So, did you make it through the excitement of Christmas Day? Are there leftovers? Wrapping paper all thrown away? Batteries all plugged in? Books glanced through? Were you able to sit back and savor the time spent with your loved ones?

Now the real challenge sets in: over the next few days the decorations come down. The colored lights are stored. Go back to school or work. Back to the humdrum, every day existence. Can you please keep the spirit of Christmas in your heart over the next 11 months or so? Remember how giving you were? How relaxed everything was? Let’s all try to keep that alive as we go about our day-to-day business.

Thank you for indulging me with these little snippets this year. I found them harder to write than I expected. But I enjoyed working on them for you. Merry Christmas!

I worked on a staged version of The Miracle Worker earlier this year. In researching for the show, I read Helen Keller’s biography The Story of My Life. She was an amazingly positive person, despite her hardships. She wrote of her love for her teacher, Annie Sullivan. How can you make life easier for someone else? What gifts can you share? And I don’t mean an iPad or a toy. I mean your abilities and skills. God has given you interests, skills, and knowledge. Pass it on.

Wishing the best for others can be difficult, especially when you yourself are struggling. But it never fails to lend a helping hand, give a kind word, turn the other cheek. This is love. And it can be the hardest thing to do. But continue with your good work. God has given you the ability to share His joy and charity with those you meet.

Tidings is news, or information. Today how would we hear about the birth of Jesus? Twitter? Facebook? Both of those are simply new ways for the news to be spread. Make sure that you share the tidings of Jesus with your family and friends.

Do you grow up and does the tree look any less magical because you know what goes into making it? Lights wrapped just so. Ornaments carried down from the dusty attic. Hours spent shopping online and at the mall. Fighting crowds. Carefully wrapping each gift which is unwrapped in seconds. But all of that together helps make the tree look 30 feet tall to a child.

A conspiracy of love. I like that at Christmas we can easily work together with people we don’t know for the good of others. Toys for Tots. Angel Trees. Operation Nicholas. It’s a shame that we don’t gather and work for good at other times of the year.

My dad had an aluminum Christmas tree when we were little. I can remember sliding the brown wrapping off of each branch as he assembled the tree. My wife and I had a real Christmas tree several years ago, but it was too much for my allergies. Much to Linus’ consternation, we now have a nice artificial tree that doesn’t look bad at all.