Unless your age is counted in single digits Christmas probably doesn’t have the same feeling it once did. How we looked forward to vacation from school, seeing relatives, and, of course, the presents! Remember seeing all those gifts under the tree, and when mom wasn’t looking, picking ours up and shaking them to see if we could guess what they might be? Advent is kind of like that except without quite that marvelous feeling of sweet expectation. Even though we are now capable of a deeper understanding of the real meaning of the season, somehow some of the excitement seems to have been taken away by the years. This is too bad, because in spite of what they say, the Christmas season is not just for children. Perhaps instead of hearing Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer over and over again in the shopping malls we should be listening to Carly Simon’s Anticipation.

We can never know about the days to come
But we think about them anyway
And I wonder if I’m really with you now Or just chasing after some finer day.
To paraphrase the ending of the song, may this Christmas bring back your good old days.

– Dick Comstock