What is it about Christmas?

Why do we love it so? Revere it, even?

Why do we tingle when sleigh bells jingle? Why do we light up with joy when we see a tree lit up with colored bulbs? Why do we smile when Santa says, “Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh tonight?”

Why do we cringe when old Scrooge says “Bah! Humbug!”, and why do our eyes water when a new Scrooge brings a turkey to the Cratchitts? 

What makes us tune in yet again to see Kris Kringle put on a Santa suit and treat Macy’s shoppers like real people?

Why do we hold our breath when Judy Garland sings to her kid sister, Margaret O’Brien, hoping against hope that her little Christmas will be merry after all?

What is it in us that appreciates apprentice angel Clarence’s appreciation of George Bailey’s character, even when George himself can’t see it? 

Why do writers of books, movies, and songs always come back to Christmas? The Old Reliable. The fountain of innumerable waterworks. 

Is Christmas, then, the last refuge of a scoundrel? Is it just a humbug—or is there some redeeming merit in it, after all? 

Yes, Virginia

I think we love Christmas because we were made for a better life—a life we have lost sight of—and Christmas helps us see it again.

Christmas is when we commemorate God’s act of bringing love to the world, fixing up the broken toys we have made of our lives so they can work the way they were meant to. 

This was such a big thought in the days of the Roman Empire that it took over a whole continent, resonating through two thousand years, echoing still today in our music, our drama, our popular entertainments—and in our humbler gatherings around the family fireside.

We know life can be better, and it doesn’t hurt once a year to be reminded of it, in powerful ways. In ways that resonate with our culture and our past experiences. 

So by all means let’s enjoy our Tom-and-Jerrys, roast our chestnuts on an open fire, and shake our collective fingers at the Grinch. 

But let’s never forget that a better life can be ours the other 364 days as well. That however gloomy things may seem at the moment, however much Despair may seem to reign over our affairs, there is a Greater Power at work behind the scenes. 

Call it what you will. I call it God. I call it Love. And I trust it will prevail. 

There really are miracles, even on 34th Street. Someday soon we all will be together. It really is a wonderful life. 

Ponder these things today, tomorrow, and always.

And: God bless us, every one.

Merry Christmas,

Larry F. Sommers

Your New Favorite Writer