Christmas Spirit, Almost Surprising, But Always Welcome

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The Christmas music says so. The store is plugging along, thanks to your generous support. There are peppermint candies and candy canes and lots of festive touches, and my own personal crusade to get my own cards and packages out with a little time to sleep, eat and do laundry added in. It would be perfect if I didn’t find myself giving in to the fear of 2009. It would be perfect, if the situation that we Michigan folks find ourselves in didn’t look like doom and gloom all around.

But even so, I feel like the luckiest person on the retail block. I get to listen to parents and grandparents describe little kids to me: some they know well and some not as well-known. I get to describe books to these givers of gifts and try to find that exact thing they are requesting. I get to absorb the good-heartedness and a little bit of hometown pride that goes with the buy local mentality. And boy, does it ever help. It’s easy to forget that you have a place in the community.

And I get to watch little kids come in with eyes as big as saucers looking over the merchandise and getting excited about the coming holiday. I even got to be the storyteller on the American Legion train for Hometown Holiday. I apologize to the parents who had to help me with the lyrics of some carols, but I really had fun. I promise, I will never sing the Twelve Days of Christmas again without props or cue cards to help me.

In my own childhood, Christmas dinner generally ended with molded ice cream in Santa, reindeer, wreath and tree shapes, provided by Iglers Rexall Drugs in “downtown” Glendale Ohio. Iglers was a drugstore that frequented as a boy. He could describe their “nectar” concoction many decades after last tasting one. He was happy to continue the yummy tradition with ice cream molds. (I usually tried to get Santa, I confess.) Iglers is long-gone, of course. But I loved that little ending to every Christmas meal.

Whatever your family’s tradition is, I hope it makes your season memorable. You don’t need a fancy decorating scheme or a lavish tree. You might want to take this opportunity to make some new traditions. Maybe a bird friendly outdoor tree or a fireside story reading session with young ones. It doesn’t have to cost that much.

I have been amazed at the generosity of the community in providing Christmas items for families in trouble. Two groups I belong to were waitlisted for adopted families because so many have offered to help; we finally got information this week and pledged to fill a list of needs and wants. That’s why Michigan survives; the whole community works together. Even in the coldest, darkest night, we can be counted on. And that for me is the real meaning of Christmas. So thanks for supporting Cranesbill and happiest of Christmas, Hannukah, or Kwanzaa to you all.