Sizing things up for Christmas

By tim Kalinowski
I am beginning to feel the Christmas spirit, despite my worldly cynicism. It crept up on me quite unconsciously last week when I caught myself singing Christmas tunes under my breath. It beset me with a sudden urge to go out and look at Christmas lights around town, and rate their worthiness on the Griswold scale. I began measuring everything around with my eye, imaging how it might look wrapped in Christmas paper. The stapler, the telephone, my ballpoint pen, my Tim Horton’s cup… so many creative possibilities.
I arose suddenly last Wednesday and went into my dank broom closet and dug toward the back to uncover my ready-made Christmas centrepiece to put on my table top. My golden Christmas wreath and Victorian snowman soon followed.
I soon had the urge to head to the mall and look at all the decorations in the stores, view the seasonal displays and commune with my fellow searchers in the annual Yuletide ritual of gift shopping. I bought my holiday cards and envelopes to send out to my more distant relatives via the post office. I caught glimpses of cheesy Christmas movies in passing, and, instead of sneering at their silliness, as is my wont, I began to watch them with some degree of seasonal feeling in my heart.
Upon seeing a white bearded man with a large stomach, Santa Claus became my first thought. Upon seeing attached earlobes on passersby, elves.
Could it be true? Could Christmas have caught me so unawares, entered my mind and brought its warmth despite the chilly weather? It could. In fact, it surely did.
Economic doom and gloom, dark horizons of politics and fragmenting social divisions be damned. This year Christmas will by my guiding star.
Despite a tortured world, I have decided to dance the Yuletide round, and allow my spirit to travel down the celestial pathways through the eternal season of goodwill, love and joy.
May these pathways open to all of you in this very special Christmas season.

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