It came without ribbons
It came without tags
It came without packages, boxes or bags
Welcome Christmas while we stand
heart to heart
And hand in hand
Christmas Day will always be
Just as long as we have we…
And in the end, matters of twos and threes and fours settle out, and my favourite day of the year takes it’s place as one of the kindest – although perhaps one of the most unusual – Christmases I’ve had so far. As the day winds to a sleepy close, as dessert plates are cleared and gift wrap carefully folded and set aside for – perhaps – use next year. As the crisp cold air outside turns dark and the stars light Santa’s way home for another holiday…I am reminded once again of what’s really important.
There’s an old cliché that says that Christmas is not about what’s under the tree, it’s about who’s around it. I am reminded this year of exactly how true that is. It’s never been about what we get, it’s about what we give. Perhaps that’s why I like Christmas so much…it reminds me that there is hope in the world. There is still a capacity for human beings to be kind, to reach out to one another with an outstretched hand of understanding rather than a clenched fist of defiance. There is still the possibility that things will work out. Christmas isn’t about the things you can feel, or touch or even see…Christmas is about…the intangibles.
My favourite memories of this Christmas? Have nothing to do with what I did or did not unwrap. My favourite memories of this Christmas are the feeling of Amras’ hand in mind when we walked through the chill afternoon air along the golf course and picked up an errant golf ball as a gift for the family cat. The look on my mother’s face when I brought her up a piece of garlic sausage on a cracker (“Christmas!!!”), the warmth of a fireplace on my face and the giggling about the highly predictable nature of Hallmark Christmas movies (“ooooh but is he wearing plaid!?”). The smell of the tree lot in the rain as we picked out our very first Christmas tree. My mum asking me for my sugar cookie recipe (I still say that’s proof that I have succeeded as an adult). Tracking Santa across the United States. Watching my father welcome another member into a very small and serious tradition that means such a very great deal to all of us.
Christmas isn’t about what you get. Christmas is about what you give. And in learning that you will receive more than you ever thought possible.
Some transitions are hard. Some are easy. Some are just awkward. But there is a breathtaking beauty waiting for you if you are patient and accepting of the change…
I know that a great many of you are away from your loved ones tonight. I’ve been there, I know how that feels. So I just want to take this moment to remind you: Christmas is something you carry with you. So is family. So are a great many things that are really really important and all too easy to forget. Those things can’t be packaged, or bought, but they also can’t be lost. At least not so much so that they can’t be found again.
So wherever you are, whoever you’re with. I wish you, and yours the most magical of yuletides.
And on that note, I whisper some words to the close and holy darkness…and I sleep.
Goodnight neverland.