Christmas Spirit?
Christmas Spirit?
I drive my husband crazy with my love for Christmas movies. I can watch them whether it is 95 degrees or twenty with a few inches of snow. The ones on the Hallmark channel annoy him the most and I think it's so funny. So, when they announce that the season for Christmas movies is starting at the end of October, I get a warm and fuzzy inside. I had been enjoying them for weeks when I realized they were not getting me into the Christmas spirit. At least, not the Christmas spirit as the world would think, I wasn’t inspired to make a Christmas list or even think about shopping for anyone else.
We have a Thanksgiving tradition that goes like this, the day after, whomever stayed overnight has to help bring up the Christmas trees and decorations. The biggest tree gets erected, and I would begin to decorate the fireplace while everyone headed into the streets to shop or do whatever. This year was no different, the tree went up and I just stared at it like, I am not in the mood. Maybe another day. Well, other days turned into a week later the bins were still stacked high and I was walking past everything like it was going to magically decorate itself. I turned to a Christmas movie for inspiration and realized that I was watching out of habit. I felt no Christmas spirit, my soul was dry, a little too much heartache to feel “the spirit”.
All the things that signified Christmas could not take place this year. Suddenly, I realized how much I missed our annual trip to Tobyhanna, where we would do our Christmas shopping and definitely catch our first bit of snow. In this unusual year of 2020, I realized just how irrelevant those rituals and traditions were for me in this season.
The earthly rituals were superficial but, demonstrating the love of Christ is a daily walk not a seasonal experience. I realized, I had the Christmas spirit even if I never decorated the tree.
The Christmas spirit is demonstrating the love of Christ as my daily assignment and that is so much bigger than just being jolly for the month of December. In that moment, I felt my joy return and my spirit filled.
Eventually, we decorated the tree. Yes, I said we, for the first time my husband helped and when we were done, we even had an official tree lighting. This year I skipped helping with decorating the outside of the house and let Chevy Chase Jr. do his thing. I took the time to not just bake Christmas cookies for others but create a new one that I am so in love with.I decided to enjoy every moment of the season. I am grateful that I know Jesus for myself and the joy of the Lord is always with me.
Merry CHRISTmas
