Dear Santa, Let it Ring!

December 1st. I almost feel like there should be some giant flashing sign with confetti congratulating everyone for making it this far through 2020. It has been a rough one to put it mildly. Coronavirus has touched all of our lives in some way or another. Regardless of whether you were physically ill, we have had life changing fallout from it. The world looks incredibly different since last December. Christmas is different somehow. Or is it?

December has varied responses from a lot of people, some good and some bad. Many people celebrate Christmas as the birth of our Savior. Many people celebrate a holiday where we cherish one another, and everybody is a little bit kinder to others. Still others dread the season and the financial impact it has on their lives. Many people feel alone for a variety of reasons. Depression is always worse close to Christmas, which is problematic as depression is way up this year with lockdowns and the other difficulties covid has brought us.

(Seriously, please be watchful of people around you this holiday, depression is very serious and already more widespread this year. Let us not add to a bad year by not watching after our fellow man.)

No matter where you land on Christmas, December 1st has significance this year, the end of 2020 is in sight.

Do not panic if you are not “quite” ready for Christmas, you still have plenty of time to make it into a huge, over the top commercial endeavor (full disclosure: I am a Grinch).

May I make a suggestion about this great silly season of ours?

Let’s all try just cherishing our loved ones, taking the extra time to appreciate this season of wonder, and being kinder this Christmas.

In the 40 years of my short lifetime I cannot think of a time when kindness and cherishing our fellow man might be more important. Don’t get me wrong, there have been years of war. Many people have died for questionable causes not of their own. Countries are not just fighting each other anymore, and those wars are bad enough, now countries are splitting at the seams. While America frequently takes center stage in the giant circus of life for attention, we are not the only country fracturing.

I follow world news, more than a lot of people do, because people are interesting to me. Countries across the globe are experiencing the same divides and infighting that we are seeing in America. People are in a bad way all over the world.

What if we embrace the season? Regardless of what normally drives you to be kinder around this silly season we need to let that ring from the rooftops in every place in the world. We need the joy and charity of this season to heal the wounds that so many are feeling. You do not have to understand why someone is hurting, angry, upset, offended, or feeling wronged to be kind.