Commentary
Ah, yes … it’s Christmas … few of us know that Christmas was declared a federal holiday on June 26, 1870 … we decorate Christmas trees, real and faux, and are told that each year 25 to 30 million real Christmas trees are sold in the United States alone … we hang a wreath on the door and select that perfect Poinsettia plant to impress visitors … some of us hang stockings by the fire … we catch ourselves humming a carol … and we drop a buck or two in the Salvation Army bucket as we frantically shop for gifts … special thanks to Amazon …
… We send greeting cards to family and friends – our only contact with some of them all year include photos to remind them what we look like … we hope for snow in some parts of the country … we are reminded of the 12 days of Christmas – those my true love gave to me … twelve drummers drumming, eleven pipers piping, ten lords a-leaping, nine ladies dancing, eight maids a milking, seven swans a-swimming, six geese a-laying, five golden rings, four calling birds, three French hens, two turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree …
… There’s Santa Claus, of course, and his reindeer – Blitzen, Comet, Dasher, Prancer, Vixen, Donner, Dancer, and the most famous reindeer of all, Rudolph, all memorialized in song by Gene Autry … and what’s Christmas without Bing Crosby singing White Christmas? … eggnog and other drinks are served at those party gatherings with friends and those big family dinners when believers partake of fruit cake and talk of politics occasionally slips into conversations …
… television networks do their reviews of the passing year and they replay movies with Christmas themes … “White Christmas,” of course … Frank Capra’s 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in which Jimmy Stewart starred as George Bailey … Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” will be shown too … and Hallmark will again try to capture the Christmas spirit with predictable love story outcomes …
… and there’s NFL football nearly all day long … it wouldn’t be Christmas without it, right? … there’s the game between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles, the San Francisco 49ers and the Baltimore Ravens, and the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Las Vegas Raiders.
… it seems as though I’m forgetting something … oh, yes … it’s the day we celebrate the birth of Jesus.
Those of you who are regular readers will recognize my closing line that I sometimes alter, like today.
May God continue to bless the United States of America despite those who understandably get lost in the true meaning of Christmas along the way.
