Christmastime is Here

Well it is getting to be about that time of year. A time when one's thoughts to turn to things like candy canes and sugar plums and such. At least it used to. This year I have been repeatedly visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past and hassled by the Ghost of Christmas Present.
During my formatve years Christmas was always a time of magic. It was one of the few shining points in a somewhat drab and often emotionally painful existence. There was alway copious quantities of good food (this is how I learned how to cook). There was always the monsterous Christmas Tree surrounded by sea of gifts.
But it was more than just physical stuff, so much more. There was the walk to midnight mass, usually in ridiculously could weather. As a child midnight mass was a wonderous thing. The Catholics did it up right with all the smells and bells anyone could ask for. The combination of sleep deprivation, Christmas carols, and incence made the experience just magical. I remember stretching my neck to see the prosession carrying the Baby Jesus up to be placed ever so delicatly in the manger. During the very cold walk home I could just invision Joseph and Mary trudging through the cold looking for a place to rest.
There was the after dinner conversation that would go on for hours, in which I was allowed to participate in, even as a small child. I was treated the same as the adults in family, my opinion mattered and I was listened to. This of course is probably the reason I talk so much today, but perhaps that his fodder for another post.
I guess what I am getting at is that it was all so much simpler then. Now I think about Christmas I think about the pain and suffering that other are going through this time of year. I wonder if I am offending people by offering them Christmas Greetings. I get angry when I see just how commercial it all has become, often with Christmas decorations going up and "Holiday" Sales starting even before Halloween. I struggle with the selfishness in my own heart. Wanting to recieve and give "good" gifts, and trying to balance that with giving money to things like Asia's Hope, and the Salvation Army. I was walking through Best Buy the other day waiting for my wife to finish up some shopping at the fabric store. And while I was walking I caught myself thinking, "I can offord that", or "it would only take a little bit of time for me to pay that off." Then out of nowhere I started thinking about Moum Rotanak.
Rotanak and his three siblings live the Asia's Hope orphanage in Phnom Penh. He is 8 years old this year, and he has probably never even seen a 32" flat screen television, let alone thought about buying one for himself. I thought what would that kind of money buy him, new clothes for the rest of his life, a college education, food enough to not be hungry for a long long time. AAAAAHHHHHH. I don't think that is what he will be wishing for this Christmas.

I guess when thinking about Christmas it would be best to think about the words of Linus in the Peanuts holiday classic:
¹ And it came to pass in those days that a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. ² This census first took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. ³ So all went to be registered, everyone to his own city.
⁴ Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, ⁵ to be registered with Mary, his betrothed wife,^[a] who was with child. ⁶ So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered. ⁷ And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
⁸ Now there were in the same country shepherds living out in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ And behold,^[b] an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were greatly afraid. ¹⁰ Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. ¹¹ For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. ¹² And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger.”
¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying:
¹⁴ “ Glory to God in the highest,
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!”