Yep. It’s almost Christmas. Last weekend, Cath and I went to Ford’s Theater to attend the play “A Christmas Carol”. This is the 5th or 6th year in a row that we’ve watched it at Ford’s, and it never fails to put me in the Christmas spirit. This wonderful story of redemption can soften even the grinchiest of hearts.

Redemption is a theme running through many of our favorite Christmas stories or movies. This is particularly true in “A Christmas Carol” and “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”, which are remarkably similar tales.

After the Grinch’s Christmas attack on Whoville, who doesn’t love his redemption and rebirth?

“He puzzled and puzzed till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

Maybe Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.

Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more!”

And we all know how Scrooge acts after the visit of the three ghosts. At the end of “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge tell us –

“I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future! The Spirit of all Three shall strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley! Heaven and the Christmas Time be praised for this!”

While the stories of Scrooge and the Grinch are secular Christmas tales, their stories certainly fit the theme of redemption that runs throughout Christianity. Maybe that’s why both stories resonate so strongly with me. There is always hope for us as we go through life, no matter our mistakes and issues from the past. There is always hope.

My wish is that all of you find your Christmas and Holiday spirit this year. Maybe each of us can take a few minutes from our busy lives of work, responsibility and worry to celebrate the holiday and our fellow man. Dickens tells us at the end of “A Christmas Carol” –

“…he [Scrooge] knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us and all of us. As Tiny Tim observed, God bless us, Every One!”

May that be said of all of us. Merry Christmas friends….

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Addendum: While attending Ottawa High School back in the day, I was a part of a choral reading group called Voices. There were about 10 of us, and we would recite various poems or stories with both choral and solo parts. We performed at various hospitals, old folk homes, and the like. The two poems I remember to this day are “The Hollow Men” by T.S. Elliot, and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” by Dr. Seuss. One of my solo lines in the latter was –

If I can’t find a reindeer, I’ll make one instead!

So he called his dog, Max. Then he took some red thread,

And he tied a big horn on the top of his head.

THEN He loaded some bags And some old empty sacks,

On a ramshackle sleigh And he hitched up old Max.

Funny what stays with you…..