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As with all things, Christmas is what you make of it.

Amen, and like Dickens' Scrooge, I've learned to keep and practice Christmas all 365 days of the year! The Spirit of Christmas present, and the Living Christ whose birth that Spirit celebrates, are alive every day of the year. I choose to honor Christ and Christmas every day; others may wish to confine Him and the celebration of His Coming to December 25th.

Ha! Having people plead to keep the Christmas accoutrements in the back room until the Day itself arrives is comparable to Scrooge asking the Spirit of Christmas past to douse her light, for it hurts his eyes! Every cheap thread of tinsel, every artificial tree and plastic bulb, every clanging music box - no matter how out of tune with the real Christmas Carol - point ultimately to the One whom these things celebrate.

Ther Christmas season has been redefined. Ask anyone the maning of the verse "The twelth day of Christimas" Christmas used to first day of a twelve day period ending with Epiphany, the feat of the three wise men." In Spain, "Little Christmas" used to be the day when gifts were exchanged. because that was when the Wise men presented their gifts to the Christ child. But even in Spain "Santa" is taking over.

I too have learned to keep and practice Christmas in the proper way. I've really come to appreciate it too, especially since my parents made them so miserable when I was growing up (not intentionally but they were in a bad marriage and the holidays brought out the worst in them).

People think I'm nuts but I start celebrating the Christmas season November 1. That is the day the Christmas music comes out (and I have lots of it - I collect Christmas recordings) and the day I start hanging up the lights. I pretty much have to start the lights around then as it takes me 3-4 weeks to get the house properly done. If you've ever seen the Chevy Chase "Christmas Vacation" movie, you will get the general idea of what I try to do with my house. Only I concentrate the lights indoors, where I can see them. I run lights floor to ceiling in every downstairs room to the point where you don't need to turn a regular light on in the entire downstairs! I also do outdoor lights but not as many.

And they don't come down until after the Super Bowl!

I find that lighting up the house like this during the coldest and darkest months of the year puts everybody in a cheerful mood. Also, getting the work done before Thanksgiving means that we can spend a lot of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas just sitting around the fire and watching all the blinking lights (tree goes up the first weekend of December).