In the U.S., it seems that the winter holidays begin with Halloween. In fact, when I was growing up, one of our neighbors would ask to go into our woods to cut a Hemlock tree, and the family would put the tree in their living room, and decorate it in October. Holding a live tree inside a heated home for two months is asking for trouble. Frankly, it’s a fire hazard.

Thanksgiving is behind us now, and so were a lot of people in the line at the post office today. This year, I got smart and addressed the first round of greeting cards and got together a few packages that will travel across the country, or across the world. I feel ahead of things, although I have more to do.

Everywhere we go, there are suddenly crowds of people shopping to gather items for gifts. The economy would be far worse without this shopping frenzy.

I can’t help but realize that the reason for the holiday of Christmas is often overlooked. For example, a few years ago, I noticed that people were signing their cards, “Happy Xmas.” It’s like we’ve hijacked the remembrance of an important event in history, the birth of the Christ child, and have secularized the day with baubles and doodads, and now, can’t even write the word “Christ” in Christmas.

With church attendance down, and with all the scandals that have been present in both the Episcopal and Catholic churches, not to mention evangelical swindlers that make the news, don’t you sometimes wonder to where Christ has been displaced?

Granted, I came from a home that was religious, even though we did not try to inflict our beliefs on anyone. My parents, particularly my father, was a sincere man of deep faith. Oh sure, we shared gifts at Christmas and that was a part of the holiday that we treasured, but the day and the season were much more than that. Prayer and spiritual preparation were included in getting ready for Christmas.

Today, to mention any type of faith orientation, is perhaps considered old-fashioned, at a time when it is of the utmost importance to be able to purchase a limited edition Play station for a child.

Personally, I respect all who have faith, any faith, and also, those who whose faith it is to have no faith. People have the right to believe as they wish.

I am proud of the religious diversity within my own large, extended family and ancestors. My great grandmother, who was Austrian, was also Jewish, a long kept family secret that was only revealed to me recently. I am equally happy that many members of the family are/were Baptist, Episcopalian, Roman Catholic, and Jewish. I hope we all meet up somewhere, someday, in a place beyond the rainbow.

No matter what faith you have, please take a moment to remember the real reasons behind the celebrations, and then, please share that knowledge with your children. We are becoming a nation of people who are so ego-centric, we can’t look beyond ourselves and what we want, and what we want is usually some material object. If you are a Christian, reflect on the simplicity of that first Christmas.

Life is over too soon. I have had friends who have had no faith, and I have had friends who have died, believing that they would be stuck in the ground or incinerated, and that would be “all she wrote.” That idea makes me sad, yet they were so convicted in their beliefs, it would have been folly to try to try to convince them otherwise.

Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hannukah, or even the newly instituted holiday of Kwaanza, please share the whole meaning of the holiday, with those you love.

Have fun with your holiday preparations. Spread good cheer and remember to smile a lot, particularly at those overworked store clerks who are tired and have sore feet from standing at cash registers. Above all, enjoy yourself and find joy in all of the little things. Remember that even a smile, which costs you nothing, might mean the world to someone else.

Peace,

Pat