PHOTO: ©BETTMANN/CORBIS
PHOTO: ©O’BRIEN PRODUCTIONS/CORBIS
But the compassion of Christmas doesn’t have to end on December 31. The joy and happiness of Christmas compassion is something that should be spread year round. Writer Harlan Miller once said of a 365-day Christ- mas spirit: “I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.” Journalist Ray Stannard Baker said, “I sometimes think we expect too much from Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year.” Poet John Green- leaf Whittier wrote the following lines about the compassion of the Christmas spirit: “Somehow, not only for Christ- mas, / but all the long year through, / the joy that you give to others, / is the joy that comes back to you.” And poet Helen Steiner Rice once wrote: “Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.”
Charity Although charity is a trait that, arguably, we should exhibit and practice all year long, it is even more important that it forms a part of our
u Bing Crosby, shown here in 1950, ex- pressed the belief that Christmas was a time of sharing.
character during the holiday season. Longtime newscaster Eric Sevareid once reminded people that Christmas was not just about themselves but about the larger community. “There has to be at least one day of the year,” Sevareid said, “to remind us that we’re here for something else besides ourselves.” Ruth Carter Stapleton,
From “The Christmas Carol”
The minstrels played their Christmas tune To-night beneath my cottage eaves; While, smitten by a lofty moon, The encircling laurels, thick with leaves, Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen That overpowered their natural green.
Through hill and valley every breeze Had sunk to rest, with folded wings: Keen was the air, but could not freeze Nor check the music of the strings; So stout and hardy were the band That scraped the chords with strenuous hand!
And who but listened—till was paid Respect to every inmate’s claim: The greeting given, the music played, In honor of each household name, Duly pronounced with lusty call, And “Merry Christmas” wished to all!
—WILLIAM WORDSWORTH 36
evangelist, writer, and sister of President Jimmy Carter, said of the holiday season: “Christmas is most truly Christmas when we celebrate it by giving the light of love to those who need it most.”
Poet Patricia Claf- ford once wrote that “Christmas is a time to expand our giving encompassing the friendless and needy . . . near and far. Christmas is sharing.” And the famous singer of the Christmas classic “White Christmas,” Bing Crosby, once said, “Unless we make Christmas an occasion to share our blessings, all the snow in Alaska won’t make it white.”
u One of the wonderful parts of the Christ- mas spirit is the symbols, like this Christmas tree, that help draw us together and visually remind us of the time of year and what it means.
But Mother Teresa, perhaps the person most associated with charity in the last century, reminds us that we don’t have to wait for Christmas to give. “[I]t is Christmas,” she said, “every time you smile at your brother and offer him your hand.”
Memories
One of the legacies of the Christmas spirit is the memory of it that each person takes away with him and the memories that each Christmas evokes. Regarding those wonderful memories, author Augusta E. Rundell once said, “Christmas may be a day of feasting, or of prayer, but always it will be a day of remembrance—a day in which
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