It’s Christmas Eve, which means it’s our last chance to do some shopping before the big day.
We all try to finish shopping on December 23, if not earlier, but human nature being what it is means that we will not tick that box for another year.
But we should not worry about such little failures.
Going back for a little more shopping on Christmas Eve mostly means we are going that extra yard to make sure Christmas day is as close to perfect as possible.
We do it simply because we want everyone to have a great Christmas meal, a feast worthy of the celebration we are observing.
We do it simply because we want everyone in our modern extended families to have a big smile after they’ve opened their gifts from Santa.
We do it simply because we want everyone at our place on Christmas Day to feel comfortable enough to express the love they feel for each other.
There is little doubt our better natures reveal themselves at this time of the year.
You can sense the extra courtesy and friendliness of strangers in whatever you do and wherever you go in December.
Not that we are awful to each other the rest of the year – far from it.
It’s just wonderful and heart warming to see the extra conviviality between us humans, even for such a brief period.
We are such complicated creatures, but Christmas time and the story of Jesus Christ show us that deep down we all want to get on with each other, to live and let live, and with peace reigning over us all.
Merry Christmas.
