Christmas time is here
Happiness and cheer

One of my favorite holidays is here: Christmas. While I know not all of you celebrate the holiday, it really is everywhere these days, and other religions have similar celebrations that highlight peace and goodwill in its many forms. Whether it’s reflection and forgiveness as emphasized during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, or the sense of a new start and the promise of possibilities, as Tet, New Year’s, and a host of other holidays and festivals promote, Christmas, in its fundamental roots, is about our spiritual self and our humanity.

Fun for all that children call
Their favorite time of year

The commercialism is just a layer that was added not all that long ago. As this interesting piece by historian John Steele Gordon outlines, the origins of our modern-day Christmas emerged in New York City, in the days of Nieuw Amsterdam. The Dutch children who eagerly awaited Sinterklaes influenced their non-Dutch playmates, and aided by merchants from A.T. Stewart to Macy’s to Gimbel’s to today’s Wal-Mart, Christmas flourished from its religious roots as the Christ Mass to a largely secular holiday filled with red-nosed reindeer, magical snowmen, and children up way past their bedtime.

Snowflakes in the air
Carols everywhere

One of the things I really miss at Christmastime is snow. Here in Southern California, we’re not that far from the mountains and the promise of snow, but it’s not the same as looking out the window or walking out the door and seeing and feeling that crisp, crunchy, fresh-fallen blanket of white. I’m the kind of person that likes snow from, say, about a week before Thanksgiving until January 2nd. Then I’m ready for something else. Roll on, Spring! Those of you in the Midwest, who have been suffering through storms lately, may share that sentiment. Others may be wondering if you’ll be getting any snow at all. But regardless of where you are, snow is part and parcel of that wholesome, old-time Christmas image, whether cinematic, fanciful, or realized.

Olden times and ancient rhymes
Of love and dreams to share

For me, Christmas isn’t necessarily about gifts. At my age, that kind of stopped long ago. One of the reasons I love this time of year is the feeling of goodwill, the sentiment that we take this time to think of others, to spread cheer, goodwill, and yes, love. We don’t always do it, but I think the fact that the potential to do so is there says a lot. Regardless of all the problems we have in this world, love is a commonality that all spiritual belief systems share, because it really is at the heart of what being human is about: the capacity to feel, to laugh, to cry, to reach our internal and external potential, and most of all, to work on behalf of the whole– whether it is as small as the family, or as large as humankind.

Sleigh bells in the air
Beauty everywhere
Yuletide by the fireside
And joyful memories there

As we get older, Christmas ostensibly becomes about the children in our lives, whether it’s our own children, nieces and nephews, cousins, grandchildren, or even just children in the neighborhood. But I think it’s also important to reach into ourselves and remember the children we once were, and that we still are. For all the adult responsibilities we have, for all the burdens we assume, underneath, we’re still young, even if it’s just at heart. Youth is not just about physical appearances and chronological age; it’s about attitude. It’s an attitude that appears during the holidays. This is part of the message that’s in Dicken’s A Christmas Carol, especially when Scrooge revisits the celebration at Fezziwig’s. It’s not about money, it’s not about appearances; sometimes, it’s just something as simple as fellowship, good cheer, and the promise and potential of love. Sometimes, I wish though, that this carried throughout the year, and didn’t just end when the credit card bills arrive in the mail.

Christmas time is here
We’ll be drawing near
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year
Oh, that we could always see
Such spirit through the year…

As the song says, “Oh, that we could always see/Such spirit through the year…” Christmas is ostensibly about family. But I think it’s also about the human family, and that was the message of the original Christmas: the birth of a savior, who had come to rejuvenate the world. While not everyone believes in the divinity of Christ, the message found in his gospel is one that we could all learn from. It really is, in its fundamental form, the Golden Rule– a precept that is found in some form in all spiritual beliefs worldwide.

To put it another way, we’re all Charlie Brown: we’re surrounded by the trappings of the modern world, of commercialism, but deep down, it’s about the stars, it’s about a simple tree, it’s about peace, happiness, and goodwill.

Merry Christmas, everyone.