Juletid, pt. III : The Spirit of Christmas - Memories come alive

CHRISTMAS-GREETINGS

[FROM A FAIRY TO A CHILD]

LADY dear, if Fairies may

For a moment lay aside

Cunning tricks and elfish play,

'Tis at happy Christmas-tide.

We have heared the children say---

Gentle children, whom we love---

Long ago, on Christmas-Day,

Came a message from above.

Still, as Christmas-tide comes round,

They remember it again---

Echo still the joyful sound

'Peace on earth, good-will to men!'

Yet the hearts must child-like be

Where such heavenly guests abide;

Unto children, in their glee,

All the year is Christmas-tide.

Thus forgetting tricks and play

For a moment, Lady dear,

We would wish you, if we may,

Merry Christmas, glad New Year!

Lewis Carroll, Christmas, 1867.
(First published in Phantasmagoria, 1869)

The spirit of Christmas is Love. The spirit of any holiday is love. But, to quote, (of all sources...) the movie "Love, actually" : "Enough....enough now" (from the only realistic scene of the film...).

So, beyond such commonplace statements, the Spirit of Christmas is the one single transcendental feeling that goes beyond all the exaggeration, corniness, cuteness, deluded arrogance and generic kitsch that surrounds the celebrations of these days. Indeed, it not only transcends them, but even gives them purpose and meaning.

For who would dream of spartan, or even doric Christmas? Christmas is sybaritic, and was meant to be thus even from the days of the celebrations of Jul (complete with the Wild Hunt around the days of Winter Solstice), and the Death of Baldur.

What evoces this feeling is different for each one of us. For me it is nothing less than the revival of childhood memories.

The fireplace, to which I later in the night retreated to read the works of Dr. Seuss, and my absolute favourites: the Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame and the Alice books by Lewis Carroll. And later: the works of Professor Tolkien....




























The food, marching out of the kitchen in a stream of delights and the thought in the back of our head that this year we will need more cretan tsikoudia for digestion.

The all-day long music by 19th century Romantics, with Stokowski's interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, from the soundtrack of Fantasia holding the most prominent place.

Going to bed with the last embers dying in the fireplace...and the pregnant moments of the following morning before the opening of gifts.

As long as all these things revive, Christmas will be frosted with a glowing dust that keeps the magic alive.

Before we part, for the time of celebration is nigh...

...a couple of words and a poem by Lewis Carroll:

Dear Children,

At Christmas-time a few grave words are not quite out of place, I hope, even at the end of a book of nonsense - and I want to take this opportunity of thanking the thousands of children who have read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, for the kindly interest they have taken in my little dream-child.

The thought of the many English firesides where happy faces have smiled her a welcome, and of the many English children to whom she has brought an hour of (I trust) innocent amusement, is one of the brightest and pleasantest thoughts of my life. I have a host of young friends already, whose names and faces I know - but I cannot help feeling as if, through "Alice's Adventures" I had made friends with many other dear children, whose faces I shall never see.

To all my little friends, known and unknown, I wish with all my heart, "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year". May God bless you, dear children, and make each Christmas-tide, as it comes round to you, more bright and beautiful than the last - bright with the presence of that unseen Friend, who once on earth blessed little children - and beautiful with memories of a loving life, which has sought and found the truest kind of happiness, the only kind that is really worth the having, the happiness of making others happy too!

Your affectionate Friend,

Lewis Carroll

Christmas, 1871