While crafting this Christmas message, the realization set in that the big day is just five sleeps away.
The traditional trek to Lot 23 in old Eramosa for a Christmas tree happened last weekend after a midnight return Saturday night from the Caribbean. Cloaked in snow and a bit of ice, the tree has yet to be stood up and adorned.
Santa’s helpers have yet to shop in earnest. One might expect anxiety or worry at this sad state of affairs, but there is not an ounce. Instead, there is a sense of calm and peacefulness. Could it be we finally found the real Christmas spirit?
Speaking with friends and colleagues it would seem many of us are feeling the same way. Content with what we have, appreciative of family and friends, charitable to others less fortunate, it would seem utility is in vogue. Is life becoming real again?
We may have told this story in the past, but we think of lesser times when folks on the farms were less affluent. About as hard a working family as you would find were struggling between rising interest rates and low commodity prices. They weren’t in the supply-managed field, so they rode the markets akin to a bucking bronco – people just had to hang on. And they did.
Their grandma, as sweet a woman as ever to be found, instigated a new rule that Christmas to take the pressure off. Gifts that season were to be home-made and we have no doubt their Christmas was merry and full of cheer. Imagination and craftsmanship replaced the quick fixes many find in stores.
Christmas remains what we make of it, and we pray quite regularly that this whirlwind of consumerism that has driven most people mad in recent years slows down. There is much more to life than an abundance of stuff.
On behalf of our staff, their families and our own, Merry Christmas Wellington.
