The True Meaning of Christmas

I have been wresting with writing a column for Christmas.

I had hoped to post something for Christmas Eve, but between getting ready for the two services I would be leading at my church – the 7 pm Christmas Eve Family (read that, ‘Christmas Chaos') service, and the Christmas Day service later this morning – and not being able to find just the right kernel of an idea, it just didn’t happen.

Even last night, after I got home from church I sat with the computer in my lap and tried out a few more ideas, to little avail.

I would get a start, but it just wouldn’t build into anything coherent.

I have been hoping to write something that conveyed what Christmas means to me.

I think – I hope – I have finally hit upon the right way to go about this.

What I have decided to do is to use illustrations from some of my favourite Christmas movies, tv specials, and songs.

The first, then, has to be A Charlie Brown Christmas.

I think we can all identify with Charlie Brown. Or at least, I certainly do.

Charlie Brown (Did you ever notice that no one ever just calls him “Charlie?” They always use his full name, even if he only calls his friends by their first names.) has a lot of friends, but they are always quick to laugh at his antics, to poke fun at him, and to call him a “blockhead.”

Poor Charlie Brown just doesn’t seem to fit in. Even when he gets asked to be the Director of the Christmas play, nothing seems to go right. In frustration he shouts, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”

Linus, his best friend, responds by reciting the Biblical passage describing the birth of Christ: “And there were in the same country shepherds, abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night…”

The show could have ended at that point, with everyone being reminded that Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Christ. Aside from the fact that it would have made the show only about ten minutes long, ending there would not have fully conveyed the real meaning of Christmas.

We wouldn’t have seen the poor little tree that just needed someone to love it.

For me, seeing the others come to the realization that Charlie Brown not only has his heart in the right place, but that the real meaning of Christmas includes being there for each other, is what truly speaks to me.

This special first aired on 8 December 1965, as I was approaching my fifth birthday. Forty-six years later, the Christmas season really doesn’t start for me until I have seen it.

The next special that defines Christmas, for me, came a year later.

First airing on 18 December 1966, the day after my sixth birthday, How the Grinch Stole Christmas has since be the definition of the true meaning of Christmas, for me. I absolutely must watch this every year, and do.

Anyone who grew up reading Dr Seuss (or having it read to them), or those who have read it to their children or grandchildren, knows that Seuss’s nonsensical rhyming rhythms speak to the very heart of children, and indeed to the inner child within each of us.

I don’t think it is possible to not love Dr Seuss.

And while stories about the Lorax and Sam I Am and Yertl the Turtle and Horton are wonderful, and have terrific messages, The Grinch takes it to the next level.

Aside from the message this special delivers, I must say that I absolutely love Max. I have always – and really, I still do – want a dog just like Max.

But I digress.

Watching the Grinch come to the decision that he “must stop Christmas from coming,” and actually stealing Christmas from the Whos is a lot of fun.

But the brilliance of this special is truly conveyed when, at the top of Mount Crumpit, the Grinch comes to the realization that, "Maybe Christmas, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas .. .perhaps ... means a little bit more!"

As well, the Who’s “Welcome Christmas” song really adds to the message of this special. (The songs are an addition to the original text of the book which was otherwise followed to the letter in the narration and dialogues.)

Taking out all the vocable fillers – the fahoos and dahoos – here’s what the lyrics have to say:

Welcome Christmas come this way
Welcome Christmas, Christmas day
Christmas day is in our grasp
So long as we have hands to clasp

Welcome Christmas bring your cheer
Welcome all Whos far and near
Christmas day will always be
Just so long as we have we
 
Welcome Christmas bring your light

Welcome Christmas, Christmas day
Welcome Christmas while we stand
Heart to heart and hand in hand

Welcome, welcome Christmas Day.

That song has, for years, said more to me about the true meaning of Christmas than anything else I have ever heard or read.

As a further aside, I always bristle when I hear (or read) of people referring to another as “a grinch.” While it is true that “for fifty-three years” the Grinch hated Christmas, the whole Christmas season,” to hold onto that hatred as a definition for a Grinch is to do a disservice to the message of this wonderful work.

Aside from the message that Christmas means more than just presents and decorations and feasts, there is a further message that anyone, even the most hard-hearted among us can change.

When that change does happen we are no longer that defined by our former actions, but by what we have become.

In a similar vein, I find using the name “Scrooge” as a perjorative comment on someone who is seen as miserly and mean-spirited is to wholly discount the transformation that occurs when Ebenezer awakens on that Christmas morning.

"Many laughed to see this alteration in him, but he let them laugh and little heeded them, for he knew that no good thing in this world ever happened, at which some did not have their fill of laughter. His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed the knowledge."

For me, combining the messages of Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and Scrooge really sums up the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is not just a time of year, nor just the celebration of the birth of the Christ child; it is a spirit that dwells in our hearts, a spirit that leads us to consider the needs of others.

It is the spirit of generosity and compassion that compels us to donate to charity, or volunteer our time for a worthy cause.

It is a spirit that can be spread to others, lifting them from the mundane, and even from the depths of despair, and give them new hope.

Charlie Brown, the Grinch, and Ebenezer  Scrooge all discover the true meaning of Christmas, as Linus, the Whos, and the Cratchet family had already embraced.

I hope that if you have not already embraced it yourself, that you will discover the true meaning of Christmas, and that people will be able to say of you, that you know how to keep Christmas well.

Merry Christmas!

~ David