Holiday Spirit

It’s difficult to get into the holiday spirit this year. Christmas isn’t just gifts for me. It’s the peace and the love, too. My verse, Baby Jesus Small and Sweet, is selling surprisingly well. It’s simple, like the Drummer Boy.

I have a friend who will put up outside lights for me tomorrow morning. That will allow me to enjoy them for at least 3 weeks. But the true spirit never comes for me until I set up a Nativity Scene in the house (or apartment, in former years).

Sometimes it’s the larger one from my childhood. This year it will be a mini-scene. The point is the Nativity - if it isn’t visible to me, the season is lost on me. I’ll put it up, on a tablecloth covered stack of cartons, in the living room. Small, but visible. Amid the clutter but distinct and set off. Just enough to help me focus during this frantic, crazy time of year, focus on what is important - the heart and soul of the season.

I remember a tradition we had when I was growing up. My Baba, my dad’s Slavic mother, used to set the wise men way back, away from the manger, when they put the Nativity up. Each night, the children took turns moving the Wise Men closer to the Babe on their journey. Of course, by Christmas Eve, they had reached the King of Kings. It was a nice tradition.

I feel better already, just thinking about the Nativity.

Father, I need your help to keep to my promise to set up the Nativity tomorrow so that I may not let the material side of the holiday cloud the true spirit of your Son.