A Kid at Christmas

One of the most important elements of Christmas to me always has been all of the memories of my childhood years that come back during this season.  Christmas truly is a magical season for children, and when we can reclaim a bit of the magic for ourselves, the holiday becomes brighter.

And when that feeling is there and within reach, I grab it and hold on to it, and the Christmas tree is somehow brighter and more beautiful, and the snow outside is more magical and wonderful.  It helps me to have a glass of Egg Nog while I'm watching the show, too.

The quality of the shows simply doesn't matter.  With the exception of the "Grinch," most Christmas shows are of questionable quality, especially in their scripts.  "Frosty the Snowman" is simply unwatchable if one focuses on the poor script and the holes in the plot.  With these shows, though, it's important to allow them to have their effect on us without focusing on the quality and being critical of them.  It's like standing on a hill in the spring and letting the breeze flow through your hair--you don't wonder where the breeze originated and wish that it could be two miles per hour faster.  You just let the breeze do its thing, and you enjoy it.

We have many such things at Christmas time that remind us of the magic of our youthful years.  We have trees and fruitcake and the sound of jingle bells and Christmas carols and holly and mistletoe--well, you get the idea.  The question, of course, is what we're going to do with them.  Do we allow them to take us with them, do we allow them to open the doors to magic and wonder and a focus on love and peace on earth?

Or do we simply not pay any attention to them because we're too busy or because the season is too hectic and busy?  We can even acknowledge their presence but not let them work their magic, and then they're simply objects.  If any object can remind us of better times, if anything can make us feel the wonder that we used to feel regularly, then that ability to leave behind our present in favor of the past is in us, and can come only from ourselves.  No object can do it--we have to be willing to allow the objects to remind us, to help us, to take us.

Traditions exist to help us to reclaim those beautiful parts of ourselves that we somehow have left behind.  As years go by and experiences pile up and we get overwhelmed with all that happens to us with the passage of time, it's very easy to forget the beautiful parts of ourselves, especially the kid in ourselves that was able to see the wonder and magic of the world with a sense of awe.  Our Christmas traditions help us to reclaim those parts of ourselves and make them a part of who we are as adults--if we let them.

What kinds of traditions do you have during this holiday season?  What kinds of things remind you of the times in your life when wonder and awe were normal, everyday feelings for you?  There is a magic to the Christmas season, but we have to open ourselves up to that magic if it's to have any effect on us.

I shall attend to my little errands of love
Early, this year,
So that the brief days before Christmas may be
Unhampered and clear
Of the fever of hurry.  The breathless rushing
   that I have known in the past
Shall not possess me.  I shall be calm in my soul
And ready at last
For Christmas:  "The Mass of the Christ."
   I shall kneel and call out his name;
I shall take time to watch the beautiful light
Of a candle's flame;
I shall have leisure--I shall go out alone
From my roof and my door;
I shall not miss the silver silence of stars
As I have before;
And, oh, perhaps--If I stand there very still,
And very long--
I shall hear what the clamor of living has
   kept from me;
The Angels' song!