Hopefully, everyone had some joy this past week during our yearly Thanksgiving holiday.

Of course now, we’re preparing for another Christmas season. My how the time does fly by. It seems like only a brief time ago I would look forward to coming down the stairs Christmas morning and dumping out my stocking – the first thing we did at the Warner household – for all the goodies inside.

We lived in Maine at the time, in a little town called Norway near South Paris just north of the New Hampshire line. If you happen to be a fan of Stephen King and have read his books you might recall he calls that area No Soapa in books. We weren’t far from where he calls home these days in Bangor.

My sister and I would venture down the chilly stairs from our upstairs bedrooms, and dig into the cornucopia of gifts under the tree. One of my favorite movies is "A Christmas Story" where the tagline “You’ll shoot your eye out” is often heard as Ralphie wants a BB gun for Christmas. The reason I like the film is it reminds me of when I was a child. The atmosphere and setting are all about just right for my age.

Now that my wife and I have raised three children and played Santa for them, things just don’t seem the same somehow. Christmas seems like it’s all commercialized and has lost the innocence it once had for me. I think about what the season represents or at least what it means to me being the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ.

It seems now it’s about getting a new iPhone or PlayStation game and watching football. There’s nothing wrong with giving gifts in celebration, but I think there is if it becomes the main focus.

A line from Dickens’ A Christmas Carol jumped into my mind just now. Scrooge is berating Christmas to his nephew who just wants him to enjoy the holiday and Scrooge replied.

“Nephew!” returned the uncle sternly, “keep Christmas in your own way, and let me keep it in mine.”

I am going to make a conscious decision this year to keep Christmas in my heart no matter what I observe on television about the big sales on home appliances or what I can’t live without, according to the advertisers who promise if we get the latest gadget it will make us happy.

Just think, in some parts of the world, people are going hungry, have no home or live in literal war zones across the globe.

In our country alone, about 15 million children – 21 percent of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty threshold. Then you see a commercial on television where someone is getting a new luxury car in the driveway with a bow on it.

I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time with our commercialized version of Christmas, but I only have control of myself and what’s in my heart.

I’m praying for everyone and hope some light shines in your life this Christmas season.

Contact Steve Warner at           

news@smithvillereview.com