For the last several holiday seasons I’ve struggled to find
that magical Christmas Spirit I once felt as a child. The decorations have
seemed a little too gaudy and there’s so much pressure to have the cutest, most
overdone tree/yard display. The early Christmas ads online have become so
annoying with proclamations that the only way your family can have a merry
Christmas is with the latest and greatest product.
Mostly, my longing for rekindling the Christmas Spirit has
come from the craziness that evolved within the walls of my
own home. No matter how early I try to prepare, the holiday season is always
CRAZY-busy and more than often not, the well-meaning activities and parties add
more stress than joy for me. Add to that three kiddos looking forward to
Santa’s visit with excitement and make the days leading up to Christmas almost
unbearable on my sanity when they ask for the thousandth time “Is it Christmas
yet?”
This is not a post about giving up the parties and
protesting the giving of neighbor gifts. This is about my AH-HA moment I
had while attending a “ladies night out” celebration at a local store in early
October.
The air had just turned crisp and I was excited that
Halloween would soon be coming. Halloween has always been my favorite holiday.
I know some people feel it’s too scary and gruesome, but I don’t view it that
way at all. I never realized why I loved Halloween so much until I had this
epiphany.
I walked into the store and wandered around, and even though
the entire store was on sale, I didn’t really seeing anything that I “had to have”.
Eventually I found myself standing in front of a small display of wooden
Christmas ornaments. I love anything that depicts the Nativity and I picked an
ornament off the shelf that spoke to me that night.
Silly how a simple act can have such a profound effect on
one’s spirit. As I walked back to my
car, the ornament in hand, I had tears in my eyes. There, in that parking lot
at the beginning of October, I felt the strongest feeling of the Christmas
Spirit I had felt in a long time.
The reason I had been struggling to feel the magic of the
Christmas season was because I had not taken time for myself to rekindle it. Of
course, I love reading the story of the Nativity in the Bible and singing the
Christmas Hymns each year. Those always warmed my heart and sparked the Spirit
of Christmas inside me. But relying on those things alone would not keep that
spirit with me and turn it into the inferno I sought after.
Holding that ornament in my hand, I realized I needed to
take the time to get to know my Savior again on a personal level. After all, it
is His birth we celebrate. And not just His birth, but His life. Not just sent
to earth to be born, but sent to save all mankind through His teachings,
example, atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection.
And even though I knew all of this on a surface level, I had
been neglecting to know it on a personal level. In order to celebrate Him
properly, I need to know Him.
At the very essence of the Christmas Spirit is something our
Savior taught: Love One Another. Love for our fellow men and love for those
close around us. For some, showing that love means giving gifts, giving
service, or giving monetary donations. It’s why I believe it’s so easy for kids
to feel that magic at Christmastime. Their tender spirits are tuned into the
love they feel in their families and in the community that is shared so
abundantly during this time of year.
Which goes back to why Halloween is one of my favorite
holidays. After being filled with these feelings, I looked at Halloween a
little differently this year. Halloween is a time when our community comes
together to do something for others, even if it’s just handing out one piece
of candy. That feeling of giving bleeds into November as we reflect on our blessings
and what we have to be grateful for. And as all our blessings can be traced
back to our Heavenly Father, it’s the perfect way to turn our hearts to the
greatest blessing we could ever ask for: a tiny baby who would grow up to save
us all from sin and allow us to return to live with Him and our loved ones
again.
I am not against getting swept up in holiday parties, baking
treats, or exchanging presents. What I need to do for myself, as to not get
caught up in my to-do list during the Holidays, is to take time for myself to
get to know my Savior personally. I can do this by meditating, reflecting on
blessings, and reading His words. This needs to be a deliberate thing, not just
something I do “when I have time” or only on Sunday as I sing the Christmas
hymns.
I’d had this inkling in my spirit to act on my feelings and
it all came together a few weeks ago. I serve as a Young Women leader in my
ward. At the end of October, the group
of women whom I serve with got together to discuss an idea one of the other
leaders had. She suggested that starting November 5th we challenge
all of the girls in our group to read ten pages of The Book of Mormon daily.
Doing this would mean we’d start the book on November 5th and finish
on Christmas Eve. As we read, we will highlight anytime Christ is mentioned. At
the end of reading, we will get together to share our favorite scriptures and
testimonies of how our relationship with our Savior has grown. How fitting this
suggestion was as it is exactly what I need.
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