Sun 6 Dec 2009
where are you christmas?
Posted by Compulsive Writer under my shrine to the snow God better be really big this year[7] Comments
i’ve been doing everything right to welcome the spirit of christmas.
skipped the frenzy that can be found on black friday.
waited until after thanksgiving for the christmas music–but played it most sincerely ever since.
tried to be thoughtful and mindful of each recipient as i have gone about my month of simple service and also as i have considered everyone’s christmas wish lists.
but i still wasn’t feelin’ it.
in fact i was starting to wonder if my who heart had hardened or my old ears grown too deaf to hear the jingle of that magic bell.
i believe!
sure, there is the obvious answer. the true meaning of christmas isn’t really found in any of that. it’s all about the one for whom the holiday is named.
but honestly, we should be Christ-centered, mindful of and grateful for that every month of the year.
because really, i believe!
what i was searching for is something far less profound and sacred than that and yet still real enough and necessary for the festivity and tradition to resume its rightful place in my heart.
i was still waiting.
this morning i discovered what was missing.
it was the snow.
since moving from my childhood home in the pacific northwest where rain was plentiful but snow was so rare we canceled school for a mere skiff, i have become accustomed to the sparkle of crystallized water reflected in the sun. the magic of the dreary winter grey transformed into white. dull turned bright.
like pavlov’s dogs, i have become conditioned to only fully turn on the warmth of christmas in my heart when the cold of snow arrives.
and now i know that as much as i love to visit there, i could never move further south. and as much as i would love to see so many wonderful places in the southern hemisphere, i could never live somewhere where christmas is celebrated in the middle of the summer.
because the world in my snowglobe is not truly christmas-y without a little snow.
so tell me, what does it for you? a log in the fire? the scent of a freshly cut pine? sipping cider through a straw? presents scattered underneath the christmas tree? jingling bells? your favorite carol? the nutcracker ballet? dicken’s a christmas carol? eggnog? gingerbread?
what puts you in the mood for christmas?
December 6th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
I think your daughter said it best…
“Christmas music is so lame without snow!!!–grrr!”
I agree with her and told her so.
The carols sounded merrier and brighter after the snowfall yesterday.
December 6th, 2009 at 6:30 pm
My Christmas Tree and the planning of the parties and Christmas Eve meal. It’s a candle light dinner in honor of Christ. My kids look forward to it and keep talking about it.
The snow helps. I prefer to be done with snow by January, but love it in December.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.
December 8th, 2009 at 11:07 am
What starts Christmas for me? It’s the music. I mean the real soul music of the season. I don’t have much of a collection myself, unless you count Sufjan Stevens, so I listen to KBYU-FM as much as I can. That’s what stirs my heart every year now, and what I miss most when Christmas is past.
December 8th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
This post is exactly what I’ve been trying to describe to people for the past three days. Christmas is not Christmas without a real winter wonderland.
It’s also the lights. Without the twinkling colors the season feels a little empty. It’s turning off all the lights in the house and still being able to see everything clearly, distorted by reds and greens and golds and blues.
There’s a Christmas episode of Grey’s Anatomy where they lie under the Christmas tree just to watch the lights twinkle and smell the pine. And that’s exactly what the non-sacred, yet still imperative feeling of Christmas is for me.
December 9th, 2009 at 11:11 pm
I haven’t found what does it for me yet.
December 15th, 2009 at 6:41 pm
Snow is it. Really. That’s all it takes for me.
But if I have to add more: logs on the fire (one of the reasons I bought this house- real fire, real fireplace!) gingerbread anything; and, of course, the music.
I love this post (sorry it took me so long to get here) and I love that the awareness of the one for whom the holiday is named makes much of the year like Christmas in the heart.
December 15th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Advent calendars and receiving the Christmas cards. That’s all I need.