In the Charles Dickens classic tale, “A Christmas Carol,” Ebenezer Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, calls Christmas “ … a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.”
The story was written 166 years ago, but those words ring true even today: Don’t we all feel a little kinder, a little more open-hearted at this time of year? How could we not, with carols ringing out peace on Earth, good will toward men, and communities coming together in celebration with pageants, tree-lightings, holiday lunches, and more? Indeed, American novelist Edna Ferber said of the holiday, “Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.” And American author Washington Irving called Christmas “ … the season of regenerated feeling—the season for kindling, not merely the fire of hospitality in the hall, but the genial flame of charity in the heart.”
As a feeling, it begs the ageless, unanswerable question, “Why can’t we keep the feeling all year long?” Season or feeling, as it comes around again, we have yet another chance to make the pledge that Scrooge took after his Christmas Eve of ghostly visitations: “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”
Maybe this will be the year that the feeling of the season will remain with us even when the dark days of winter brighten into spring.