Rebooting the Reason for the Season

When I was growing up you would hardly see any Christmas displays in stores until Thanksgiving or the day after. We didn’t have the internet to flood us with emails regarding “special deals,” or to debate whether we should camp out a few days before “Black Friday” to ensure we got a special deal on something we thought we couldn’t live without. Instead, as youngsters we were excited to see the Sears or J.C. Penny catalogues arrive at the house in the fall. We would immediately start thumbing through those pages and make up our wish lists for the holiday that was months away. 

I was pleasantly surprised to see that several of the larger retailers this year gave their employees Thanksgiving day off to enjoy the lull before the storm that would arrive on the morning of Black Friday, and of course we’ve now added Cyber Monday to the list.

We didn’t have inflatable lawn decorations or laser produced light shows on the trees or bushes in front of the house. They probably wouldn’t have been out there anyway, due to the snow that was almost always on the ground in New Hampshire.

We have to scratch our heads and wonder whether we might have lost the true meaning of the holiday, or whether the meaning has simply become a reference to last year’s sales numbers.

Christmas should be a time of rejoicing and of great happiness. It should be a time when we reflect on the holiday’s true meaning, as well as the gifts of friendship, good health and the simpler things in life. Those are the real gifts we should cherish, but sadly, at times they seem to get lost due to the commercialization of the holiday.

Unfortunately, for some people the holiday may become a time of sorrow, as their circumstances may be different than ours. The happiness and excitement that once filled the eyes of a neighbor’s child may be replaced by just a blank stare or by tear-filled eyes.

We are very fortunate on Marco Island to have so many wonderful groups that take into account the needs of others who are less fortunate. Groups such as the Joy of Giving, Christmas Island Style, St. Vincent de Paul, the Island Club Foundation, St. Matthew’s House, Kiwanis, Our Daily Bread Food Pantry, Rotary, the Guadalupe Center in Immokalee, the YMCA and our local churches and private individuals, to name a few. 

Each and every one of us can help to make this time of year more representative of what it should be about, if we would be a bit more positive and look for ways to participate in the community and do a little good.

Over this last year, our community has come forward on numerous occasions to help several of our extended families in need from illness or injury. The recent Tour De Taverns event to benefit the four-year-old granddaughter of local residents Ray and Marie Lynn McChesney is a perfect example of this. She was diagnosed with Kleefstra Syndrome two years ago. Three-hundred fifty cyclists rode in support of the effort, and the event raised $34,000 to help fund research into the causes and treatments of that extremely rare malady.

During this special time of year we should also take a moment to remember those in uniform who are serving this nation and protecting our freedoms and liberties. Many of those families will be looking at an empty chair at their tables this holiday, a chair they would love to have filled, but understand the need to have it empty to ensure we are able to gather each year to celebrate our closely-held traditions.

Public safety families will also note the absences at the family holidays. Those men and women who serve in law enforcement, fire and EMS will also be standing at the ready should the need arise and their services become needed at your home, out in the community or on the highway.

Keep all of these wonderful professionals and their families in your prayers, that they may come through the doors of their homes and receive the justified adulations and love that they so deserve.

The holiday we will celebrate has nothing to do with inflatables, laser shows or the size of the gifts under our trees. Instead, it has to do with the size of your heart and your readiness to help those in need, no matter how small the gesture may be. This holiday is all about us caring enough to make the effort to try and help others.