Christmas — a time of nostalgia and memory

You look up through the predawn sky at the half-moon lighting the darkness with its brilliance. The stars sparkle, or maybe it’s twinkle, and dot the sky like light shining through a lace curtain.

On the eastern horizon, the sun hasn’t yet begun to light the sky. The cold crisp morning air sends shivers down your back. But that’s OK. You shrug and enjoy the quiet aloneness.

You know it’s almost Christmas again. You can hardly remember one from the other now. But you began to sort through the Christmases past, trying to put them in perspective. Family traditions keep them going. And it’s the time of their lives for the kids.

The sky begins to brighten in the east a bit. And you think about the Christmases from your childhood. You remember in those days there were no presents under the tree until Santa Claus put them there sometime during the night. You smile and remember how slow the days passed then. Christmas was “forever and a day” coming.

And it was the last day that was the longest. You couldn’t wait. You couldn’t eat. But the night was even longer. You couldn’t sleep for a long time. The seconds seemed like minutes, the minutes like hours. Hours, well, they never seemed to pass.

You didn’t want to sleep. You wanted to hear Santa Claus slipping down the chimney. Once you sneaked to the window and peeked out onto the moonlit sky reflection on the new fallen snow. For a minute that time, you thought you saw Santa Claus and his reindeer and sleigh flying through the sky.

You looked quickly over to the Christmas tree. No presents. When you looked back to the sky, there was nothing there except the stars.

You knew there was a little something about old Santa that was magic, but you worried that maybe he had forgotten you. Back in bed you tried to stay awake. You wanted to hear him in the chimney. You promised you wouldn’t sneak in to take a look at him, if you heard him.

You knew you’d probably break that promise, though. That bothered you. You reasoned that Santa Claus would know what you were thinking and you weren’t asleep. Maybe he wouldn’t stop at your house.

And all those Christmas Eve nights you lay there, imaging Santa Claus going down chimneys all over the world. It concerned you that there would be a fire in most of them. What you couldn’t understand was how he avoided burning himself, how he kept himself and his Santa suit bright and clean.

It was also impossible for you to understand how reindeer could fly through the sky, jump from rooftop to rooftop and not hurt the roofs. You thought and thought about how much time it would take to visit all the homes in the world.

The only thing you could figure out was that it was the magic of Christmas, the magic of Santa Claus. You figured that time had to really slow down so much that he could have the time to visit everybody while they slept.

These thoughts rumbled through your mind until you somehow drifted off to sleep. All night long you dreamed of Santa Claus and his sleigh load of presents, all for you. Near morning you’d begun to sleep well.

You slept so well that you didn’t get up at dawn. When you finally woke at a little past seven, the light was streaming through your window. You were sure it was noon and you had missed Christmas. You leaped out of bed and made a mad dash to the living room.

You knew you had missed Santa again. But it didn’t matter now. There’d always be next year. What mattered now was to see what he had left for you.

Your parents and sister were there waiting for you. You grabbed packages and frantically tore the wrappers from them. You didn’t spend too much time with each present. There’d be time for that later. It was more important to see what all you had.

The living room was soon a pile of wrapping paper, covering the toys and clothing. When you finished opening the presents, you danced around the room, happily inspecting everything. You remember Christmas mornings like that through the years with the family gathered around the tree, opening presents after Santa Claus had been there.

But now a gentle morning breeze touches your face. The sun edges over the horizon. You hope everybody has a wonderful Christmas and Happy Holiday this year.