Christmas – Page 2

Santa Claus and the Spirit of Giving

Santa Claus. Saint Nicholas. Kris Kringle. Father Christmas. Known by many names, Santa is an almost universally recognized part of the Christmas celebration. To some, he’s an integral symbol of the holiday; to others, he’s a controversial, commercialized figure who’s pulled the holiday too far away from its origins honoring Jesus Christ’s birth.

To me, Santa represents the embodiment of a giving spirit. Like the 4^th Century Greek bishop Nikolaos of Myra, or Saint Nicholas, who gave gifts anonymously and hid coins in the shoes of children, Santa Claus recognizes even the littlest among us. Like Santa and Jesus Christ, who lost his life for preaching a message of salvation, giving to others in need is something we can all do at Christmastime.

Whether in his Swedish, Chinese, American, or incarnation, Santa is one of the world’s most recognizable figures. I haven’t visited his home in the North Pole or Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland (if you ask the Finns), but he often stops by our home to give presents to good children and those who are young at heart.

My son and I track Santa’s progress via the NORAD Tracker as he delivers presents to children around the world on Christmas Eve. When he’s a time zone or two away from arriving at our house, Alex writes St. Nick a note with his Christmas wish list, puts out milk and something sweet to eat, and darts off to bed. Whenever my son asks me if Santa Claus exists, I simply answer that he only visits those who believe in him. Those who don’t aren’t ready to accept his gift.

May this Christmas season be a gift to you!

M.G. Edwards is a writer of books and stories in the mystery, thriller and science fiction-fantasy genres. He also writes travel adventures. He is author of Kilimanjaro: One Man’s Quest to Go Over the Hill, a non-fiction account of his attempt to summit Mount Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain and a collection of short stories called Real Dreams: Thirty Years of Short Stories. His books are available as an e-book and in print on Amazon.com and other booksellers. He lives in Bangkok, Thailand with his wife Jing and son Alex.

For more books or stories by M.G. Edwards, visit his web site at www.mgedwards.com or his blog, World Adventurers. Contact him at me@mgedwards.com, on Facebook, on Google+, or @m_g_edwards on Twitter.

Christmas Greetings 2012

For general Christmas greetings and more, visit my Thoughts & Sayings.

I want to depart from travelogues for a few days to focus on my favorite holiday, Christmas.

I love Christmas and its many traditions. The celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth and the trappings of the season hold a special place in my heart. No matter where in the world I live or what cultural events and traditions I observe, Christmas will always be my favorite.

When I was young, I used to draw illustrated Christmas cards for family and friends. In the days before technology made it easier to do graphic design, I spent hours sketching cartoon characters and winter scenes by hand. I haven’t had time in years to sit down and sketch a Yuletide scene — I barely have time nowadays to send out an annual Christmas letter — but I still enjoy looking at cards from Christmases past.

Here are some of them. I hope they make your holidays a little brighter!

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a joyous holiday season!

Our Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas. We were very busy, and the time passed by too quickly, as you can probably tell from the delay in blog postings. My cousin Wade came for a visit, so I didn’t have much time to spend on the computer. He’s a saint for helping me rebuilding my computer. I upgraded the hard drive, RAM, and the power supply, so it now performs as it should have all along. It turns out that the culprit was the power supply. When I last updated about 3 years ago I did not change the power supply. I upgraded from a 550MB Duron microprocessor to a 2.4GHz P4 chip, but I didn’t change out the power supply. It never did run right. Now it does, thanks to cuz’.

While Wade was here we visited the Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Center located next to Dulles International Airport. It’s an extension of the Air & Space Museum located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. We also went down to the National Mall and visited the Museum of American History, the National Archives, and the Air & Space Museum. I had never visited the first two museums, so it was a treat for me to see them for the first time (I never tour the Mall anymore). We also did a “Lord of the Rings” marathon, watching most of the extended versions of all three LOTR movies. It’s absolutely mind numbing after about 8 hours. If you sit and watch all three movies, it will take you about 12 hours to do it. Definitely not for the faint of heart. I thoroughly enjoyed it though because I consider the trilogy three of the finest movies ever produced. They are masterpieces.

On Christmas Eve we searched frantically for dinner. We arrived home too late to cook and decided to order take-out food. I contacted at least 5 restaurants until I found a Thai restaurant open. Lesson learned–don’t try to go out to eat after 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve! The selection is grim. We spent Christmas day with Wade’s Aunt Joann, whom I’ve also adopted as my aunt. She prepared a delicious Christmas dinner and decorated her home for the holidays, putting us all in a festive mood. Our son was the hit of the party though as we spent much of the time following him around, making sure that he didn’t break anything or fall down the stairs. We usually spend Christmas with my parents, but because our short time in the Washington, D.C. area we weren’t able to make it home for the holidays. We have no Christmas or decorations at home other than a single stocking that holds the Christmas cards we receive. Not too festive, methinks. Still, it’s nice to have a chance to take a break from the rigamarole of Korean class and briefly enjoy the holidays.