Christmas Isn’t Christmas, Till It Happens In Your Heart

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

--Luke 2:13-14, The Holy Bible (NKJV)

But as every harried homemaker will tell you, peace and goodwill are possibly the two virtues that are most lacking come Christmas season two thousand years later! In every Nativity play, these verses would have been recited many times over and every Sunday school pupil worth his gold stars can probably recount the Christmas story with his Bible closed. Yet, as we screech our way into whatever parking space available and rush from store to store in the jam-packed malls, trying our best to grab everything on our Christmas list, it can honestly get a bit hard to keep things in perspective.

We have all been there. No matter how we vow to get better each year-to make our lists earlier, to have the family photo taken earlier, to send out the greeting cards earlier, to sew, bake, clean earlier...we somehow find ourselves waist deep in tangled fairy lights, broken baubles and a couple of shattered resolutions a few days before Christmas eve.

Yes, although often overused in this day and age, the byword for the season really seems to be ‘stress' more than anything else. How different from the time when we were children. Then, Christmas meant waking up to the smell of a hearty breakfast being whipped up in the kitchen, the excitement of opening presents around the tree before rushing through the meal and getting dressed for Christmas morning service. Not a care in the world, save thoughts of, "I wonder what's in that other box I didn't get a chance to open yet..."

Fast forward twenty years or so later and guess who are the ones whipping up the big breakfast, while trying to make sure everyone gets fed, dressed and into the car in time for church? No prizes there. Oh, and this is the morning after the night before-a night spent stuffing the stockings with fillers and making sure all last-minute gifts are wrapped and other preparations up to mark.

Preparations obviously get more complex if we are expecting guests for the holiday. As fantastic as it is for family to gather around during the celebrations, this can prove to be an additional challenge to the already-frazzled host or hostess. Perhaps the stress gets halved if you are only planning to host a one-off gathering in your home instead of having your guests stay over for the entire holiday period. We say ‘only' but of course anyone who has ever hosted a gathering of family and friends, even if it is for just one night, can tell you the amount of drama that is involved!

Having great help during these trying times is a real blessing and very often, folks who simply cannot cope with the preparations, turn to the professionals. Having said that, it sometimes makes very little sense to fork out huge sums of money when the number of guests involved is not enough to require a whole serving crew from the catering services. And oftentimes, we would like to think that a home-cooked and lovingly prepared meal would mean that much more to our guests. So that will probably explain why fifteen minutes before dinnertime on Christmas eve finds you a fragrant mess in the kitchen with flour-streaked hair but a great roast in the oven!

But all of that surely cannot match the thought and planning that needs to go into ensuring that your guests who are staying over are well taken care of. From the basics-fresh bedroom linen, towels, toiletries to the details such as specially prepared meals for guests with particular dietary needs, transportation arrangements throughout the duration of their stay and activities to keep them enjoyably entertained and happily occupied, having staying guests is certainly no piece of Christmas pudding!

And if also holding down a nine-to-five job on top of it all, how can we overlook the other provisions that are called for during this season? The office party that requires organising...the decorations that need to be dug out of the storeroom...all that clambering on top of desks while trying to maintain precarious balance and common decency in a pencil skirt...the Secret Santa presents to purchase...who can blame us when we forget to place an order for Christmas gift baskets to be sent to our most valued customers and business associates?

In times when we are faced with Christmas plans gone askew, many are left wondering whether all that strain is really worth it, only to go and do it all over again the very next year. At such moments, perchance the best advice is to take a look at all that we are doing or have done and to ask ourselves whether it was really necessary in the first place. Would our guests really be that much worse off if we forget to lay out a new hand towel ahead of time? Would the children really care if the gingerbread man has one less button? Would anyone even know if the star is a little lopsided this year? Ready for some peace and goodwill? When all's said and done, remembering the real Reason for the season is what really counts.