Christmas

For whatever reason, this year has been a weird Christmas year for me. Even with a tree with presents and decorations, gingerbread houses decorated by family and friends, Christmas CDs and Pandora stations, and a multitude of parties to attend, I haven't felt very Christmasy.

Everything has all become a list: Go see the Christmas lights, check. Send Christmas cards, check. Get presents, check. Make goodies for the neighbors, check. (Really none of those things have yet been checked off the list, but you get the idea.)

However, this weekend a few things hit home, making me feel what I already knew: Christmas is magical and it can last all year long.

On Saturday, I helped decorate my cousin's tree with her little ones. I was helping the youngest (she's 2) put on an ornament. While she didn't really do a whole lot with that first one, we got it on and she looked at it and jumped up and down: "I did it!" This proceeded with about 20 ornaments. The same reaction after each one. I then gave her one of those cinnamon applesauce ornaments shaped like a star. I had her smell it, and she said: "mmmm, it smells like a star." As I held the ornaments for her and watched her hang them, I was just so touched by the wonder a shiny bauble provided to this little girl. The magic of Christmas from a little child.

And a little child is what really brought the magic of Christmas over 2000 years ago. We focus so much on the magic of Christ's birth. Christmas songs talk about the town, the shepherds, the angels, the evening itself. And yet the magic of Christmas isn't the one night. It is the night that began the life of the greatest gift in the history of the world. And as someone pointed out today, there is really only one Christmas hymn that shares the promise Christmas brings to everyone all year long:

He came down to earth from heaven,
Who is God and Lord of all,
And his shelter was a stable,
And his cradle was a stall;
With the poor, and mean, and lowly,
Lived on earth our Savior holy.

And our eyes at last shall see him,
Through his own redeeming love;
For that child so dear and gentle
Is our Lord in heav’n above,
And he leads his children on
To the place where he is gone.

"Once in Royal David's City" Hymn # 205

So, while this Christmas has yet been a little unChristmasy, I have changed my perspective a bit. I don't think I've been a grinch, but on some small level, President Uchtdorf's words do apply to me (and perhaps to all).

"If we look for what is wrong with the Christmas season, we can surely find it. Like the Grinch, we can grumble and complain, becoming cold and cynical about what we see around us. Nevertheless, if we look for the good, we can see this time of year with new eyes-perhaps even with the eyes of a child. The Grinch saw the good in Christmas when he learned to look past its worldly trappings. If we do the same, we can, with the Grinch, proclaim: "Maybe Christmas . . . doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!" Our heart may not grow three sizes as the Grinch's did, but our heart will change. Our eyes will open to the miracles all around us-at Christmastime and throughout the year."

- President Uchtdorf

* In case you are interested in the full talk. It is lovely. *