I love Christmas time.
It fills my heart.
I don’t know how to write about the love I have for this season though, because it asks so much of us, and all not necessarily ‘good or easy!’
Perhaps you know what I mean…
The getting through holiday meals when someone is mad at someone else. Or the times when someone won’t come for holiday dinner, because someone else is coming.
Or, even fearing saying “I love Christmas,” because I would never, ever want to offend you. I would never, ever want you to think that Christmas is an exclusionary thing for me, ’cause it’s not.
In many ways, this is the magic of the season for me.
That in spite of all the highs and lows of life, my family and I ritualistically, like faithful clockwork, come together to share a meal, to celebrate the day, to laugh, and love, catch up with each other and honor our differences.
That no matter what the fleeting trivialities or momentary real life concerns in our personal lives or the world, it all gives way to our love for each other and all people in our world.
For me, Christmas is not simply a time when Christians celebrate the birth of Christ, though that was a big deal in my home.
Christmas is the time for “Peace on earth, good will to all” in a real rubber-on-the-road kind of way.
Like living my childhood Christian lessons, especially “seeing the eyes of Christ in everyone I meet.”
Rather than exclusionary, that my way is right and your’s is wrong, if you don’t celebrate Christmas, my lessons of Christmas were to appreciate difference, rather than judge another. To choose forgiveness, rather than hold a grudge. To find understanding in my heart, rather than disagreement.
This is what Christmas means to me.
Beyond searching for the perfect gift, beyond the frustrations of untangling strands of lights, getting to holiday parties after a long day at work… and even the “I don’t believe’s,” Christmas really is a time when everything and anything becomes possible…
If you believe it is possible.
Norman Vincent Peale says it best for me, “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.”
What does Christmas mean to you?
