The magic and wonder of Christmas time seems surreal at times as if one has stepped out of reality and into a world that exist for only a few glorious days. The house is perfectly clean and wonderfully decorated in full Christmas splendor. The shopping malls and neighborhoods are winter wonderlands. Joyful melodies float across the radio waves and fragrant winter scents of apple cinnamon and ever green trees tantalize the senses. Even more, people’s hearts are filled with merriment and the joy of giving. Bright colored packages are exchanged and time stops for just a moment on Christmas day giving the illusion that all concerns of life are suspended and nothing matters except this wondrous atmosphere of Christmas.
Some may think that all of this is merely an illusion life grants us for a short period of reprieve each year. However, what if instead of seeing it as an escape from reality, we see it as the first time we really stop to taste reality each year? What if all this creative wonder and spirit of joy is not an illusion, but a taste of something we ought to be enjoying all year. What if our lives are consumed with an illusion of reality, and Christmas is the time where we allow ourselves to stop and smell the roses?
All good things on earth are a shadow of the reality of heaven. When we live from a place of wonder and merriment, we are experiencing a greater reality than when we live as if it were something only belonging to childhood. The wonder of Christmas ought not to be relegated to childhood experiences, but should continue not only into adult Christmas experiences, but into everyday life.
Christmas literally means “Christ Gathering”, and that is not something that ought to only be experienced on one special day of the year, but all year through. We are attracted to the magic of Christmas that legends and myths are born from, because it is more real than our life the rest of the year, not because it is less real. We all identify with the little girl in Miracle on 34th street as she learns to stop being analytical about Christmas and participates in the wonder of believing in Santa Clause.
It isn’t that Santa Clause is real, but that the believing in someone who is good, merry, joyful, and full of love and kindness for humanity is a desirable thing. Santa Clause is a mythologized St. Nicholas who was a devout Christian who is known for his sacrificial gift giving. He was a picture, a representation, of the Christ he served, as is the Santa myth birthed from his legacy.
The world is magical because the world is more than materialism. It is more than the physical nature we see. Christmas helps us remember this. However, it should not only be a remembrance for us, but something we take hold of and live with all year through. Christmas is wonderful because reality is wonderful; if we are not seeing the wonder, we are not seeing what really is true.
When we take down the tree and pack up the Christmas decorations, let us not box up the wonder, joy, merriment, and spirit of giving along with it. Let us live in a place of magical enjoyment of life each and every day of the year.