One of my family’s favorite Christmas traditions is watching the 1965 classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. I love watching Snoopy’s antics, and poor Charlie Brown trying to wrangle his uncooperative friends into finding the perfect Christmas tree. But my favorite part, the part that makes me smile no matter how many times I watch it, is the end, when Charlie Brown’s scraggly little tree is transformed into a beautiful decoration thanks to a little TLC and the magic of the season.
Sometimes, I think all of us feel like Charlie Brown in that no matter how hard we try to do something just right, we fall short. This feeling of inadequacy is often at its strongest around the holidays. Sometimes we feel like we are that scraggly little tree—that despite our best efforts, we just can’t measure up. For better or worse, many of us, me included, want to make our holiday celebrations go off without a hitch. Especially if children are involved, we want to make the days filled with fluffy snowflakes and warm cookies, and the nights all merry and bright.
But life gets in the way. Maybe the snow comes in the form of decidedly unmagical sleet. Maybe we get too busy for those Kodak moments with our family. Sometimes, we even get so wrapped up planning the perfect celebration that the holiday passes by before we even have time to appreciate it.
This is where I like to think about that scraggly little tree. It wasn’t special. It wasn’t full or lush. It was hardly more than a twig. Even when Charlie Brown tried to decorate it, it looked sad and weak. A pathetic excuse for a holiday decoration. It wasn’t until his friends rallied around him and helped decorate the tree—lending an extra measure of Christmas spirit—that it became something beautiful.
Thinking about Charlie Brown’s little Christmas tree this way has made me make myself a promise this year. I’ll still try to make the holidays as fun and magical as possible, but I’m going to try to stress less, and do less—and enjoy time with my loved ones more. That, after all, is where the real magic of the season comes from. I hope you can do the same. So, I wish you a very merry Charlie Brown type of Christmas!
Tipiwa