Tidings of joy and peace
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The month of December marks celebration, merriment, comfort and joy, for it is the month of Christmas. And with Christmas comes the time for good things that have, over the years, lost their sheen and faded with familiarity.
The air turns nippy. The days are short. The nights are long. The end of the year is near. Holidays begin. Homes get a makeover. Tailors work overtime to roll out the piled-up orders. Children wait in sweet anticipation. Courting couples look for extra romance. Families plan vacations. Friends meet. Gifts are exchanged. Cakes and puddings are whipped up with love and festive fervour.
The month of December marks celebration, merriment, comfort and joy, for it is the month of Christmas. And with Christmas comes the time for good things that have, over the years, lost their sheen and faded with familiarity.
In the years gone by, Christmas was the time when a touch of goodwill, extra bonhomie and an overload of simple joy abounded. Spreading cheer was the priority. With benevolence in the air, brotherly kindness and universal harmony took significance.
The first Christmas is said to have occurred two millennia ago, in the hilly town of Bethlehem, when the Son of God took human form and was born in a rundown stable. Since then, people of all nations have come together every year to commemorate this great mystery in faith and goodwill. And yet, through the ages, the focus has gradually shifted from the intrinsic message of the season to its external manifestations.
The sublime message of Christmas has become one of mere merrymaking. Time and again, the question arises: can Christmas transcend the material goodness associated with the festivities to the realm of its true spirit, which is honouring the birth of a messiah and savior? Can the magic of the Christmas of yore return to spread the true Christmas spirit far and wide?
Effie and her dream
It is two days to Christmas. “I’m so tired of Christmas. I wish there never would be another one,” lamented Effie, the rich little girl who had everything to make her happy and had known but 10 Christmas days. She was lamenting because she had grown tired of all the Christmas goodies she got every year.
Cynical and apathetic towards the presents that were being heaped into her stockings and the delicious treats that were being fed to her, she was unenthusiastic about the splendour of the season. That night, she had a fascinating dream that she would never forget.
In the dream, Effie meets a rosy creature wrapped in white fur, with a wreath of green and scarlet holly on its shinning tresses, a magic candle held in one hand and the other outstretched in a friendly gesture. From this intriguing stranger, with a smile like sunshine, Effie learns the true spirit and message of Christmas.
“I live with my mates in the Christmas world. Here, we work tirelessly all the year long, in anticipation of the happy day,” says the Christmas Spirit and takes Effie on a whirlwind jaunt to many places, including the shabbiest nooks chocked in poverty and sadness, sans any signs of merriment.
As they pass by, the Christmas Spirit works wonders in these rundown places. It slips money into empty pockets, sending happy mothers to buy some comforts for the festive season.
In a charming fashion, it leads drunken men out of bars and sends them home to find safer pleasures. It rekindles fires on cold hearths, spreads tables as if by magic and wraps warm clothes around shivering limbs. Colourful flowers bloom afresh in the chambers of the sick; old people find themselves remembered; sad hearts are consoled by tender words and the wicked ones are softened by the story of the Lord who was born on the first Noel.
As the dream comes to its happy end, gripping her in fascination at the profoundness of its message, Effie is reminded that if she tried, she too could work lovely miracles, just as the Christmas Spirit did, and spread joy and cheer to the despondent and the depressed.
So Effie, along with her mother, discerns a new and meaningful way of celebrating Christmas. Soon, they carry gifts for many orphaned children, sharing their joy and brightening up the uneventful Christmas of the poor with the surprise Christmas goodies.
The wonder of Christmas
This delightful story, from the novel Christmas Dream And How It Came To Be True by renowned American author Louisa May Alcott, highlights the real Christmas spirit which is none other than the spreading of cheer and goodwill. “Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy,” were the enchanting words of the angels who brought the good news of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds warming themselves around a bon-fire on that cold night.
Even as an angelic choir was heard trumpeting the song, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to all in whom he delights, the stars that lit up the gloomy town of Bethlehem were a sight to behold. Hence, the Christmas star is symbolic of the birth of the Christ and of spreading cheer.
Just as the light from the shimmering star in Bethlehem dispelled the dark that Christmas night, the spirit of the festival comes to drive away sadness and fill the earth with everlasting mirth.
Not just a holiday
Calvin Coolidge, one of the renowned presidents of the United States of America noted, “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
Amidst all the glitter and glamour of the festivities, the real spirit of Christmas is thus love, generosity and goodness. As author and evangelist Billy Graham rightly put it, “Christmas is not just a date on the calendar. It is not just an annual holiday. It is not a day to glorify selfishness and materialism. Christmas is the celebration of the event that set Heaven to singing, an event that gave the stars of the night sky a new brilliance. Christmas tells us that at a specific time and at a specific place, a specific person was born. That person was the Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Christmas, like other religious festivals and happy occasions, is a reminder that joy prevails over sadness; birth triumphs over death; peace wins and friendships last. And what’s more, this happy feeling can linger after Christmas through the rest of the year when the real spirit of Christmas can be suffused with its external allures and joy!
