Keeping Christmas by Henry van Dyke. It is a good thing to observe Christmas
Day. The mere marking of times and seasons, when men agree to stop
work and make merry together, is a wise and wholesome custom. It helps
one to feel the supremacy of the common life over the individual life. It
reminds a man to set his own little watch now and then by the great
clock of humanity, which runs on Sun time. But there is a better
thing than the observance of Christmas Day, and that is keeping Christmas. Are
you willing to forget what you have done for other people, and to remember
what other people have done for you, To ignore what the world owes you,
and to think what you owe the world. To put your rights in
the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to
do a little more than your duty in the foreground. To see that your
fellow men are just as real as you are, and try to look behind
their faces to their hearts hungry for joy, to own that probably the only
good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of
life, but what you are going to give to life. To close your
book of complaints against the management of the universe, and look around you for
a place where you can so a few seeds of happiness. Are you willing
to do these things even for a day, then you can keep Christmas.
Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and the desires of little
children, To remember the weakness and loneliness of people who are growing old.
To stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you
love them enough. To bear in mind the things that other people have to
bear on their hearts. To try to understand what those who live in the
same house with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you.
To trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke,
and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you.
To make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden for your kindly feelings
with the gate open. Are you willing to do these things even for a
day, then you can keep Christmas. Are you willing to believe that love
is the strongest thing in the world, stronger than hate, stronger than evil,
stronger than death, And that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen
hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the eternal love. Then you
can keep Christmas. And if you keep it for a day, why not
always. But you can never keep it alone. End of Keeping Christmas by
Henry van Dyke