Finding your Christmas spirit

The Christmas season is here again. How's your Christmas spirit? More to the point, what is it that kindles your Christmas spirit?

Music is a major factor in any Christmas season. Whether it is "Here Comes Santa Claus," "White Christmas" or "Rudolph," it begins to dominate your psyche. The music that really closes the deal includes "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," "Away in a Manger," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and, of course, the classic, "Hallelujah Chorus."

To me, the spirit of Christmas culminates each year with Christmas cantatas telling again that wonderful story of a babe lying in a manger with shepherds and wise men kneeling at his feet, of families gathering to renew the bond that was kindled in all of those Christmases past.

In all of those Christmases in my memory, there was a succession of visiting great-aunts -- Aunt Nora, Aunt Goldie, Aunt Pearl, Aunt Philomena and Aunt Lela. (Don't you just love those names from the 19th century?) All of these dear ladies are gone now, but their faces are still as crystal clear to me as they were a generation ago. Each would arrive at my grandmother's house with their culinary specialties, trays full of divinity, fudge, brownies and, my favorite of favorites, chocolate chip cookies. Is it any wonder that I can still smell the wonderful kitchen fragrance that filled the house each year at Christmastime? Is it any wonder I still spend several hours a week at the "Y" doing battle with the bulges created by the remnants of all those wonderful memories?

Our children, Sara, Amy and Steven, are mid-lifers now, but if I close my eyes for just a minute, I can still see them rushing to the Christmas tree on Christmas morning, so excited that their feet barely seemed to touch the floor. Amy would go from present to present, tearing paper in all directions. Sara, always the little lady, would take each bow off and carefully remove and fold the wrapping paper. Steve, the youngest, usually crawled up on his mother's lap and woke up slowly to all the excitement before heading for his presents.

All of these memories get us ready for the big day, the day we welcome friends and family to our homes as the holy family did when the shepherds arrived to "see this miraculous thing." Then we open the presents just as the holy family did 2,000 years ago with the visit of the Magi. And, most important, we focus on the blessed Christ child who is, lest we forget, the reason for the season.

So we wish for you a growing Christmas spirit that will be with you all year round, and a wonderful Christmas season growing, sustaining and sharing the Christmas spirit with your family and friends.