The month of December marks celebration, merriment, comfort and joy, for it is the month of Christmas. And with Christmas comes the time for good things that have, over the years, lost their sheen and faded with familiarity.
In the years gone by, Christmas was the time when a touch of goodwill, extra bonhomie and an overload of simple joy abounded. Spreading cheer was the priority. With benevolence in the air, brotherly kindness and universal harmony took significance.
The first Christmas is said to have occurred two millennia ago, in the hilly town of Bethlehem, when the Son of God took human form and was born in a rundown stable. Since then, people of all nations have come together every year to commemorate this great mystery in faith and goodwill. And yet, through the ages, the focus has gradually shifted from the intrinsic message of the season to its external manifestations.
The sublime message of Christmas has become one of mere merrymaking. Time and again, the question arises: can Christmas transcend the material goodness associated with the festivities to the realm of its true spirit, which is honouring the birth of a messiah and savior? Can the magic of the Christmas of yore return to spread the true Christmas spirit far and wide?
Effie and her dream
It is two days to Christmas. “I’m so tired of Christmas. I wish there never would be another one,” lamented Effie, the rich little girl who had everything to make her happy and had known but 10 Christmas days. She was lamenting because she had grown tired of all the Christmas goodies she got every year.
Cynical and apathetic towards the presents that were being heaped into her stockings and the delicious treats that were being fed to her, she was unenthusiastic about the splendour of the season. That night, she had a fascinating dream that she would never forget.
In the dream, Effie meets a rosy creature wrapped in white fur, with a wreath of green and scarlet holly on its shinning tresses, a magic candle held in one hand and the other outstretched in a friendly gesture. From this intriguing stranger, with a smile like sunshine, Effie learns the true spirit and message of Christmas.
“I live with my mates in the Christmas world. Here, we work tirelessly all the year long, in anticipation of the happy day,” says the Christmas Spirit and takes Effie on a whirlwind jaunt to many places, including the shabbiest nooks chocked in poverty and sadness, sans any signs of merriment.
As they pass by, the Christmas Spirit works wonders in these rundown places. It slips money into empty pockets, sending happy mothers to buy some comforts for the festive season.
In a charming fashion, it leads drunken men out of bars and sends them home to find safer pleasures. It rekindles fires on cold hearths, spreads tables as if by magic and wraps warm clothes around shivering limbs. Colourful flowers bloom afresh in the chambers of the sick; old people find themselves remembered; sad hearts are consoled by tender words and the wicked ones are softened by the story of the Lord who was born on the first Noel.
As the dream comes to its happy end, gripping her in fascination at the profoundness of its message, Effie is reminded that if she tried, she too could work lovely miracles, just as the Christmas Spirit did, and spread joy and cheer to the despondent and the depressed.
So Effie, along with her mother, discerns a new and meaningful way of celebrating Christmas. Soon, they carry gifts for many orphaned children, sharing their joy and brightening up the uneventful Christmas of the poor with the surprise Christmas goodies.
The wonder of Christmas
This delightful story, from the novel Christmas Dream And How It Came To Be True by renowned American author Louisa May Alcott, highlights the real Christmas spirit which is none other than the spreading of cheer and goodwill. “Behold, I bring you tidings of great joy,” were the enchanting words of the angels who brought the good news of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds warming themselves around a bon-fire on that cold night.
Even as an angelic choir was heard trumpeting the song, Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace to all in whom he delights, the stars that lit up the gloomy town of Bethlehem were a sight to behold. Hence, the Christmas star is symbolic of the birth of the Christ and of spreading cheer.
Just as the light from the shimmering star in Bethlehem dispelled the dark that Christmas night, the spirit of the festival comes to drive away sadness and fill the earth with everlasting mirth.
Not just a holiday
Calvin Coolidge, one of the renowned presidents of the United States of America noted, “Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas.”
Amidst all the glitter and glamour of the festivities, the real spirit of Christmas is thus love, generosity and goodness. As author and evangelist Billy Graham rightly put it, “Christmas is not just a date on the calendar. It is not just an annual holiday. It is not a day to glorify selfishness and materialism. Christmas is the celebration of the event that set Heaven to singing, an event that gave the stars of the night sky a new brilliance. Christmas tells us that at a specific time and at a specific place, a specific person was born. That person was the Lord, Jesus Christ.”
Christmas, like other religious festivals and happy occasions, is a reminder that joy prevails over sadness; birth triumphs over death; peace wins and friendships last. And what’s more, this happy feeling can linger after Christmas through the rest of the year when the real spirit of Christmas can be suffused with its external allures and joy!