WHICH HOLIDAY SPIRIT WILL YOU CHOOSE?

There is so much that is good about December and its holiday atmosphere. The anticipation of Christmas morning raises the excitement level among children of all ages. And the hustle and bustle of all the preparations can leave us both exhausted and exhilarated.

For most of us, these weeks before Christmas are filled with lists and trips to stores and wrapping packages and checking the bank balance or credit-card limits. This is the time of year when the spirit of Christmas shopping descends either like a warm ray of golden sunshine or a wet snow on a frozen lake.

We would like to think that the spirit of Christmas shopping is kind and gentle, courteous and cooperative. Thank goodness there are many instances of wonderful gift-buying experiences.

But there also is a darker spirit of the season, one that makes us dread a shopping excursion that otherwise should be filled with joy and laughter.

This shadowy spirit is the one that makes motorists aggressive and mean-spirited. Perhaps you've seen them, the drivers who threaten to ram your car if you dare try to take the parking space closest to the door of the store.

And this ugly spirit is the one that makes us impatient and discourteous inside stores, elbowing other customers, throwing merchandise hither and yon, snapping at sales clerks.

And those sales clerks. What a time of year this must be for them. They have to go to work from Thanksgiving till Christmas Eve knowing that too many of the people they greet each day will be surly, obnoxious and rude.

The sour spirit of the season sometimes infects sales clerks too, which makes for a less than jolly time as everyone gathers around the cash register.

You have to wonder if it was the bright spirit -- the one that got its energy from a star in the East -- or that crabby spirit -- the same one that causes bunions on your feet and migraine headaches -- which led the Magi to a manger in Bethlehem.

Surely when those fellows went shopping for gold, frankincense and myrrh, they didn't run into any angry camel herders or obnoxious salt salesmen or pushy shoppers at the bazaar.

There's a lesson here: You can look for the good spirit of Christmas cheer.

Or you can hang around with the bad spirit of holiday meanness.

It's your choice.