There's a line at the start of the song Hot for Teacher by Van Halen (from their album 1984) where Dave Lee Roth says "I don't feel tardy." Well, I'm channeling him today when I say "I don't feel the Christmas spirit." With only a few weeks until this very special time of the year, it just feels like any other Saturday in winter. My holiday spirit meter is sitting at zero. Sometimes the jump start that I need to get into the swing of things is provided by the usual slate of animated specials on T.V., sometimes it's the decorations in the stores, and sometimes it's the pretty decorative lights on the houses in my neighborhood. Oh, and sure, there have been plenty of years where the palpable excitement emanating from my little one is enough to defrost any frozen, Scrooge-encrusted attitude. Yet, somehow, this year I just don't sense the spirit of the season.
So, what is the cure? What can be done? My guess is the best tonic will be putting up the Christmas tree this weekend with my daughter. This seems like a great first step. One of the things I love about decorating our tree is that each of the ornaments that we have has a story behind it. Just looking at them can sure take me back and get me all misty-eyed. Yet those tears in the corners of my eyes never stay long when my little one is bouncing around and singing and filling the whole house with her excitement. It really is contagious. Yeah, that seems like a good first step.
