'Tis the Season

I always forget this part.

I look forward to the Christmas season all year long. The music, the festive colors, the reminder of what it all means. Sure, it's hectic. And sure, sometimes I get stressed. But what I think of first is the warmth of the season and the sense of celebration.

Then December approaches, and it starts. The rumbling of the retailers. By Thanksgiving week, it's built to a ferocious din as all the stores try to outdo each other. To beat each other to the punch. To be open sooner, to have the sale that YOU CAN'T MISS or you'll be throwing money away. Put down that eggnog!

I'm not into crowds. I usually stay home. But even here, with the blinds drawn, it's hard to escape the persistent feeling that if I'm not shopping RIGHT NOW, it's costing me a fortune.

This year, I'm not only drawing my blinds, I'm thinking of caulking my windows.

I'm neurotic enough without retailers telling me it's do or die and DON'T MISS OUT.

So this year, more than ever, I'm determined to make Christmas what I always promise myself it will be. A time to curl up with that eggnog, listen to the music and, by golly, read some of those Christmas books I've been looking forward to all year.

Yeah, I'll go shopping, too. When I'm good and ready.

Peace on Earth is there for us -- if we allow ourselves to slow down long enough to grasp it.

Don't miss out.

365 Days Till Christmas

"I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year."

 - Ebenezer Scrooge, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol

I've heard those words, or some slight variation of them, at least seven times this Christmas season.

Yes, I admit it: I'm a "Christmas Carol" junkie. My husband and I own an embarrassing number of versions of it on DVD, and every year, we try to fit in as many as we can. We love comparing the merits of each version, debating which is the best retelling of the story, who makes the best Scrooge, which actor is the best Marley, etc.

There's a reason the story is so addictive and so re-watchable. As many times as I've seen it, I always come away a bit inspired, vowing to apply more of the lessons it teaches to my own life.

"I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round  -- apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that -- as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely...."

- Scrooge's nephew Fred 

It's a stirring message. It's also a tough one to live up to, once you get up off the couch and get back to the pressures of the holiday season, or of everyday living. Tough -- but then, that's the case with most things that are worth doing. 

This year, I've decided it's at the top of my list of New Year's resolutions.