i need a little christmas

When it gets close to Christmas, usually around mid-November, my husband and I start watching Hallmark Christmas movies. We love them! They’re good clean fun and the storylines are so predictable that we like to say what will happen to the characters before the scenes take place. We’re right on occasion and we crack ourselves up with how clever we think we are. There are other movies we enjoy that are purely fanciful like A Christmas Carol and The Christmas Chronicles, the latter of which ALWAYS reminds us of how amazing it would be if Santa were real and how incredible it would be to drive his sleigh while calling out the reindeer names! I tear up every.single.time!  

I remember when I was a child how excited I’d get when December 1st rolled around because it meant getting to watch all the Christmas TV shows that I only got to see once a year as this was pre-cable and streaming (the dark ages, I know!) and if I missed them that was it and it was devastating! Didn’t get to watch A Charlie Brown Christmas?  Didn’t watch the Donny and Marie Christmas Special? WHOA!!!  Christmas was just so BIG! Getting a tree, writing to Santa, the traditions, the carols, the lights.

And then it was over and eleven months had to pass before that excitement was felt again. Now that I’m older, I find that I don’t only want a few weeks of BIG Christmas. I want…I need…a little Christmas all the time. I need to be reminded of the birth of a Savior who came for us all. Who came for me. Who came for you. I need to think about what Mary and Joseph went through as they both walked in obedience to the most life-changing event of their lives. I need to think about heralding angels and shepherds abiding and wise men who followed a star.  I need, I want, 365 days of a little Christmas so that I’m ever mindful of the BIGGEST gift ever given and the most precious that I’ve ever received.