You can’t postpone the true urging of Christmas. You have to do it now. That’s the acid test of the man who would be Christmas. If you’re a drinking man go and have a drink and it will help you do the right thing. Even a roasting fire won’t thaw a frozen heart but a glass of whiskey might. I’ve seen it happen.
I’ve also seen Christmas destroyed by whiskey for whiskey is a dangerous cargo without plimsoll line or compass. It must be treated as if it were dynamite.
Then on the other hand, imbued by the spirit of Christmas and a bellyful of booze, I beheld a man who normally would not give you the itch lift his phone and beg his estranged daughter to come home for Christmas. She came with a heart and a half and on both sides all was forgiven. He wasn’t half as mean thereafter. So, my friends, taking Christmas by the horns can work wonders.
Don’t ever be ashamed to be weepy or sentimental about Christmas because you might not get the chance during the year ahead to show your humanity to the world and what the hell good is humanity if it’s suffocated by caution! That’s what Christmas is for, taking from our natural stock of humanity and disbursing it where it will do the most good.
If you have to think twice about the impulses that move you to be forgiving and charitable and loving you’ll miss the boat. Generosity diminishes the more one considers it. The milk of human kindness doesn’t come from cows or goats. It comes from the human heart, that great institute of compassion and repository of human hope.
If a man only submitted himself once a year to the dictates of Christmas all would not be lost but we have some who acknowledge the birth of Christ by regarding it as a day, the same as any other, when they may kill and maim at will. However, no matter what they do, the spirit of Christmas will survive and they will be long forgotten.
The spirit of Christmas has survived the Stalins, the Hitlers and the Mussolinis and all those who have perpetrated injustices since the birth of Christ. It has survived human greed and human jealousy and every human failing one cares to mention.
All the moons that have waxed and waned since the birth of Christ will testify that nothing lasts like Christmas. Not all the inhumanity, nor all the greed, nor all the violence will reduce its message by a whit. It’s here to stay and there’s nothing that evil men can do about it and that’s one great consolation.
Officially declaring Christmas non-existent can work only for a while. You can’t keep Christmas down for long. It is the most buoyant of all festivals.
There are ways, of course, of destroying the Christmases of individuals, of families and of communities and the chief of these is to drive while you’re drunk. You may drink after you drive but never before.
Just say to yourself: ‘I’ll enjoy a few Christmas drinks when I arrive at my destination but not before. This will be my Christmas gift to my fellow man.’
You can start a row in a pub or a hotel and upset the Christmases of legitimate workers who have enough to contend with during anti-social hours. You can upset your home and your family by being too drunk or too mean or too intolerant or, worst of all, by being indifferent.
These are but a few. There are so many more. However, I know in my heart that you, dear reader, will do none of those heinous things. You’ll try to do otherwise. Just try and since God loves a trier you’re halfway there already.
Don’t think I’m pontificating. I’m not. I’m trying to explain what Christmas should be all about. It’s a time of opportunity. The climate is perfect for revealing our better natures. Just as the spring assures growth of crops so does Christmas assure growth of love.
It is not possible for man, because of his very nature, to be charitable and compassionate all the year round. Let us, therefore, make the most of Christmas.
Heap on more wood! the wind is chill;
But let it whistle as it will.
We’ll keep our Christmas merry still.
So wrote the great Walter Scott long before Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol which gives the lie to those who would say that Dickens invented Christmas as we know it. Christmas was never invented. It was born out of love and carries on out of love.
I once asked an old woman what she would do if there was no Christmas.
‘I don’t know,’ she said, ‘but I wouldn’t be bothered with anything else.’
Personally speaking, I don’t know how I would survive if Christmas were to be abolished. There would be no point in getting drunk because that would only remind me of Christmas all the more.
I could not imagine a more bleak world. I just cannot conceive anything of commensurate magnitude to replace it. We should, therefore, be down on our knees thanking God that it is there.
If there was no Christmas there would be no Adeste, no Silent Night, no carol singing, no Santa Claus. I could go on and on. There would be nothing without Christmas because it’s the plinth on which the rest of the year stands.
Sometime when you are alone with nothing to do try to remember all the things that would never again be if we lost Christmas. There is nothing else with the power to move the human heart to its utmost capability. For God’s sake don’t take it for granted. If you haven’t done anything about it yet for pity’s sake do it now or you’ll be guilty of the awful crime of trying to undermine Christmas.