Joy means different things to different people. For me it is to bring happiness to other people. To see a smile on someone’s face or a twinkle in their eye, gives me great joy. In like manner, sharing the magic of Christmas gives me great joy also.
What is Christmas magic you might say? Well that is a hard thing to answer. You see the time we call Christmas has been a time of year celebrated for about as long as there have been men on earth. This season of the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, has brought awe and fear to the hearts of men from the beginning of time.
The Chinese would flock to the streets and bet drums and clank pots and pans to drive off the dragon that devoured the sun. The ancient Celt’s would light bound fires and pray and dance to embarrass the sun to return. The Jews light candles and celebrate the festival of lights. We Christians, wanting to celebrate the coming of Jesus, the light of the world moved our celebration of His birth to this time of year. This allowed us to hide in plane view and gave new converts another way to celebrate this time of year. But that is another story. So Christmas magic, is a felling, that is rooted deep in our primordial being. It is a thrill and a longing for something good, for something better, for a return of the Son s-o-n. If you can believe like a child and hope for things bigger then you, for joy, peace, love, good will for all, then the spirit and magic of Christmas can dwell in your heart and you can be filled with joy.
Now to my story about a man that didn’t have Christmas magic. He was my mate, Claude E. Bishop Jr., You knew Him as Buddy. For Buddy, Christmas had been destroyed. Between his mother and his aunt fighting over what house Christmas should be spent in and bitching about food, and presents being too much or not enough, along with much other fighting during the family get together, all worked together to kill Christmas in Buddy’s heart. This pained me, for all through my life, no matter what else happened, I had my Grandparent’s love to carry me through and get me over my direct family problems. And so loving Christmas, I wanted Buddy to love it to. Oh, He would help me decorate and help with the annual party, but He could care less if it ever took place at all.
As time passed, we started leaving town every other year. This was a way to relive tension and give Buddy some time off from Christmas. He would try to be happy for my sake but I could tell that it was hard on him. On one of our trips in 1996, we went to Gatlinburg Tenn. While there, we came across a book signing. Wayne H. Bomar was autographing His book, Chronicles of the Christmas Reindeer. I bought a signed copy and started reading it at once. It is a great story about how Santa Claus gave Him permission to interview each of the Christmas Reindeer, to get their real names and their stories. I was so taken by the book which, by the way, I only read during the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas; I would share bits and peaces with Buddy. So to make a long story short, we were on our way to Germany one year to take an extended tour with a small group of people. The tour was to high light with a Christmas day sleigh ride in the black forest. During our many bus trips to the next stopping point, I was reading the chapter on how Santa get into each and every house in a village. Well as it turns out, he does not land on every roof, but lands on the best most centrally located roof of a village and teleports into each house from there. This made such great sense to me that I just had to share it with Buddy. The trip went on, and we reached our Christmas Eve Christmas day destination. It snowed all day Christmas Eve and night and Christmas morning. After breakfast, it stops snowing so we gathered outside for or sleight ride. It was such a joy. As we came out of the black forest into a village, there was a house centrally located. The house had skid marks on the roof and a couple dozen what looked like hoof prints in the snow. I pointed it out to Buddy and we both looked and shook our heads. Then we saw this in two more villages. We got back to our room after the sleigh ride to pack for our next destination and we both talked about what we had seen. Then on the bus ride to our next destination, we saw this again and again. And if there was a house far apart from a village then it to would be marked. Will, Buddy’s eyes light up every time this sight revealed itself. And after the n’th time he looked at me and said Merry Christmas and gave me a great big kiss. Now my heart was full of JOY. The light of Christmas magic had been rekindled in Claude E. Bishop Jr. heart.
And so I wish you all JOY and pray that the Magic of Christmas resides in each and every one of you.
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