About Christmas...

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

I wanted to share a few thoughts about what Christmas means to me...

Holy Infant, so Tender and Mild

I try to think about Jesus' atonement and the Gospel as much as possible, but at Christmas I like to think about Him as a baby. It's the time for me when Jesus is most human. I've seen a lot of babies in my life, and I think that Jesus was a lot like these babies. I can picture him more as a baby than any other way. It's easier to imagine holding Him. One can almost picture how tenderly Mary looked at Him, how she had great hope for him in that little body. She probably had little talks with him...but he wouldn't understand them yet, because he was a baby. There's a great deal that is very special about all of this, and that's how I like to think of Jesus at Christmas.

Christmas Music

I like the "Pop Christmas" songs ok, but am more of traditionalist when it comes to Christmas music. The songs I really want to hear at Christmas are about Jesus and typically have an old English sound to them. This is my ultimate Christmas Playlist:

• Wexford Carol
• Away in a Manager
• Were you there?
• God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen
• Infant Holy, Infant Lowly
• Lully Lu
• What Child Is This?
• O Holy Night

A Christmas Carol

Other than the actual Christmas story, the story I want to read or see (in a play, preferably) is A Christmas Carol. I consider this to be a spiritual story of hope and redemption, and to me is the very spirit of Christmas. I get teary-eyed when I think of the Cratchett Family without Tiny Tim. I get teary-eyed when Tiny Tim says that he hopes people would think of Jesus when they saw him. I get choked up when the shackles that had held Scrooge down begin to fall off...when his repentence and redemption begin. I think of the years of wasted life...the regrets for a life wasted. But the power of the words and the story ultimately are about hope and redemption, and it's one of my favorite stories of all time, not just at Christmas.

Food

There are a couple of things I really want to eat at Christmas time. I want Egg Nog. I want Dory's Christmas Cookies...the Ginger Snaps. Melanie's butter cookies too. I don't care as much about the dinner, but I want some fun appetizers and hopefully a cheese ball. Funny, I know, but that's what I want.

A Christmas Tree Surrounded in Toys

To me, Christmas morning is about giving toys. The other stuff...clothes and such...are good and useful, but I like to see my girls openiing toys. My memories are of coming down to a cold, dark family room and seeing the majesty of the Christmas tree surrounded by gifts. Every gift was fun to open, but the toys were the ones that sent chills through me, that said to me that Santa had been there, and that felt magical. This morning, seeing the girls opening the Zhu Zhu pets and the other stuff that they opened was for me the highlight.

Christmas Shows

Two really stand out to me...A Charlie Brown Christmas and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. Totally different, but these are the two shows I want to watch. A Charlie Brown Christmas is the best holiday show on. It has a great spirit and message, highlighted by Linus narrating Luke 2.

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation is a totally different kind of show. It simply pokes at the fun and craziness of the season. I watched it one night after work by myself (or maybe Nate was there, I can't quite remember) and laughed by head off. Cousin Eddy wearing a black Dickie under a white sweater. Shooting down the hill on the greased sled. Getting stuck in the attic and watching old movies. I watched it in Hawaii and still laugh at it today.