Where are the Christmas cards? We used to have them
displayed on the mantelpiece or a corner table in the living room or hang them
over pieces of string strung up across the walls. And we did this lovingly and
excitedly together as a family as we re-read the names of those who had
remembered us during this season of joy.
Christmas cards are becoming a thing of the past, a lost
tradition. It’s almost a shock to receive one these days – gosh, don’t tell me
someone is still doing Christmas cards, kind of reaction. Instead, it’s all
about Christmas texts, social media greetings and e-cards.
This year I have a single lonely card sitting on top of my
TV. How sad is that? It stares accusingly at me every time I look at it. Oh, I
get all the arguments about wastage of paper, resource, time and so on. But I
still miss the Christmas cards and wish that it would come back.
Christmas cards are a big part of the many wonderful
memories of Christmas past. Listing out the names of family and friends,
writing and handing them out, receiving and decorating your home with them – it
brings a warm glow just thinking about all the fun and delight of giving
and receiving Christmas cards. And it really was a beautiful warm and comfy
feeling to receive handwritten personal cards from family and friends that brought
a special spirit of joy to the Christmas season.
It seems that as our world becomes more technologically
adept, simple pleasures like writing letters to one another and giving Christmas
cards, is becoming a dying tradition. And indeed, technology has made life so
much easier, but it has also made it all so cold and meaningless. Where is the
heart in a generic SMS or a group social media greeting? When you get something
personal that someone sat down, wrote out and gave to you, it means so much more
than just getting a keystroke on a computer or a mobile phone.
I miss Christmas cards. Bring them back, I say.
And to all, I wish hope, love and peace on earth………..let me
share with you this beautiful, beloved Christmas poem by Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow
Christmas Bells
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Till ringing, singing on its way,
The world revolved from night to day,
A voice, a chime,
A chant sublime
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
Then from each black, accursed mouth
The cannon thundered in the South,
And with the sound
The carols drowned
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
It was as if an earthquake rent
The hearth-stones of a continent,
And made forlorn
The households born
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said;
For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"
Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men."
-
Henry Wadsworth