Hoping for Christmas Magic

In our home on Thanksgiving weekend, we begin getting ready for Christmas magic, just like Tante does in The Cobweb Christmas. I find the Christmas CD's, play them, and we all sing along (well, to be perfectly honest, I do most of the singing). The kids and I cut down a tree and decorate it. We decorate our home, inside and out, turning it into an enchanted kingdom. I, who loathe the stove for the rest of the year, actually bake some cookies and other goodies. We send and receive cards full of love and goodwill. We donate to charities. We watch Scrooge (the movie musical with Albert Finney) on Christmas Eve. We wrap a few gifts, stuff our stockings with edible goodies, and hope for Christmas magic to arrive.

What is it we hope for? We hope that the loving, caring goodwill embraced and exhibited by us and our fellow humans for four weeks each year, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, will somehow weave a transformation in our hearts, minds, and souls that will last past Christmas Day, and that people all the world over will get along and work for the benefit of everyone, not just at Christmas but throughout the whole year. Sadly, so far, each December 26 we've had to realize that Christmas magic didn't arrive, no matter how much we hoped it would. Each year we turn back into our impatient, thoughtless, self-absorbed selves.

But, it is Thanksgiving weekend again, and the kids and I are once again filled with hope. So, we are getting ready for Christmas magic and hoping that this year Christmas magic will finally decide we humans are worth it and make its appearance. Maybe, however, the true spirit of Christmas should not be hoping for magic to arrive and make everything better; maybe the true spirit of Christmas should be all of us working together to change our hearts, minds, and souls in order to make the world a better place for everyone the whole year round. Maybe what we want Christmas magic to do for us, we must choose to do for ourselves. This year, instead of waiting for Christmas magic, let's be Christmas magic; then, maybe, December 26 and all the other days of the year will be as full of love and goodwill as the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Take care,

Kate

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