Christmas
Spirit
When
does the first
tingle of Christmas Spirit touch you? I can't
decide whether it is brought on by the fresh,
light snow dusting the evergreens, the smell of
fruitcakes baking, or getting out the boxes of
decorations which we sort, refurbish, and scatter
lavishly about the house each year. "I wish
you'd put a Christmas tree or a holly wreath in
the bathroom this year, Katy." Josiah said as he
helped unpack ornaments and garlands. "I got
kind of nervous having Santa Claus watch me shave
every day last year. Nobody but you would
decorate the bathroom anyway." The poinsettia
splashed curtains we made from plastic table
cloths are hanging at the kitchen windows and the
creché has been carefully set out atop the
library table. Christmas is
candy canes, sleigh bells, fat red candles, and
sticky pine sap on your hands. It is red frosted
Santa cookies, knobby bundles under the bed,
serious faced children shopping in the Five and
Dime, and Christmas carols on every radio and tv
program. Christmas is a time to give joy to
others and to ourselves at the same time. It is
a busy time when one is not too busy to
remember old friends with cards, to pack an extra
box of cookies for someone who may be having a
lonely Christmas, or to search store after store
for the one thing that will most delight a
beloved child. In
the late
evening when weary feet rest from shopping and
stiff fingers from addressing envelopes, there is
time to remember the days of Christmas past.
There was an endless procession of pageants with
cotton bearded kings, bathrobed shepherds and
radiant faced Marys. Half recalled lines of the
pieces once spoken at the Sunday School Tree,
mingle with a haunting fragment of the solo sung
at a long forgotten candlelight service. You remember the anxiety
felt when Father sawed a great chunk off the tree
trunk and lopped ends off branches with seemingly
wild abandon and the boundless relief when the
tree stood tall and perfectly shaped in the
baywindow. How exciting it was to hurry home
from school, eyes and heart fixed on catching the
first glimps of the tree glimmering in the pale
winter sunshine. There's most of the shopping
yet to do, all of the baking, except fruitcakes,
wrapping gifts goes on until and including
Christmas Eve (else where's the fun?). But at
least there'll be no trouble falling asleep
nights this month. Yet, tired enough to sleep
through the crack of doom, on Christmas morning a
child's whisper of "Merry Christmas, Mama. Merry
Christmas, Daddy." will waken the soundest
sleeper to another joyous Christmas Day. Our grandson Joe,
with his two elder children Joey and Trudy,
stayed for hot cocoa and cookies after they
brought us a load of pine branches and cones.
Jos and his niece Martha, who lives with us, will
be fashioning wreaths from them. Tied with huge
red bows, their wreaths deck the doors of each
member of our family. Josie, Joe's twin sister,
asked for an especially big one this year. It
will hang above the fireplace in her new
home. When the pine needles have
been swept up from the kitchen, we'll begin on
cookies and candy. That's the time Jos enjoys
most for we keep him busy cracking nuts, stirring
boiling syrups, beating cooled fudge, and
sampling cookies. There is something very
Christmasy about being up to your elbows in flour
and sugar and having smudges of food coloring
smearing your fingers. The smell of baking
cookies with their flavors of almond, vanilla,
molasses, spice and chocolate, threads through
the house to mingle with the fresh pine scent
from the garlands over the windows. "This is really a Christmas
House, isn't it, GramKaty?" Trudy muses above
her cocoa mug. "Why do you think so, Childie?"
I asked with a smile. "Because you and Gramp
and Aunt Martha have fun making Christmas. And
you put it everywhere all over the house,
decorations and candles and things. And, and I
guess because you love the Baby Jesus and want to
give Him a nice birthday party." Trudy has
discovered already what makes Christmas the
wonderful time it is. I hope she always
remembers that "loving the Baby Jesus and giving
Him a nice birthday party" is the reason for
Christmas. It is so easy to forget.