stashing gifts under them. Christmas trees can be very personal things, and anyone who has ever bought a Christmas tree has probably worried that they weren’t getting the very biggest one they possibly could. Apropos of this fear, humorist, Larry Wilde has said, “Never worry about the size of your Christ- mas tree. In the eyes of children, they are all thirty feet tall.” Author Roy L. Smith also reminds us not to get too wrapped up in what our trees look like. “He who has not Christmas in his heart,” Smith says, “will never find it under a tree.” Along these same lines, the late television commentator and author Andy Rooney has said: “The Christmas tree is a symbol of love, not money. There’s a kind of glory to them when they’re all lit up that exceeds anything all the money in the world could buy. . . . The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.” Author Charles N. Barnard is often credited with having said the following: “The perfect Christmas tree? All Christmas trees are perfect!”
we think of everything we have ever loved.” Author Joan Mills said that “Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.”
Christmas Symbols
One of the other wonderful parts of the Christmas spirit is the many symbols of the holiday season that help draw us together and visually remind us of the time of year and what it means. There are nutcrackers and Santa Claus and stars and reindeer and, of course, the nativity scene, but what would Christmas be without a Christmas tree?
Many people who celebrate Christ-
mas have wonderful memories (and maybe some not-so-wonderful memo- ries) of their Christmas trees— memories of putting them up, of hanging the ornaments on them, of drinking eggnog next to them, and of
T H E E L K S M A G A Z I N E Shopping and Presents
Although shopping and presents are not the only things that the Christmas spirit is about, it would be difficult to discuss Christmas without mentioning them and the modern shopping frenzy that takes place at this time of year. Many writers and other commentators have mentioned shopping and presents in their musings about Christmas, and through their humor on the subject, perhaps we can keep our blood pressures down and our eyes on the more important and enduring aspects of the Christmas spirit.
We may think of shopping as a
modern part of the Christmas holiday, but in the early part of the nineteenth century, American author John Andrew Holmes said, “The Christmas season has come to mean the period when the public plays Santa Claus to
u According to television commentator and author Andy Rooney: “The best Christmas trees come very close to exceeding nature.”
the merchants.” One of the great American humor columnists, Dave Barry, once said of shopping during the holiday season: “Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.” Robert Paul said of gift buying during Christmas, “Even before Christmas has said ‘Hello,’ it’s saying ‘Buy Buy.’” In fact, so many businesses have come to rely on the Christmas season for such a large percentage of their yearly sales that British journalist Katharine White- horn has observed the following: “From a commercial point of view, if Christmas did not exist it would be necessary to invent it.”
Truer words have rarely been spoken when it comes to the holiday season, but the words of American poet and author Henry David Thoreau on shopping and Christmas offer us a reminder of the true significance of Christmas. “The way you spend Christmas,” Thoreau said, “is far more important than how much.” This doesn’t mean, of course, that gift giving can’t be a legitimate part of Christmas. Giving is, after all, a very important aspect of the Christmas spirit. In fact, for many people, few things represent Christmas the way
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PHOTO: ©ERIN PATRICE O’BRIEN/CORBIS OUTLINE
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