MEDIUM RARE
One more day to go and it’s Christmas Eve, the pinnacle of the season’s anticipation of joy to the world!
The experience of Christmas, as universal a holy day as it is Christian by tradition and ecumenical in practice, is a personal one, like DNA. Your experience or interpretation is yours and yours alone.
Still, there are certain symbols and practices that are familiar to many of us. The poinsettia, for example, which we called the Christmas flower, was named after John Poinsett, an American minister who served in Mexico in the 19th century. The five-pointed star topping the Christmas tree is a reminder of the star that guided the Three Kings to the manger where the Baby Jesus lay. But, did you know that the first time “Silent Night” was sung as a Christmas carol in Austria, it was to take the place of the church organ which had lost its voice due to a hole in its leather bellows? How to stuff a Christmas stocking? Fill it with “something to eat, something to read, something to play with, and something they need!”
Allow me to share the words of those whose language I could never approximate. Through them, may you find resonance in your own special celebration.
Christmas is the day that holds time together. – Alexander Smith
The air broke into a mist with bells. – Robert Browning
Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself around you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart... filled it, too, with a melody that would last forever. – Bess Streeter Aldrich
What is the Christmas spirit? It is the spirit which brings a smile to the lips and tenderness to the heart; it is the spirit which warms one into friendship with all the world, which impels one to hold out the hand of fellowship to every man and woman. – Anonymous
If teacups could talk and teapots could sing,
Especially at Christmas,
They would tell us some things...
Of family and friends,
Carolers and trees,
Sharing the warmth of the season
With twelve special teas. – Sandy Lynam Clough
(Those teas refer to the 12 days of Christmas, Dec. 25 to Jan. 6.)