Thoughtful Thursday – The Holiday Spirit

cold1.gifI had been having a rough time getting into the holiday spirit this year. The weather has been off and on and today it’s majorly off. Cold — which I hate — and the threat of snow.

Plus, I’ve been running around like crazy, trying to finish a proposal, working on an assortment of deadlines . . .

I could go on and on, but I won’t because because notice I said — “I had been having” which means that slowly the wonder of Christmas has seeped into me through the little acts of others around me and here’s how it happened.

The lovely new receptionist in our office was down about not having any holiday cheer in her area. There had been a group of die-hards who always put up and took down the tree every year, but they got tired of doing it (me included).

I was out shopping a few days later and saw a little tree with pretty red ribbons in a metallic red tin bucket. Not a Charlie Brown kind of tree. Too full for that, but not fancy either. It screamed my name. So I bought it. Dragged all two gallons of it (the Home Depot term for the size — my term would be just plain heavy) to the office and put it on the receptionist’s desk.

It brought a big smile, but then something else happened.

The receptionist placed some colorful candy canes on the branches besides the ribbons. Then my sis and I got garland and lights. Someone else contributed smaller candy canes to place around the bottom so people could take them. A little teddy bear in a sweater with festive holiday colors took a spot next to the tree which suddenly seemed even bigger.

Slowly, with each person sharing, the spirit of Christmas came alive in our reception area. It didn’t take a lot of money. It just took some thoughtfulness and kindness. It took some sharing and Christmas arrived!

I hope you are able to share such a wonderful experience with your loved ones this Christmas. In the meantime, here’s a photo of one of Santa’s little helpers who I hope will drop by and help me hang my lights this Christmas. This photo comes courtesy of Playground Monitor at The Writing Playground, a great blog where “aspiring writers come to learn and play.”

Caridad's Christmas Helper

4 Replies to “Thoughtful Thursday – The Holiday Spirit”

  1. Ooo la la! I just sent a copy of this page to my hubby. The main point being the Santa’s helper. “Joe! I want one of these Santa’s little helpers!!!
    Pppllleeessseee!!! LOL”

    Merry Christmas y’all 😀

  2. Christmas will be a hard time for me this year. My parents are divorcing and they still have a lot of arguments. 🙁
    But I hope that Christmas will be a day of peace and forgivness.

  3. It did feel all Grinchy to me as well — the whole heart growing bigger thing.

    It is hard to be away from your loved ones at the holidays, but you’re right that you are together in spirit. Plus they get to do all those male bonding things.

    Have a great holiday!

  4. That whole story has a very movie-like quality to it — everyone is all Grinchy and then one person does one thing that starts the ball rolling. And like ripples from a stone tossed into a pond the one act leads to another and pretty soon Mr. Christmas Lights is coming home with you to help you deck the halls and then you share some eggnog and then… Oops! Got carried away.

    My husband’s mother and mine live in different states and it’s tough to work them both in at one holiday. He has to go out of town on business next week, so he’s leaving Friday and visiting his mom en route. He’ll be back next Wednesday, and then Thursday I fly out to see my mom and will be home on the 26th. The DH and I won’t be together physically at Christmas, but we’ve been married 34 years so we’ll be together in spirit. And besides, #2 son is coming home for the holidays so they can so some of their “male bonding” stuff while I’m gone. 😉

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