"Talk me into Christmas," my friend said. "Sometimes I think Charles Dickens's character Ebenezer Scrooge was right. Christmas has become so commercial, so repetitious, that sometimes I'd just like to pass on the whole thing."
At first I thought he was kidding. Or that he'd had a momentary backlash against Christmas decorations appearing in early November. Then I realized my friend was serious. He felt he'd had something valuable stolen from him—the true meaning of Christmas. He thought society had lost the glory of Christmas—its universal significance and its potential influence for good in the world.
Until I heard my friend's remark, I thought I was immune to feeling affected by negative thoughts about Christmas. But his sincerity made me see a past family experience in a new light.
