Ahh, Christmas. Excuse me while I dig up fuzzy socks from the back of my drawer and the “Home Alone” special edition box set from my movie collection.

There’s nothing like watching Marv and Harry miraculously survive Kevin’s shenanigans in the warmth of your home while sipping anything and everything pumpkin spice.

You are confused?

Yes, I am Indian. I am Hindu, and Christmas is my favorite day of the year.

Apparently, that’s a problem for some, and I can see how that could be offensive.

And even more offensive is that Christmas is now a global cultural event. It has become a money machine in places like China that create massive displays in shopping malls and plazas, and they have no clue what they are displaying or what it means.

They just know people like the fat guy with a beard and that he brings in money.

It’s easy to see why many believe Christmas is for Christians and should be reserved for those that celebrate it as such.

Unfortunately, Christmas becoming a cultural symbol is not something we can change. People will continue to exploit children, take rather than give and turn the holiday into another reason to buy things they don’t need.

But the Christmas spirit is something anyone can understand, Christian or not. Anyone can forgive, forget or do something for someone else.

Obviously, I’m not really in touch with the religious part of Christmas. I understand it’s the day Jesus was born, but that isn’t necessarily the reason I celebrate it. I celebrate the Christmas spirit.

Still, my parents never had a problem with me learning the true meaning of Christmas, because if I was going to celebrate it I should at least know why. I learned that many times acting in nativity scenes as an elementary school kid.

For me and a lot of other people, Christmas is about giving, loving, spending time with the people you care about and simply being happy.

You don’t have to be Christian to do something for someone less fortunate, fall in love, enjoy the decorations or hope for snow.

You don’t have to be Christian to bake cookies for Santa with your kids and sneak downstairs in the middle of the night to eat them, so you can wake up to excitement and giggles early in the morning.

You don’t have to be Christian to buy or make gifts for your family and be more excited than they are because you can’t wait to see how happy something so small can make them.

That is what the spirit of Christmas is about. It’s about being happy and spreading happiness.

Stop shaming non-Christians into thinking Christmas is supposed to be a restricted holiday.

We’re not trying to steal Christmas.

We’re not going to sneak into your Who-homes and take your boxes, bags, Who-pudding and “roast beast.”

We just want to join in on the holiday cheer and wish you a “Merry Christmas.”

Who knows? Maybe by accepting us into the festivities your heart will grow three sizes.

But really, if there are billions of people around the world celebrating Christmas for the wrong reasons, can we celebrate it for the right ones?

We may not be sitting next to you at Christmas mass, but we’ll serve next to you when feeding the homeless and we’ll send a smile and “Merry Christmas” your way as we pass you on the street.

Religion can be spoken about freely, yet we tread softly when publically mentioning it.

But, the hardest idea to grasp is that having the right to spread religious awareness is certainly not the same as pushing beliefs on others.

While people reserve the right to practice religious freedom and to speak without restraint about any faith they choose, forcing others to listen isn’t freedom of speech; it’s harassment. 

There are over 127 major religions and seven billion people on earth with seven billion different views of God. Some love Him, some fear Him, some question His existence and some are still searching for Him.

Some will decide that God plays no role in the trials and tribulations of life, while others will find faith the moment they see their newborn child take the first breath of being.

Whether we discover where we spiritually belong in a pew on Sunday morning or on a lonely drive with no destination, the journey to finding or forgetting God is what determines our views. We can’t be told what and who to believe in, or to even believe in anything at all.

What we learn, who we meet and the challenges we face are what we remember when we stand before Him, not the church members that knock on our front doors, or the people that stand in the quad condemning us all to hell.

And if the church goer at your front door changes your perspective, let them. Be baptized in one church, change your mind, and be baptized in another. Let what you learned in biology class make you question evolution and the powers above.

Learning from life experiences and questioning God’s ways isn’t sin; it’s human. It’s human to change emotionally, mentally, and spiritually when physical surroundings change. It’s human to simply be curious and indecisive.

Faith only exists because there are people that believe strongly enough in it to make it a reality and a way of life. Without doubters and differences, the strength of religion would never have anything to be measured against.

Because of that, religion without true belief is weak.

Never practice out of habit, don’t follow just because your parents or friends do, and don’t ever think one religion is superior to another. In a time that seems to have the explanation for everything in a test tube or on a database, people believing in any God at all is a miracle in itself.