I am celebrating the spirit of Christmas with the #UnwrapChristmas blog post chain, and this post is dedicated to all the lovely and unprejudiced loving beings.

I have been a Christmas enthusiast for as long as I can remember. The reason, I believe, is my fascination towards many Hollywood tv series since childhood. I never gave my fascination a second thought because it came as easy to me as breathing. The arrival of December always filled me with hope and excitement. My mom is a teacher in a Christian college, so Christmas has always been a big deal in my home. She received gifts, brought the signature Christmas cake, which she used to order especialy for us, and bought gifts for us. I loved — and still, love — the tradition of expressing love and care through thoughtful gifts in this festival. The tree — oh god, the tree — always takes my breath away (for reasons unknown to me).

Although I never thought about the reason for my attraction towards this beautiful festival, recently the religion biased questions have begun bothering me. So, in the spirit of Christmas and the enthusiastic Secret Santa Bloggers’ Group’s initiative of spreading the joy, I am here to answer the questions that never popped up in my head.

I am not a Christian but there is something about Christmas that draws me towards itself. I love the mesmerizing decorations, happy faces, Christmas tree, gifts, and Santa. I love how colorful streets and markets during this holiday season. I don’t think that there is a connection between religion and festivals. The truth of the matter is they celebrate certain festival due to some reason that’s close to their hearts, but that does not mean that they prohibit others from celebrating it. According to me, everything shouldn’t be connected with logic. Sometimes, the mere joy of following your heart is divine and should not be questioned. I do not care if certain people think that I, among others, are jumping up & down with delight during Christmas because I have been lured by a western culture that has been advertised in movies and tv series too much. I have my innocent reasons and I’ll keep on “jumping up and down with delight during Christmas,” and, as God is my witness, I do not own anyone an explanation 😉

Let’s just bathe in the excitement of Christmas and celebrate it in your own special way. In fact, it applies to every festival. Our religion doesn’t define us. We are the reason for its existence and not the other way around. We must follow our souls and not be offended or influenced by the negative comments of some skeptical people.

Anyway, coming back to more positive thoughts. Secret Santa group celebrated Secret Santa event this year — like last year — and it has been filled with enthusiasm. We buy gifts for people that we have never met. The anticipation is off the charts. I am absolutely ecstatic that my Santee adored the gift. Although I have still not received my gift from my secret Santa, I am hopeful. I have received a big bundle of joy from God himself. My adorable baby, Pihu, has given birth to five beautiful puppies. They are all healthy and we are super excited. I’ll be posting pictures pretty soon. Other than that I have received many thoughtful gifts from my lovely friends and I am flying with pleasure.

I am thankful to Keerthi Vydyula for passing on the baton of spreading Christmas joy and spirit to me. With the magical spirit of Christmas, I, similarly, now invite Sreedeep Chennamangalam to carry forth the Christmas cheer.

May Christmas bring happiness, love, luck, and extremely good people in your lives. Keep spreading the pure love that is untouched by the prejudice and skeptics of negative people. Enjoy!

P.S. I received the gift from my Secret Santa on 26th December’17, and it’s the most awesome and heartfelt gift that I could have asked for. My Santa has sent a piece of heart with the gift and that’s evident by the little notes that she wrote on a few gifts. Love you, Keerthi .