We can still have a Dickens of a Christmas as we get older |
Fox News' Steve Doocy visits Branson, Missouri to see their town square decorated with thousands of Christmas lights and an eight-story Christmas tree.
Charles Dickens, more than any writer before or since, taught the world how to rejoice at Christmas. Yet among his many beloved works is a short essay — now largely forgotten — in which he reflected not on Christmas as children know it, but on Christmas as it appears to us after years have passed and life has grown more complicated. With apologies for daring to tamper with a classic, I have taken great liberty in revising Dickens’ sentiments for a modern audience, convinced that they are as relevant today as when he first penned them, in the 1850s.
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As we grow older, Christmas becomes less about what we receive and more about who and what we welcome.
We welcome people, of course — family, friends, neighbors and even the occasional stranger who finds himself at our table. But Christmas asks us to welcome much more than that. Indeed, Christmas, itself, is an act of hospitality — not merely of home, but of soul.
When we were young, the joy of Christmas felt simple and complete. We had everything we wanted around the Christmas tree. There was no need to welcome anything else. The days were awash in the clear, bracing light of morning, the future wide open with possibilities and a seeming eternity of time stretched out before us.
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As we age, we see how the holiday of Christmas changes. (iStock)
But inevitably, life grew more serious — and more filled with shadows. There were dreams we once obsessed over that never came to pass. A life we imagined we would live. A person we thought we would become. A marriage we hoped for that didn’t take place — or one that didn’t last. A vocation that never materialized. Children who........