Bond's Broadcast

Traditions.

In life there are things which generate traditions. Sometimes it is birthday tradition or maybe even each holiday will have family traditional holidays.

I can say when I was younger even my microscopic family had holiday traditions. The two largest at our house were Thanksgiving and Easter. Christmas, when I was a child, was not a big deal as I had to go off to another town each holiday.

When my wife Marilyn and I married Christmas became an important element of our lives. From that very first Christmas when Carol had just come home and we gathered around our three foot tree for Christmas morning nothing has ever pleased me more than to see the looks on the faces of my children and grandchildren just after Santa Claus had visited.

For many years I have written a column about Santa Claus. I relate Christmas from both perspectives: the secular Christmas and the Christmas of Christ.

While many view the commercialization of Christmas as the ruination of the Christian driven celebration of Christ’s birthday I take a totally different view of that.

What could be better than seeing the outpouring of spirit as people donate to the needy, deliver baskets of food, or share their wealth? The smiles on the faces of the young people who never even expected to see Santa or Christ’s visitors are priceless.

For several years Marilyn and I were deeply involved with fundraising for local events when we owned and operated a paper in Kentucky. We would help advertise the Toys for Tots handled by the fire department there. I have helped load toys and foods and we took donations to help fund the events.

I have seen the rewards of pulling into a driveway with toys and a box full of food for a family who, just seconds before, had absolutely no expectations of having toys for their children or food for their Christmas table.

I know there is peace in the moments of being able to help other people.

I read so many writings on facebook as well as many other venues concerning the loss of Christ in a commercial gifting season.

While I can assure I agree that it should not be the focus, I also must say that I believe it is something extra special to allow people to add love to their heart and share the season.

Giving presents, sharing family time, worshiping together doesn’t get erased by the large commercial season.

As for people who are focused on the retailers who were open on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday or Cyber Monday they really should take just a minute to realize that there are people willing to venture out and shop to make it so these retailers can make a profit.

The Christmas season truly allows many businesses to operate the other nine to 10 months a year. I am not even going to suggest these retailers should not operate. As for the employees, being in the media I can’t count the holidays I worked as part of the job. That is just part of it.

Healthcare workers work holidays – it’s part of the cycle we live in now. The days of stores being closed on Sunday and holidays have for the most part gone away. There are some who hold to that tradition but for the large majority of all kinds of businesses have become standard operating procedure.

But then again back to Christmas.

The famous “Yes Virginia There Is A Santa Claus” editorial written Sept. 21, 1897 in the prominent New York Sun by war correspondent Francis Pharcellus Church, has always endorsed my belief in Santa – and as an adult my developing philosophy of the reality of Santa.

It really isn’t the man dressed up in a red suit that creates the Santa Claus I have in my beliefs. Santa brings smiles along with gifts and his mere presence in the mental processes of adults and children fully represent what I believe to be the true spirit of Christmas.

How can anyone who feels the spirit of celebrating the birth of the Christ child decry the happiness and joy the Christmas season - not to even mention Christmas morning - can bring? Who can take away that sheer joy of giving presents with love and endearment?

While I would never pretend to be able to speak directly about Christ’s thoughts from the many things I have read and seen during my time in church and other selfless events there is little doubt in my cynical, subjective mind there always has been and always will be a Santa Claus.

The joy of Christmas cannot be denied.

Yes, there is a Santa my darling grandchildren, as long as there is happiness in your lives. You can trust your Papaw with that fact.

And so, for another week, thanks and thirty.

Contact Hank Bond via email at [email protected].