Honouring Christmas in Your Heart - And all the Year Through

For many of us Christmas will end on Twelfth Night, January 6th and we will put away our decorations until December. Christmas will be over and long forgotten before we even reach Valentine’s Day – for some this may already be the case. But what if we were to try and keep the spirit of Christmas all through the year.

At Christmas time my family and I have a tradition that we either read or watch the DVD of A Christmas Carol. I must admit I particularly like the musical version starring Albert Finney but I do also try to read the book too.

As you will know, A Christmas Carol tells the story of the nefarious creature Ebenezer Scrooge, a despicable old miser who thought only of wealth and had little time for the poor and less fortunate around him. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by the ghost of his old business partner Jacob Marley who has come to warn him to change his ways. After being visited by three further ghosts, he learns this error of his ways and vows to honour Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all year through.

So what is the spirit of Christmas?

An unknown author wrote...

I am the Christmas Spirit!
I enter the home of poverty, causing pale-faced children to open their eyes wide, in pleased wonder.
I cause the miser's clutched hand to relax, and thus paint a bright spot on his soul.
I cause the aged to renew their youth and to laugh in the old, glad way.
I keep romance alive in the heart of childhood, and brighten sleep with dreams woven of magic.
I cause eager feet to climb dark stairways with filled baskets, leaving behind hearts amazed at the goodness of the world.
I cause the prodigal to pause a moment on his wild, wasteful way, and send to anxious love some little token that releases glad tears -- tears which wash away the hard lines of sorrow.
I enter dark prison cells, reminding scarred manhood of what might have been, and pointing forward to good days yet to be.
I come softly into the still, white home of pain, and lips that are too weak to speak just tremble in silent, eloquent gratitude.
In a thousand ways I cause the weary world to look up into the face of God, and for a little moment forget the things that are small and wretched.
I am the Christmas Spirit.

President Thomas S. Monson, of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said “The true spirit of Christmas is never found in a surfeit of things. It is less obvious in arrival and more lasting in impact.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Rings and jewels are not gifts but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself”.

So how can we keep the spirit of Christmas all the year? We can follow the example of he whose birth we celebrated and give of ourselves, our time, and our talents and share them with those less fortunate than ourselves. Returning to the story of a Christmas Carol, we like Scrooge can learn much from Marley and his mistakes.

“Why did I walk through crowds of fellow-beings with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed Star which led the Wise Men to a poor abode? Were there no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me!''

How often are we guilty of this, we are so caught up in our own busy lives that we fail to see the opportunities to help others even when they are right before our eyes. Just like in the story, mankind should be our business – but how often do we attend to it.

I received a lovely book this Christmas entitled The Three Gifts, by Patricia Cook Orr. In it she tells the story of the three Wise Men that brought the gifts of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh and what happened to those gifts later in Jesus’ life. It is quite a compelling tale that captures the imagination and shows that even those these gifts were very costly, the gifts that are offered by him are infinitely more precious and are given freely today and forever to anyone who would believe. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ and at the start of a New Year we make resolutions to be better people, to emulate his example, but how soon do we forget these resolutions?

Will We Forget? - Michael Mclean.

A heart that’s been closed may be opening tonight.
A soul that’s been lost might believe it’s been found.
But six months from now on a warm summer night
Will we pause to remember, this night in December?
When we promised ourselves we’d keep that spirit all year round.
Will we forget the promise we resolutely made?
Will we forget to thank the Lord for all the gifts he gave?
We’ll say its human nature but something seems amiss
When there is just one time of year reserved for nights like this.


And six months from now on a warm summer night
Will any part of us remember, this night in December?
When we promised ourselves we’d keep this spirit all year round.
Will we forget these feelings, will we forget to sing
Will we forget the Christ-child came to give us everything?
We’ll have a hundred reasons why we have set a-side
These memories of this season when his spirit touched our lives.
But he who came to save us for all eternity
Has not forgotten those who need his mercy to be free
And oh, that number’s greater than the sands upon the sea
There is no time of year that he’s forgotten you or me.
He has not forgotten us, on any lonely night
And he has not forgotten, that our joy requires his light
He has not forgotten those, who are homeless as was he
And he has not forgotten you, he’s not forgotten me.

I hope that each of us can find a way to keep the spirit of Christmas all year round. In July and August when the TV commercials come round and start advertising Christmas, don’t roll your eyes and groan, but use it as check up on your resolve to keep the spirit of Christmas all year round -  just like Scrooge.

“Scrooge was better than his word.  He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a second father.  He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.  Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms.  His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him.

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.  May that be truly said of us, and all of us!  And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”