I first heard this, on Christmas 1960, (at the ripe old age
of Eight) and it has remained one of my favourites!
Christmas Thoughts for all the Year
By the Editors of Mc Call’s, December, 1959
CHRISTMAS is celebration; and celebration is instinct in the
heart. With gift and feast, with scarlet ribbon and fresh
green bough, with merriment and the sound of music, we
commend the day — oasis in the long, long landscape of the
commonplace. Through how many centuries, through how may
threatening circumstances, has Christmas been celebrated,
since that cry came ringing down the ages, “Fear not: for,
behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall
be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city
of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.” (Luke
2:10-11 KJV)
Christmas is celebration, but the traditions that cluster
sweetly around the day have significance only if they
translate the heart’s intention — the yearning of the human
spirit to compass and express faith and hope and love.
Without this intention, the gift is bare, and the
celebration a touch of tinsel, and the time without meaning.
As these attributes, exemplifying the divine spark in
mankind, informed the first Christmas and have survived the
onslaughts of relentless time, so do they shine untarnished
in this present year of our Lord.
Faith and hope and love, which cannot be bought or sold or
bartered, but only given away are the wellsprings, firm and
deep of Christmas celebration. These are the gifts without
price, the ornaments incapable of imitation, discovered only
within oneself and therefore unique. They are not always
easy to come by, but they are in unlimited supply ever in
the province of all.
THIS CHRISTMAS. mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend.
Dismiss suspicion, and replace it with trust. Write a love
letter. Share some treasure. Give a soft answer. Encourage
youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a
promise. Find the time. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy.
Listen. Apologize if you were wrong. Try to understand.
Flout envy. Examine your demands on others. Think first of
someone else. Appreciate. Be kind; be gentle. Laugh a
little. Laugh a little more. Deserve confidence. Take up
arms against malice. Decry complacency. Express your
gratitude. Go to church. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the
heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of
the earth. Speak your love. Speak it again. Speak it still
once again.
These are but inklings of a vast category; a mere scratching
of the surface. They are simple things; you have heard them
all before; but their influence has never been measured.
Christmas is celebration, and there is no celebration that
compares with the realization of its true meaning — with
the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself
toward the core of life. Then, only then, is it possible to
grasp the significance of the first Christmas — to savor in
the inward ear the wild, sweet music of the angel choir; to
envision the star-struck sky, and glimpse, behind the
eyelids the ray of light that feel athwart a darkened path
and changed the world.
Happy Holidays
Wayno