Christmas Joy

As Christmas 2017 approaches, we may anticipate with joy a new season of giving, or reach back to joyful memories of Christmases past. For some of us, Christmases past brought sadness or disappointment or conflict, and so we avoid Christmas altogether or work feverishly to displace those memories with new happier experiences. Christmas seems to bring out that longing for something more, something good, something which is, however, intangible and fleeting.

C.S. Lewis wrote in his book, SURPRISED BY JOY, “Again, you have stood before some landscape, which seems to embody what you have been looking for all of your life…” and “You have never had it. All the things that have ever deeply possessed your soul have been but hints of it – tantalizing glimpses, promises never quite fulfilled, echoes that died away just as they caught your ear. But if it should ever really become manifest – if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself – you would know it.” 

In the same way, it may be that the joy of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ, comes in snatches of memories, in buying gifts and special decorations, or in the feasts with friends and family. We cannot hold onto it (for either good or bad). So we must enjoy and be grateful for the season, moment by moment.

As a child, I had many happy Christmases at my grandparents’ house on the farm, so I like to re-create that ambience in my home and life when decorating. Christmas decor like this doormat from FlagRUs appeals to me.

What Christmas memories will you make this year? I hope that your preparations give you as much joy as the day itself! And,  if you are shopping here, enjoy all the many beautiful and varied Christmas selections that FlagsRUs offers, like the one below: