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Keeping Christmas by Henry van Dyke.
It is a good thing to observe Christmas

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Day. The mere marking of times
and seasons, when men agree to stop

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work and make merry together, is
a wise and wholesome custom. It helps

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one to feel the supremacy of the
common life over the individual life. It

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reminds a man to set his own
little watch now and then by the great

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clock of humanity, which runs on
Sun time. But there is a better

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thing than the observance of Christmas Day, and that is keeping Christmas. Are

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you willing to forget what you have
done for other people, and to remember

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what other people have done for you, To ignore what the world owes you,

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and to think what you owe the
world. To put your rights in

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the background, and your duties in
the middle distance, and your chances to

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do a little more than your duty
in the foreground. To see that your

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fellow men are just as real as
you are, and try to look behind

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their faces to their hearts hungry for
joy, to own that probably the only

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good reason for your existence is not
what you are going to get out of

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life, but what you are going
to give to life. To close your

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book of complaints against the management of
the universe, and look around you for

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a place where you can so a
few seeds of happiness. Are you willing

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to do these things even for a
day, then you can keep Christmas.

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Are you willing to stoop down and
consider the needs and the desires of little

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children, To remember the weakness and
loneliness of people who are growing old.

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To stop asking how much your friends
love you, and ask yourself whether you

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love them enough. To bear in
mind the things that other people have to

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bear on their hearts. To try
to understand what those who live in the

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same house with you really want,
without waiting for them to tell you.

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To trim your lamp so that it
will give more light and less smoke,

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and to carry it in front so
that your shadow will fall behind you.

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To make a grave for your ugly
thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings

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with the gate open. Are you
willing to do these things even for a

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day, then you can keep Christmas. Are you willing to believe that love

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is the strongest thing in the world, stronger than hate, stronger than evil,

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stronger than death, And that the
blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen

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hundred years ago is the image and
brightness of the eternal love. Then you

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can keep Christmas. And if you
keep it for a day, why not

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always. But you can never keep
it alone. End of Keeping Christmas by

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Henry van Dyke