JazzManJim
On the Downbeat
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2001
- Posts
- 27,360
I love Christmas. I have since I was a kid. This year, though, I'm having trouble getting the Christmas vibe, so I've been doing some thinking - remembering just what I love about Christmas, to put me into the spirit of the holiday.
And I figured that maybe if it helped me, it's help someone else.
There simply is no holiday like Christmas. It surely brings out the petty and materialistic impulses in folks, but there's a lot more than that. Focusing on the bad things people can show during this time absolutely obscures the not so obvious, but more important, and deeper things that make this holiday so special.
Christmas is a time of giving. This has become hackneyed over the years, but it's still very true. People give and give - money, time, cheer, smiles. They give out of a seemingly bottomless well of charity and, given this year, the giving's only increased. This is a season of sharing and we share like no other time.
Christmas is a time of remembering. Some of my fondest memories are of Christmas. I used to sit up, forcing myself to stay awake into the wee hours of the night, waiting for Santa to arrive. My family didn't have a lot of money - we were a large family living on one income - and I knew that I wouldn't necessarily get everything I asked from Santa like many of my friends did. But I still waited. I'd end up falling asleep, the anticipation of the next day tight and warm in my stomach the way that only the welcoming of the most exciting events could bring. But it was more than gifts. It was about spending the day with my Grandmother and Uncle and cousins. It was having a whole day just hanging with them - some of the coolest folks I ever knew, and ones I never seemed to get to see enough. It was about waiting for Christmas, the grandest day a boy could imagine. And when the morning came, Santa never disappointed. No...I never got everything on my list, but I always got something good, something I could use and love and enjoy. I still have some of my childhood gifts today.
Christmas is a time of love. This time of year gives more possibility of love, abd being loved, than any other time of year. Maybe it's the mistletoe, or maybe it's just that when we're more interested in giving than in receiving, or in the mindless toil of everyday life, we find ourselves more willing to love, and more able to receive it. It's the time of year when, if you have someone to love, you can spend it with them in cozy bliss. If you don't, you have the most hope that you will find that amazing someone to share the season with.
Christmas is a time of possibility. More than any other time of year,we look forward to the years to come and see that, no matter what may have happened to us this year, the next year is full of open and boundless possibility. We make resolutions for the New Year, forgetting how often we broke the ones of the years past, but always believing that this year will be the year that we hold to our wishes. That's hope, and it's perhaps more valuable than anythign else we have.
There's so much more about this season I love - the weather, the tantalizing hope of snow on a brisk Christmas morning, the egg nog, the bright Christmas candles, the gaudy tree which any other time of year we would scoff at but this time of yera seems more beautiful than any other decoration we've seen.
That's what I thik Christmas is all about, at least for me.
I'm done.
And I figured that maybe if it helped me, it's help someone else.
There simply is no holiday like Christmas. It surely brings out the petty and materialistic impulses in folks, but there's a lot more than that. Focusing on the bad things people can show during this time absolutely obscures the not so obvious, but more important, and deeper things that make this holiday so special.
Christmas is a time of giving. This has become hackneyed over the years, but it's still very true. People give and give - money, time, cheer, smiles. They give out of a seemingly bottomless well of charity and, given this year, the giving's only increased. This is a season of sharing and we share like no other time.
Christmas is a time of remembering. Some of my fondest memories are of Christmas. I used to sit up, forcing myself to stay awake into the wee hours of the night, waiting for Santa to arrive. My family didn't have a lot of money - we were a large family living on one income - and I knew that I wouldn't necessarily get everything I asked from Santa like many of my friends did. But I still waited. I'd end up falling asleep, the anticipation of the next day tight and warm in my stomach the way that only the welcoming of the most exciting events could bring. But it was more than gifts. It was about spending the day with my Grandmother and Uncle and cousins. It was having a whole day just hanging with them - some of the coolest folks I ever knew, and ones I never seemed to get to see enough. It was about waiting for Christmas, the grandest day a boy could imagine. And when the morning came, Santa never disappointed. No...I never got everything on my list, but I always got something good, something I could use and love and enjoy. I still have some of my childhood gifts today.
Christmas is a time of love. This time of year gives more possibility of love, abd being loved, than any other time of year. Maybe it's the mistletoe, or maybe it's just that when we're more interested in giving than in receiving, or in the mindless toil of everyday life, we find ourselves more willing to love, and more able to receive it. It's the time of year when, if you have someone to love, you can spend it with them in cozy bliss. If you don't, you have the most hope that you will find that amazing someone to share the season with.
Christmas is a time of possibility. More than any other time of year,we look forward to the years to come and see that, no matter what may have happened to us this year, the next year is full of open and boundless possibility. We make resolutions for the New Year, forgetting how often we broke the ones of the years past, but always believing that this year will be the year that we hold to our wishes. That's hope, and it's perhaps more valuable than anythign else we have.
There's so much more about this season I love - the weather, the tantalizing hope of snow on a brisk Christmas morning, the egg nog, the bright Christmas candles, the gaudy tree which any other time of year we would scoff at but this time of yera seems more beautiful than any other decoration we've seen.
That's what I thik Christmas is all about, at least for me.
I'm done.
