myself.

By Christina Fransz 

There is something about a certain time of the year that has an out of this world feel to it. A season that makes you feel so warm, a season that brings warmth to our hearts. A festival that makes you feel closer to God. It is a celebration of all the heavenly powers. It is Christmas! 

Christmas is not just a holiday to mark the birth of Jesus. The zeal, joy, happiness and the entire euphoria with which the month of December is associated, keeps the entire globe abuzz. It is rather not hard to accentuate that one single holiday (or rather a global bonhomie!!) is enough to aggrandize our lives and we feel elevated. No caste, no creed, no religion and certainly no fake beliefs, come Christmas, everything disappears. 

We generally associate the month of December with bone-chilling winds and falling flakes of snow, enough to send the shivers down our spines. When it is too cold nobody likes to go out of their homes to go down the stores and buy any stuff. However, Christmas time, no matter how cold it is, no matter if it’s snowing hard and it’s really cold, people are just ready and eager. Neither the cold weather nor the snow can stop the kids from looking at the sky with gleeful eyes, looking for their favorite Santa Claus… Ready to visit Earth with a bag full of gifts. And, of course, how can the lousy, gloomy and cold weather stop the grown ups from decorating their homes, and glutton for some fresh baked turkey. 

Christmas is also about gastronomic delights where you can satisfy your sweet tooth with all the lovely delicacies like plum cakes, puddings, cookies and what not. Apart from all these deliciously appetizing and euphoria of Christmas, it is undoubtedly a time when you can catch up with your family and loved ones. And even reach out to your far-off relatives. You can get together and have the most memorable time of the whole year in just one holiday. Also you get to know many new people, be them neighbors or people at the church. It is a festival that brings people together.  

Carol singing lights up the whole of the street with the singers visiting homes and spreading the spirit of Christmas. However, Christmas can never be complete without the midnight mass, which is held on Christmas Eve at the nearest church. The Christmas carols and the mass bring a calming and relieved effect on us. It is absolutely soothing, healing and divine. The children love it for the visit of Santa Claus with candies and gifts.

Christmas night gets over with children getting their gifts and relatives departing towards their respective homes after a wonderful lunch and dinner at the host’s home. Christmas ends for that year but its spirit lives on till the next year where another memory is created in people’s heart to live on till the next and so it goes on. This is Christmas, it keeps Jesus alive in our hearts and makes us love and appreciate our families and one another even more.

By Vivek Anand

Christmas! Aha the word itself is so enchanting and mesmerizing that it feels as adrenaline rushing & pumping throughout my body. Its not just a day, it’s a festival, a desire, a journey, an experience of joy and exhilaration, celebration and of course how can I forget giving and receiving gifts & above all love from my near and dear ones.

As a kid whenever I thought of Christmas my eyes started glittering with the dream of celebrations. Lights, candles, decorations, feast, I couldn’t have asked for more. A long list of my desires penned down onto a roll of paper and kept beneath my pillow, only to get up in the morning and find most of them fulfilled. Yes that’s Santa Claus for me, my friend, who turned my dreams and desires into reality.

Long days of shopping at the mall with my mom and my little sister, collecting all kinds of decorative and gifts for loved ones and in the evening playing good music with parents and their friends having a feast while sipping their favorite wine. It was awesome, an out of the world experience. I had never in my life felt so elated but at Christmas.

The significance of Christmas is the fact that lord Jesus was born on this day, but it means much more to people as not only they celebrate the lord’s birth but an episode of happiness, prosperity and vitality. I remember going to church on Christmas Eve, saying my silent prayers, then lighting candles at the grotto and finally singing Christmas carols with the choir. It seems as if the whole environment, the entire world has come together to celebrate this festival with light and joy.

In most part of the world the climatic conditions are colder this month of the season and people enjoy dancing around and binging on their favorite food. The best Christmas celebration I remember is of my school days. There was complete chaos and mayhem before the day, as we had to prepare for a lot of activities and decorations at the school. I remember, fighting and arguing with my friends & fellow students about who would become Santa Claus for that year and I indeed got a chance to become one after being much persistent.

I was dressed up in huge red color Santa pants and a jacket, stuffed with cotton to inflate my belly, thick white moustache and beard with a heavy bag full of chocolates. Friends closer to me insisted I give them extra chocolates but I advised that Santa has been impartial all his life and will continue to be that way. We called a singer called bobby cash (I still remember his name) who played jingles and some scintillating numbers with his guitar (and how can I forger his cowboy hat and dingo shoes).

For me “Nostalgia”, is the word synonymous with Christmas as whenever I think of December 25, the big day, I go back to my childhood days. The days of “Christmas”