So, This Is Christmas

This one is my favorite. Of all the holidays, including my birthday, this is my favorite. It is a “…most wonderful time of the year”

Christmas begins tonight, Christmas Eve. We are not a Christmas Eve family, however. Presents are opened Christmas morning. But we exchange books tonight, and Christmas Eve services at our parish have been a beloved tradition going back for decades. This time between dinner and dinner is a wonderful, and sometimes wonder filled, time for me.

I love it for the gifts, but my point of view on the subject has changed over the years. As a kid, it was all about what Santa brought me. While I still enjoy carefully selected presents, my greatest joy is watching my family open the present I’ve bought for them. Their smiles and exclamations are the best part of the holiday.

I love it for the traditions. If done properly, traditions are living memories. They help us recall all the things that have gone before. On our tree is a ceramic train in the colors of my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers. That would be reason enough to keep it hanging on the tree, but there’s something far more important about it. It was the last present my mother bought for me (and the identical ornaments for my brothers) before she died. I discovered them as I cleaned out her house. Other ornaments remind me of places we’ve lived, or visited, or specific times and people in our lives. The same goes for the fruitcake. There’s been a homemade fruitcake in our Christmas for as long as I remember. When it became too much for my mother to handle (the finished cake weighs between three and four pounds), I took it over. I’ve made it for a quarter of a century now. There’s the nut bowl, and Jack Skellington, and all the old favorite movies, and so many more. Whether in person or in spirit, Christmas is a time when all my loved ones gather near.

I love it for (some) of the music. My joke for years is that there are only 12 Christmas songs. Each one has 150 variations. I’m confident in saying that all of us have at least one Christmas song we don’t like. It’s been played too many times (looking at you, Mariah), or it’s “dumb”, or whatever. For the rest, it connects me with the feelings I have for the holiday. Some are beautiful, others are fun. Some I can sing, others are a bit out of my range, others are just for listening. There’s no other holiday that has music so intertwined into its essence.

I love it for the memories. The “George Bailey Christmas.” That was the year I learned the truth of the line that “No man is poor who has friends”. Waking up as a child on Christmas morning, knowing that we were not permitted to go out to the living room until our parents woke up. Our stockings were hung at the end of our beds, and we were allowed to open them. Quietly. Which was difficult since the stockings had multiple jingle bells sewn onto them. (My childhood stocking is too delicate to be used anymore, but it’s one of the traditions every year). The year I heard Santa’s sleigh bells outside my window as I fell asleep on Christmas Eve. My only child’s awe and wonder at every present when they were little. And their offer to “show me” how my hat worked.

No matter what is going on in my life, Christmas is the one day of the year when I feel no anxiety. It is a day of relaxation and happiness. Whatever your best Christmas is, I hope you finding it waiting for you.

“Love and joy come to you,
And to you your wassail too;
And God bless you and send you a Happy New Year
And God send you a Happy New Year.”

Peace,

Jay