In the last week I’ve heard from two different people who told me they are snowbirding to Florida before Christmas.  They’re not putting up a tree or any other decorations.  They’re packing up and leaving their families before the holiday.  When the big day arrives, they will be in a warm, sunny climate all alone, and it will be just another day.  I can’t imagine that.  I’m from the old school that says it should snow on Christmas Eve; there should be lots of colored lights and tinsel; there should be parties with friends and get-togethers with family.  And no one should be out caroling in shorts and a tee-shirt with a Santa hat perched on his head.  I’m not criticizing those who prefer things otherwise.  I just don’t get it.
Last year I saw a piece on TV, where Kenny G. was playing carols on his sax up and down the streets of Florida, trying to get a large group of people to follow him.  At one house, he got a bunch of kids out of their backyard pool to join him in their dripping swimsuits.  It was pretty interesting, I must admit (especially watching a Jew play Christmas songs).  But it was still weird to me.
I guess that having Christmas in a warm location, (although I wouldn’t care for it) really isn’t the big issue for me.  It’s more the idea that some people would choose to be alone on Christmas, or have it to be just like any other day of the year.  Even if one doesn’t happen to believe that the first Christmas was one of the most significant and life-altering events in history, I still can’t understand not wishing to acknowledge the day in any way.  But to each his own, I suppose.
One of my favorite lines in all of literature comes near the end of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, when Ebenezer Scrooge vows to honor Christmas in his heart and try to keep it all the year.  I like that kind of attitude -- the kind that not only recognizes Christmas as a very special day once a year, but strives to observe all that it represents all the other days as well.   I hope that it can be said of me, like it was of Scrooge, that I “knew how to keep Christmas and . . . was as good a [wo] man as the old city knew.”
If, however, you are one who would rather treat Christmas as just another day, for whatever reason you may have, then may you still have a day that brings you joy and happiness for other reasons.  The rest of us will be content to leave you to your solitude and pray that the “Light of the world” that came to Earth on the first Christmas will shine upon you and give you peace.  And in His name, I wish you all the very merriest Christmas ever!
Thanks for giving me a moment of your time.