This is one of my favorite passages about Christmas, from Stave 1, “Marley’s Ghost” in a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.
‘There are many things from which I might have derived good, by which I have not profited, I dare say,’ returned the nephew: ‘Christmas among the rest. But I am sure I have always thought Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time: a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good and will do me go good; and I say, God Bless it!’
We’re running on a minimal basis the next couple of weeks to enjoy the time with our families &friends. We wish you all the best this Holiday Season, and a wonderful year in 2012.
