as though its settled habit were suicide.
In the feast of peace, and in the life of Him whose feast it is, there lies a lesson in peaceableness and forgiveness — one mankind has not heeded for twenty centuries; it is as if, for all their great age, men were still children quarreling over pieces of candy at the holidays. All I hope is that neither I, nor my two beloved children and their mother, may witness a new world war — a third among the wars I have lived through. For I was born in the First Great War, I witnessed the Second World War, and today I witness the third —
and this war is cold, freezing the limbs and threatening to blaze up between one Christmas and the next.
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The first thing I think of on this day is the gathering of the family at one time and around one object. Then, my father's feast day falls on the twenty-third of this month, so for its sake all the members of our family gather at our house and
remain until the twenty-fifth has passed, and we celebrate the two feasts together.
You may be surprised when I tell you that I do not favor staying up late that night; on the contrary, the atmosphere Christmas suggests to me is the atmosphere of the warm house that endears one's bed to one, so you will see me go to my bed on that day earlier than on any other. And what I think of is offering a few presents to family and friends — it makes no difference to me how small the present or how little its value.
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The greatness of Christmas is revealed in its simplicity, for Christ was born and lived humbly; and the quieter and simpler its celebrations, the farther from clamor, the more we feel their splendor, because they bring us nearer to reality and to the sublimity of truth.
Among the chief causes of man's misery is his thinking of himself and his private needs. Christmas and its presents make us forget ourselves and think of others, and so we see merriment and happiness reflected on our faces and spreading abroad in this season. Thinking of others begets feeling and sympathy with the floundering, needy world.
Christmas is merry, innocent
childhood, for the Savior was born a child. He came as a little child to live among us, to know our problems, to see the trials on the road of our life, and then to find them solutions. It is the feast of salvation. Christmas, seen in this idea, makes me hallow this feast and give it a special place in my soul.
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Christmas reminds me of two important things: first, the union of the family; then, release from the daily duties that fall upon one's shoulders. Its importance for me is bound up with the religious side, which makes me sing of childhood and hallow it; and I strive to offer gifts to those who need them, because the teachings of my religion, which began with this feast, oblige us to give of ourselves without waiting for thanks or return for what we have given.
What I always remember at this feast is the days of my children's childhood, when they would hang their stockings on their beds and wait for the presents in them. I would perform this task at night, feeling all the while that they saw me and heard my movements; but they would pretend to be asleep. Each of us felt the other's presence, yet neither of us declared it, lest we spoil the meaning of that symbol which used to dawn upon us.