I understand that many Christmas traditions are meant to evoke warm nostalgic feelings of a bygone time, but none of them sound that great to me. Chestnuts roasting on an open fire aren’t my idea of a delicious holiday treat, and riding in a one-horse open sleigh sounds both expensive and boring. Christmas music is hotly contentious, particularly for those out there who work in retail! Hearing the same songs on repeat for a month is a lousy way to endear sentiment.
I find that many American Christmas traditions ring hollow, but I have my own rituals that provide warmth in the winter holidays. Every holiday season, for the last decade and a half, I have played Super Mario Galaxy, at least a little bit.
If you have never played Super Mario Galaxy, or a Mario game at all, and are unsure what to expect, it is colorful and whimsical. The “game” portion is controlling Mario as he runs and jumps around in a vibrant idealized outer space, where his movement is dictated by different gravitational pulls and all-consuming black holes. In these moments, the game is a bombastic expression of joy and artistry, while also being quite fun for people of all ages and sensibilities.
When you first arrive at the Comet Observatory, it is dark, and partially powerless. There is not much area where Mario is able to explore, but as you journey off to new galaxies, power is restored to the space station, and you are able to access its different rooms leading to more levels. The pleasing quiet of these rooms are what lend the game its Christmas-adjacent impact. Indeed, the whole observatory has this cozy and homey feeling, containing areas that force the player to take short pauses between the swashbuckling space exploration and reflect.
Typical celebrations of Christmas in the United States are awash with sentimentality, nostalgia, and a culture telling you how to feel about it all. It is also a genuinely depressing time of the year for many, evoking painful memories, or reminding them of someone who isn’t around to share the holiday.
Anarchist poet Oscar Wilde penned “A sentimentalist is simply one who wants to have the luxury of an emotion without paying for it.” Which sounds like Christmas to me! It’s music and movies, traditions and decorations that craft a likeness of emotional resonance that does not reflect the experiences of many.
Christmas time can feel empty, especially for those battling depression. In the grand scheme of space and time, we are so small, like the Comet Observatory floating through an endless space, yet our lives are significant. The cure for this emptiness is not giving into the absurdity, but ascribing our own sentiment to the lives we live.
May we all cling to the things that give us life and live our lives in a way that makes a positive impact in our crazy world – just like my guy Mario.
