It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas …
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas … and I love it! I don’t love the commercialism that tries to spoil it, but I love everything else.
A couple of weeks ago I found I was kind of dreading the whole holiday scene and couldn’t figure out why. Just thinking about Thanksgiving and Christmas filled me with anxiety. I was talking to my daughter and suddenly it dawned on me why. My mother and my brother died during this past year. I’ve been missing them both so much it is hard to imagine Christmas without seeing either of them. I’ve seen them every Christmas for the last twenty at least.
But then I started thinking of all the wonderful memories, clear back to when I was a little girl and thought the magical part of Christmas was Santa Clause. Mom and Dad worked so hard to make it special with lots of decorations and lights, standing around the piano singing Christmas carols, beautiful Christmas music playing on our reel to reel stereo with the humongous speakers. Mother baked and baked and baked … all of our favorite cookies, candies, and pies … and carrot pudding with lemon sauce …. oh yummy!
Our house was cleaned from bottom to top before Christmas, not a thing out of place. Everyone had secrets … and there were sacks stacked in Mom & Dad’s closet. I never peeked either … not once! I wouldn’t have dreamed of peeking or doing anything else I was told not to do that close to when Santa came. I was one of the great time believers and can remember a couple of Christmas Eve’s wondering if I’d made the grade or if I would just get a piece of coal and a switch in my stocking. It was always such a relief to enter the living room and see the familiar shapes in our stockings (our every day stockings) that were hung by the chimney with care.
Dad always had the bright lights for pictures set out and we entered the room shortest to tallest while he took our pictures with the old movie camera … the silent movies. Man I love watching those now.
Fortunately for me, November and December are filled with happy memories of family and love. And fortunately, too, I now know that the magic in it for me starts with my belief and love for Jesus Christ … who it should be all about.
I wish everyone would have the opportunity to store joyous memories of family and holidays but I know that as happy a time as it is for our family, there are so many who have never had the opportunity to know the magic. I’ll be praying for them this year and hope I recognize every opportunity that comes my way to make a difference in their lives, because the magic of Christmas really is about love.
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