Christmas Spirit all month long

Christmas spirit all month long

 If Gray Thursday and Black Friday set the pace for the Christmas season, it’s going to be a rough ride. Some years, especially when Thanksgiving and Christmas are close together, it seems like Christmas itself gets trampled in the rush to get things done.

 The very heart of Christmas can become like a flattened Black Friday shopper out in the cold parking lot of life.

 To prevent the scurry and hurry of the season from destroying what counts, it helps to focus on the charitable center, the Bob Cratchit cheer, the ho ho ho and the Holy, Holy, Holy. Will we end up in frustration, mummified in wrapping paper and wearing a scowl? Or will we shine with inner peace and candlelight glow?

 Here is a list of 25 ways to keep Christmas in perspective and help go for the glow:

 1. Hum carols throughout the day.

 2. Bell-ringers you come across? Visit them twice: once when entering the store and again when exiting. Make sure you smile and say hello. If a bell-ringer looks cold, bring back hot cocoa.

 3. Buy an extra pair of stretchy gloves and hand them out to a gloveless person walking along the road on a very cold day.

 4. Attach jingle bells to your shoe laces or boot zippers.

 5. Put money in a pop machine and let someone have a little complimentary Christmas sparkle.

 6. Even though you don’t have time, attend a holiday concert.

 7. Fill a mug with candy canes or Christmas goodies and take it to a business office. If you can find a place with a grumpy clerk or receptionist, all the better. 

 8. Fill an old mp3 player with Christmas songs, buy an inexpensive set of earbuds or headphones and find someone who would appreciate the sounds of the season.

 9. Hang a candy cane on the handlebars of a bike parked in a public place.

 10. Shovel your neighbor’s walk. When you are done, tie a ribbon on the mailbox or lamp post.

 11. Print out free coloring pages online and carry them with you, along with a couple of red and green crayons. Next time you hear a crying child in a waiting room, ask the parents if you may give the child the pages and crayons.

 12. Purchase or make a nice, unbreakable Christmas ornament and present it in a small, shiny gift bag, to a harried store clerk.

 13. Double a tip and leave it -- with a Christmas card -- for the server at a restaurant.

 14. Send a Christmas card to an almost-forgotten friend or a teacher from years past.

 15. Tie a festive ribbon onto the zipper of your child’s backpack.

 16. If you see a struggling shopper in a grocery store parking lot, offer to help unload groceries and return the cart.

 17. Diffuse arguments wherever you find them by asking about favorite holiday dishes or movies.

 18. If you order pizza on a busy day, give the driver a candy cane with the tip.

 19. Bring a poinsettia to someone grieving at Christmas time. Make sure to visit a while before leaving.

 20. Invite someone who needs company to watch a Christmas classic with you. Pop popcorn.

Too Much Information

Too much information

    A friend’s mom left her senior living facility and moved into an apartment because of “too much information.”  She said residents conversed only on two topics:  health problems and neglectful children.

  After the third colonoscopy conversation, I can see that she might be ready to move out.

   “Too much information” has become a popular catchphrase to use when conversations become too gross, too personal or too uncomfortable.

  A friend describes ancient gallbladder surgery and goes into detail about the incision? Too much information!

 A relative gives mushy particulars about intimacy with her boyfriend? Too much information!

  Someone tweets on bodily functions? #TooMuchInformation.

  We can now listen to Justin Bieber, while watching Dr. Who, while reading Jane Austen and playing Halo IV. Why we’d want to, I don’t know. But we can.

  Recently, I tried to watch my son’s college concert online. Though I could hear the music (Handel’s Messiah) I could not get a clear picture.  A “low bandwidth” warning popped up. Too much information at once clogged and slowed the connection.

  The choir was broken into horizontal lines of constantly-moving squares. We could almost make out Michael. Was that his forehead?

  Foreheads of tenors slid left while their chins moved right. Occasionally, a clear picture emerged, but then the squares shifted again.

  Despite the information overload, words from The Messiah broke through the slow connection in clear, crisp and strong refrains.

  The libretto included information passed down through the ages: not only from Handel in 1742, but from Old Testament prophet Isaiah around 700 B.C.

  “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace.”

  Isaiah’s information was not always wanted in his time. He wrote uncomfortable words about the direction of his nation. He condemned the popular practice of idolatry. He lambasted child-killing, gross financial exploitation and widespread injustice.

  His information made people uncomfortable. Seven hundred years later the message itself was still not always wanted. Though welcomed by shepherds, by senior citizens in the temple, by wise men “traversing afar,” the good news of a savior coming to reign was sometimes greeted with the response: “Too much information!”

  King Herod tried to stamp out the message early. Other tyrants followed suit. Even church leaders had a part in snuffing out Christmas joy.

  Now, we still hear complaints about too much information.

  Really! Must we hear about Mary and Joseph and Bethlehem? Can’t we just contain Christmas to those secular themes that don’t offend anyone? Reindeer and mistletoe?

   Too many school music programs bypass words of wonder and instead opt for cheap, easily forgotten songs about how cute children’s greed is.

  City councils, schools, businesses and organizations get nervous when the message of Christmas shines out.  We want to coat Christmas in secular glitz. Insulate it. Contain it.

  The good news is too confrontational and too demanding, to be allowed free reign. Quick, smother it!

  Thing is, it won’t stay contained. It was meant to waft freely over starry skies and settle like snowflakes on a waiting world. Attempts to silence a not so silent night prove futile.

  People keep telling it on the mountain; proclaiming it with angelic hosts; singing in exultation; telling the great, glad tidings; rejoicing with heart and soul and voice. Weary souls rejoice; raise their songs on high; proclaim Messiah’s birth.

  And why not? There can never really be too much information when it comes to the good news of Christmas.