Christmas cycles

I am not thinking of those kinds of cycles ...

One of my nieces recently remarked that she didn't agree with people who say Christmas is just for children. It got me thinking about my own feelings about Christmas. I suppose in my life, Christmas has meant different things at different times.

There was that early period when Santa Claus was real and Christmas was magical, a time of year when things that did not happen the rest of the year just happened and kept happening. There were presents and lights and candy and songs. It was great and the fact that "Christmas Comes but Once a Year" made it all the better. (I remember that cartoon very well. It always made me a little sad, to be honest.)

Once I got into school, which I enjoyed tremendously, Christmas brought the added joy of an extended break. So even though I liked school, I also liked the time off to enjoy all the stuff that Christmas brought along with it -- the trips to Houston to see Santa and to look at all the lavishly decorated picture windows in the stores and to drive around town at night and look at everyone's Christmas trees.

Even learning that there is no Santa Claus (not even sure when that happened) didn't remove all the goodness, but it did make a difference. The presents that appeared under the tree no longer had quite the magical touch to them when I knew that my parents (lovely, generous people) did in fact get them from Sears or Montgomery Ward. Because I was growing up, the presents objectively got better, but the sparkle was not the same. The special nature of Christmas became more about the time off from school, a sort of mid-year break, a mini-summer vacation without the swimming. Summer also came once a year, and it lasted longer. And my birthday also brought presents my family bought for me. It's all good, but things had changed a bit.

The next change I am aware of came my first year at Michigan State. Christmas was wonderful because I got to go home to Texas, spend time with my closest friends and family and be the college-guy. Best of all, that was the first year that I experienced Christmas more from the perspective of gift-giving than  just receiving. I suppose I had given gifts before, but my memories of that Christmas season, shopping for lots of people and trying to find the perfect affordable item for each one, paid for with money I had earned -- that made it special. I suspect that this aspect of Christmas-for-grown-ups (especially for parents) is one reason my niece says it is not just for children.

Then there were the thirty years in the monastery, where Christmas had its major focus on the religious aspects and lots of traditions that were unique to that life. It was quite different from the Christmas of my childhood, and although there were gifts, those took on much less significance. After ordination, Christmas often became a major workday -- celebrating several Masses, hearing lots of confessions and then finally collapsing in the recreation room with the community at the end of the day for a drink while exchanging token gifts before dinner. In those days, the day after Christmas was our real holiday -- a relaxed prayer schedule and no extra work!

Now Christmas feels very low key. I enjoy the things Tom and I do to try to make it different each year when the family shows up. But I also find it a lot of work, and when we have the place to ourselves and the cats like this year, that is very good, too. I have more appreciation of the "Silent Night" aspect to things and appreciate not having to get caught up in the many stresses associated with what the season has become for us as a society.

So cycles -- magic, sparkle, presents received and given, friends and family to visit or to miss, hustle and bustle and finally silence and peace.

No big message here, even though this did go on longer than I had intended! Just thinking. Always a dangerous thing for me to do when sitting before a keyboard.

Stop me before I think again!

And may this holiday season be a good turn in the cycle for you!