My Christmas Wish

I have to admit I struggle with Christmas each year.  I love the idea of the holiday but Christmas and I just don’t tend to get along.  I tend to find that if something bad is going to happen to me it seems to happen around Christmas (or maybe I’m just more sensitive to the things that happen at this time of year).  I always go into the season with the hope and expectation that things will be amazing & wonderful.  Sadly, I usually find myself disappointed.  I don’t think I’m alone in this - I think lots of people build up Christmas and are disappointed when it doesn’t go as planned.  I also think that I can’t possibly be the only one that suffers with wanting feel more Christmassy (I mean there is even that song “Where are You Christmas” by Faith Hill).  I have to double my efforts to try keeping a positive attitude during this time of year but -- my family can attest to this -- my best efforts aren’t always successful.  This year it feels even tougher for me.  I am finding that my mood is not very Christmassy and I decided to try and do something about it this year. 

When I started to try and figure out when my mood shifted and began to drop, I realized that it was as soon as I was done organizing, wrapping and dropping off the gifts that I had arranged for the Christmas family I adopted.  Adopting a Christmas family has been a tradition that we have done at work as long as I have been there (7 years for those who are wondering).  It is something I have always loved helping with and was excited to be able to take the lead on last year.  This year I wasn’t sure how it would work because my workplace is still displaced from the floods in June so the traditional fundraising we would do was not as practical or easy to arrange.  Logistically this meant I was fighting an uphill battle to get the funds I needed to give a special family an amazing gift.  The Christmas family gave me a purpose for the month of November.  I was on the hunt for the perfect gifts for the family.  I’m not normally a shopper but when I hit the malls for my Christmas family I feel like I’m on top of the world.  Once it was done though I felt my usual wave of disappointment because I had lost that sense of purpose.  I feel this year that sense of disappointment seemed stronger but I think that is just because it was such a surprising year.  I was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be the most successful of gift drives (and had even set aside a large chunk of my own Christmas budget to go towards the family) but I was blown away by the generosity of my friends and co-workers.  I honestly think that this was the most successful year.  It has left me just wanting to do more.

This desire to do more led me to the idea for my Christmas wish which is for a happier, kinder, more generous world.  Now sadly I don’t have a magic wand or a fairy godmother to actually make this wish happen for the world but I can make this happen for a few random people that happen to cross my path between now and Christmas.  I will do my best to try and make a small difference in the world directly around me.  I don’t have a true plan yet but I know that the more good deeds I can do the better I will feel.  Now please don’t get me wrong I try to do good things year round because I have always felt a strong drive to try and make a difference for people but at this time of year I actually crave the mood boost that comes with those good deeds more.

More than that though, my wish is for anyone who is reading this blog (I know it’s not a huge list of people) to also go out and try the same thing.  Ask your own friends to join in this mission.  I would love to see everyone go out and do something unexpected and wonderful for someone else.  Shovel a walk for a neighbour, hold open a door for someone, volunteer somewhere, buy a coffee for the person in line behind you – just go out and do something positive and nice for someone be they family, friend, neighbour or stranger.  This time of year as we rush around and get stressed out you would be amazed at how great you will feel knowing you made someone else smile (and I promise that even if you don’t see it, you will make the recipient smile – for all the good deeds I have done I have also been blessed enough to experience some of it in return).  I would love to read about your own experiences in the comments section at the end of this post.  Share your own stories, help give me ideas for more I can do and let’s show the world that there are people who are willing to do nice things for other people just because they can.  Let’s find a way to bring a little more peace, goodwill and holiday cheer to our world (even if it is just the small part we as individuals take up on this planet).  I promise if you are suffering from lack of that Christmassy feeling that after you do even just one good deed you will start to feel it.

Join with me for the next ten days and try to do something good for someone.  Let’s show the world how generous we can really be by putting our best foot forward.  We can create a happier, kinder and more generous world one good deed at a time.