Celebrations.

Yesterday I eventually got round after much persuasion to put up the Christmas tree and lights. I am not sure I am happy about how soon we all begin the talk and thought of Christmas. it seems to be that  if we are not careful there will be nothing but celebration and if that happens I suspect that the whole, and I mean the complete, meaning of a celebration of any sort will disappear. 

Those who just arrive at the day of celebration and possibly the day before seem to manage to retain some value in what it is they celebrate. For example, the Buddhists celebrate Wesak( Vesak) the day when they give thanks for the birth of the Buddha. It is a different day each year because it is linked to the cycles of the moon, nobody actually knows when he was born. Preparations are made a day or so before and the day is celebrated with much joy. Then life gets back to normal. 

Now I never want to be a kill joy and restrict peoples enjoyment but if something is not kept as special it eventually loses all meaning.

So with all of that I was remembering some true moments from Christmas that made me smile when I heard of them.

One evening a father arrived home having forgotten an anniversary or something important. 

When he walked through the door the table was all set ready for a candlelight dinner.

Trying to make light of his forgetting he said, "Did we forget to pay the electric bill?" 

A month or so later the family were attending a late night Christmas service, The church was aglow with candlelight.

As the family entered the son could be heard asking in a loud voice, " Dad has the church forgotten to pay the electric bill?"

Another true event.

A father had arranged to take his two sons the the office children party. Santa was to be part of the evening. It had been arranged that presents would be pre prepared ready for santa. 

The two boys were looking forward to the party but the older of the two was reaching that age when he was beginning to doubt the real santa story.

So when santa arrived at the party and called out names and gave they each a gift the two boys were not at all sure. They got the presents and unwrapped them, a beach towel each with their names embroidered on them.

"You see ," said the younger one, "Santa must be real he even got our names right and I have never met him before." 

Have a marvellous day. A walk for me and some paintings to finish packaging.