Christmas Spirit, where are you?
Dear readers, today I have a question for you: what is Christmas Spirit?
… Not an easy question, right?
For some reasons, there are some things in the world, making people say “Oh, that’s so Christmassy!”.
If you don’t know what I am talking about, just go outside, whether it’s around Xintiandi or South Shaanxi Road, and look at these trees full of star-shaped lights, usually only there around Christmas.
Seriously, illuminated trees in the street, is that Christmas Spirit?… Come on, there must be something else.
There are definitely other examples of Christmassy things, such as hot wine, winter fireplaces, fir trees markets, and of course Yule log Cake.
Yet I believe all of this is missing the real point, because the most important part of the Christmas Spirit is invisible.
The Christmas Spirit mainly lies in people’s hearts.
A good way to understand this, is to go to a Christmas Market. Shanghai Young Baker was present at two of them: the French Christmas Market, hosted by the Pearl on the last weekend of November, and the Wellington Winter Market, organized by Wellington College International Shanghai last Saturday.
And what markets!
Over there, there were exactly what I was mentioning earlier: the Christmas Spirit under its two forms: the visible one, and the invisible one.
The visible form is exactly what you think about at first: Christmas trees, Santa Claus, snowmen, all kind of Christmas decorations. At the Shanghai Young Bakers’ booth too, as we were selling our amazing Kouglofs and our delicious Pannetones. These Christmas cakes originally come from Germany and Italy respectively, but Christmas knows no borders, right?
And next to us, all sorts of other booths, selling all sorts of Christmas gifts: going from bracelets and necklaces to handcrafted wooden statuettes, from perfumes to snow globes…
All of this is very Christmassy, but let’s now have a look at the invisible part of the Christmas Spirit.
What I am talking about now actually depends on everyone, but it is basically a deep wish. A wish to be close to the people you love. A wish to believe in Santa Claus again and look at the world with the bright and innocent eyes of a child. A wish to be a better person, more generous and kind. Whatever your way is, Christmas Spirit feels like a warm flame inside your heart. And that inside flame is actually visible outside: you are smiling.
At both the Pearl’s French Christmas Market and Wellington’s Winter Market, smiles could be seen on the faces of everyone: these great SYB Volunteers happy to spend some of their time to support us, that young girl glad to finally have found the perfect pair of earrings to offer to her best friend, this little boy tasting a Mille-Feuille for the first time of his life, or this old man simply happy to spend an afternoon with his family.
This is definitely the Christmas Spirit, and we would like to thank the Pearl and Wellington College International Shanghai for allowing us to experience a bit of it.
If you missed us at these two markets, do not worry! December has just begun, and we will be present at other Christmas Markets, such as
· December 8th See Market
· December 15th Jiashan Market