As part of the festive countdown, SigmaLive English is launching 10 Days of Christmas Spirit – a special series celebrating the sights, flavours, and traditions that define the season. Over the coming days, we will be sharing festive content from across Cyprus and beyond, from Christmas villages and seasonal events to comforting winter recipes and moments that capture the joy of this time of year.
But before the lights, the food and the festivities, it is worth pausing to reflect on what truly sits at the heart of it all.
As 10 Days of Christmas Spirit begins, this first article is not about Christmas villages, festive recipes or twinkling lights. It is about something quieter, and far more enduring: the Christmas spirit itself.
Every December, as the days grow shorter and the nights longer, people across the world pause in remarkably similar ways. Different cultures, different traditions, different beliefs, yet the instinct is the same: to gather, to share warmth, and to remind one another that the darkness does not last forever.
That instinct sits at the heart of the Christmas spirit.
On every world, wherever people are, in the deepest part of the winter, at the exact midpoint, everybody stops, and turns, and hugs, as if to say “Well done. Well done, everyone! We’re halfway out of the dark.” Back on Earth, we called this Christmas ~ Doctor Who
This quote, from the TV show Doctor Who, is attributed to a man on an alien planet, theorising about winter holidays, even in a world far removed from our own. The deepest roots of Christmas stretch far beyond modern traditions. Long before electric lights or decorated trees, humanity marked the winter solstice – the turning point of the year, when the longest night had passed and the light would slowly return.
From Yule celebrations in northern Europe to Hanukkah’s candles of hope, winter festivals have always been about survival, resilience and community. They were moments to acknowledge the hardship of the season while celebrating the simple fact of making it through, together.
Christmas carries that same meaning. At its core, it is a pause in the darkness, a collective breath, a reminder that warmth is created when people choose one another. This is why the Christmas spirit feels so universal, even to those who do not celebrate it in a religious sense. Despite the dark winter nights, the cold, the occasionally unforgiving climate, we all take a moment to stop, take stock, and celebrate that we’re all making it through.
And the Grinch
with his Grinch feet Ice cold in the snow stood puzzling and puzzling
How could it be so?
it came without ribbons,
it came without tags,
it came without packages, boxes and bags!
Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before
“Maybe Christmas,”
He Thought
“Doesn’t come from a store,
maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” ~ How the Grinch Stole Christmas
If one story captures modern Christmas anxieties, it is the fear that the season has been swallowed by excess – by shopping lists, gift receipts, and pressure to consume. Cindy Lou Who, in “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”, feels this fear acutely, repeatedly seeking the true meaning of Christmas, and desperately hoping it isn’t just about the presents.
The enduring message of Christmas pushes back against that idea. The Christmas spirit is not found in packages or decorations, but in people. It lives in shared meals, familiar laughter, acts of generosity, and the simple decision to be present.
When stripped of its trimmings, Christmas reveals itself as something beautifully uncomplicated: time together, kindness without calculation, and the recognition that life is richer when it is shared.
“There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew. ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round—apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that—as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys.” ~ A Christmas carol
For Christians, the holiday also carries a deeper meaning. Christmas marks the beginning of the greatest love story ever told – the belief that God chose to enter the world as a child, not in power or splendour, but in vulnerability, for the sake of mankind. That he came not only to live, but to one day die, because he so loved the people he had created. That story centres on humility, compassion, and love freely given.
Even beyond faith, those values resonate. Christmas becomes a rare moment in the calendar when hearts soften, grudges loosen, and generosity feels natural rather than forced. It is a season that invites people to see one another not as strangers or competitors, but as fellow travellers – sharing the same fragile journey.
A time when we pause in the endless race to work, to earn, to ‘better’ ourselves, and recognise our community, and our place in the picture.
As 10 Days of Christmas Spirit unfolds, we will explore the sights, flavours and traditions that make the season feel alive, and the ways we can celebrate it. But at the centre of it all remains the same simple idea.
The Christmas spirit is not something we buy or build. It is something we choose – in how we treat one another, in how we share what we have, and in how we carry a little light into the darkest days of the year.
Also read: Fikardou Christmas Village lights up Troodos mountains
For more videos and updates, check out our YouTube channel
