With Christmas only 4 days away, I thought it only appropriate to share why the holiday season is my favorite time of year. The five or six weeks that span Thanksgiving to New Years Day are the most wonderful and favorite time of year for many.  I know a lot of people who love summer for warm weather, vacations, no school, baseball season. Whether you love spring for the flowers, autumn for the pumpkin spice and changing leaves, or winter for ski and snowboard season, the end of the year seems to possess a heightened state of wonder. When I was younger working in a grocery store, the holiday season meant endlessly stocking flour, sugar, and pie filling. When I began teaching music, December was filled with student recitals. The previously mentioned reasons may turn some away from the holidays permanently. And we all know someone who worked retail and now cannot stand Christmas music. All of the things listed above bring certain images to mind, both good and bad. But my love for the holiday goes much, much deeper. 

As a child, I, like many, believed Santa came in the middle of the night and brought everything on my list I had sent a month earlier. The magic of a man in a red suit using a reindeer drawn sleigh flying silently through the night to reach every house was downright preposterous. But I believed. Every December, my father’s fire house had a Christmas party and Santa came every year. He knew my name, what I wanted, and knew when I had not swept the fire house floor. Then, Christmas morning, no cookies, no milk, stockings filled, and a pile of gifts under the tree. I remember the year I found out the truth but it didn’t take away the magic. Like being privileged to knowing how a magician pulls off his or her trick, but somehow in that moment, I would get pulled in year after year. As the years progressed, north pole letters were replaced with short wish lists. Then the whole family would gather and exchange gifts from one another’s wish lists. Surely the Christmas “spirit” was not just about gifts though. Birthdays don’t have the same feeling as gifts in red and green. 

Maybe it was merely the media’s idea of what the holidays should be. Scenes of failed bankers jumping off bridges into icy waters so angels can get their wings and kids left behind from vacations while burglars break into the house? No, most definitely not. As a kid or even a teenager, Hallmark channel was not a thing so I never saw the stereotypical collision of main characters on a snowy walkway to begin their Christmas romance. Maybe its the music you only hear in December. When I was in middle school, I attended a performing arts school and had a concert day for four straight weeks. Songs that preach peace on earth and the biblical story of Christmas. Songs that also speak of sleigh rides and cocoa by the fireside. However, I can easily listen to those songs in July. The problem with Christmas in July is the songs loose just a little pizzazz. Could it be the lights on the houses and shopping centers? That is one thing that usually doesn’t happen at other times of the year. Some yard decor however is better left in the garage. Every neighborhood has one of “those” houses. So what is it about Thanksgiving to New Years that captivates so many? 

For me, the solution is rather simple. Everything listed above is the answer. The reality of the holidays is a massive sensory overload of positive emotion. Seeing the lights while singing carols while smelling the evergreen while tasting the chocolate ship cookies. Then you see the snowfall and hear the sleigh bells and watching Miracle on 34th Street and feel the heat from the fire. From seeing loved ones for a feast or seeing their faces on the greeting card to see how we’ve changed over the past year. Truly all of the things that the grinch tries to steal are only the objects that without the symbolism, are just that. Objects. When the holidays become the symbol of all the things that truly matter, faith, family, hope, peace, love, then every object is transformed into a reminder. A reminder that no amount of worldly things should possess or consume us, but rather keep us thankful and mindful. For all those who need hope, need joy, need love, need grace, we are given Christmas. 

From our Keith Rounds Band family to you and yours, I wish you a very merry Christmas and a happy and healthy New Year!