Christmas Eve

A magical time for many.  Christmas Eve. The hour approaches when dreams and hopes reach for reality. One time each year when what we want might, just might be ours to have and to hold, for however long.

Usually if a dream comes true at this time of year, we hold the ‘thing’ long enough to learn it is not what we really wanted, or until it is broken or the batteries run down. Such is life!

I can remember Christmas Eves when hope ran high. Usually those were early years during childhood. I had very early times in California, where I didn’t understand about sleighs and snow, and cold. California was where cowboys and Indians prowled with rifles and six shooters! Where boulders made a good hiding place from sneak attacks. Where…oh forget it; that was then and this is now.

We next moved to New England – western Massachusetts – to be exact. Snow was the norm. Lots of it. And cold! Lord was it cold, at least to this southern California native! At least the cold and snow set a better scene for Christmas. By this time I was also old enough to understand the church-based Christmas Story. I was singing in choirs at church as well and the music, already familiar, took on a deeper significance.

As the years passed, we moved to New York for another Holiday perspective, and then to Illinois where the snow was also a common element to the season.

As adulthood grew in portent of duty the childish concepts of Christmas faded quickly. More practical matters took center stage. At first crushingly lonely, my first Christmas alone in a large and strange city (Chicago), I built a circle of friends and traveled home to where my parents and brother lived. The Holidays resumed a sort of normalcy. Soon thereafter, however, romance sprang to life, soon after marriage and then a family.

Oh how the Christmas season changed! Now it was my turn to make the season bright and magical for our kids. I don’t know who had more fun, then – them or me! The magic not only returned but it came in large doses. And grew and grew as income grew.

And now as the kids are mature and married, one with kids of her own, the holiday has crashed from magic to practical again. It no longer holds the hope and polish it once did. It does have the same theological significance, of course, but I’m lamenting the loss of the feeling of magic. That was special!

In retirement we think on other things – dwindling time lines, narrower focus of action, philosophical topics of importance, curiosities I now have time to research and better understand. There is a sort of magic in that, come to think of it. The unfolding of meaning is a much more frequent companion these days. Not a bad thing, really. In fact it is nearly a miracle. No,…it is a miracle; no nearly about it! Imagine that! And here I thought the magic was gone. Not so if you allow time to let it happen.

Have a meaningful Holiday Season whatever your religious tradition. May it be warm and safe. See you back here in a few days with a smile on my face!

December 24, 2012