Christmas Wisdom Continued
Let's start down the Christmas trail (again compliments of www.QuoteGarden.com - formatting omitted) with a tradition from Betsy Cañas Garmon's family. She sits with her husband in a room lit only by tree lights and wants us to remember that our blessings outnumber the lights. Happy Christmas to all. Thomas Tusser also has advice for the season. At Christmas play and make good cheer, for Christmas comes but once a year. Lenora Mattingly Weber is here as well to focus our perspective. Christmas is for children. But it is for grown-ups too. Even if it is a headache, a chore, and nightmare, it is a period of necessary defrosting of chill and hide-bound hearts. Sing hey! Sing hey! For Christmas Day; Twine mistletoe and holly. For a friendship glows In winter snows, And so let's all be jolly! No one is quite sure who first said it but there's little doubt that we can all give it a hey! hey! of our own. Gertrude Tooley Buckingham is joining in, Christmas is coming; it is almost here! With Santa and presents, good will and cheer! Now that may be even better than one of those Hey! heys! In steps the realist to keep us from getting too carried away. Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money. It's not surprising that no one takes credit for that one. Fortunately, May Sarton is here to keep us on the Christmas rails, I can understand people simply fleeing the mountainous effort Christmas has become but there are always a few saving graces and finally they make up for all the bother and distress. Dinah Maria Mulock is also here for us and for are sense of good will, It is the Christmas time: And up and down 'twixt heaven and earth, In glorious grief and solemn mirth, The shining angels climb. Fail not to call to mind, in the course of the twenty-fifth of this month, that the Divinest Heart that ever walked the earth was born on that day; and then smile and enjoy yourselves for the rest of it; for mirth is also of Heaven's making. Thank you Leigh Hunt, that certainly brings the full spirit of Christmas into focus for us. John Kendrick Bangs sharpens our focus as well, Whose heart doth hold the Christmas glow Hath little need of Mistletoe; Who bears a smiling grace of mien Need waste no time on wreaths of green; Whose lips have words of comfort spread Needs not the holly-berries red. His very presence scatters wide The spirit of the Christmastide. You may think it was Charlie Brown who said, The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect! but it was actually Charles N Barnard. Even so, it's so true. Let's give Edgar Guest a chance to get in his two cents worth, At Christmas a man is at his finest towards the finish of the year; He is almost what he should be when the Christmas season's here; Then he's thinking more of others than he's thought the months before, And the laughter of his children is a joy worth toiling for. He is less a selfish creature than at any other time; When the Christmas spirit rules him he comes close to the sublime. Woops, that pesky author unknown is butting in again with another dose of reality, Christmas is the season when you buy this year's gifts with next year's money. Eric Sevareid puts us back on track though, As long as we know in our hearts what Christmas ought to be, Christmas is. Bob Hope expands on the point, When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things — not the great occasions — give off the greatest glow of happiness. D D Monroe is also on board with the sentiment, It is the one season of the year when we can lay aside all gnawing worry, indulge in sentiment without censure, assume the carefree faith of childhood, and just plain "have fun." Whether they call it Yuletide, Noel, Weinachten, or Christmas, people around the earth thirst for its refreshment as the desert traveller for the oasis. Okay Benny Hill, go ahead, we know you are itching to remind the rest of us, Roses are reddish,