Christmas Spirit 

Written By: Sienna Ducharme

Merry Christmas! It’s the most wonderful time of the year! For this month of December (and even some of November, for those enthusiastic enough) we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ into this world as a human baby.

I love Christmas. I enjoy decorating the Christmas tree, eating as many cookies as possible, seeing houses lit up with lights, and giving gifts to my family. But, what I especially love about Christmas is ‘Christmas Spirit’.

Christmas miracles are not a myth, they really happen. Christmas brings people together; it makes people a little kinder. And kindness creates all kinds of miracles. Wasn’t it Christmas Day when Ebenezer Scrooge finally softened his heart?

I have had so many wonderful Christmas experiences during my 18 years, but one in particular comes to mind for me in this moment.  

I was on a family shopping trip in the Detroit area of Michigan, across the border from my home in the Windsor area of Ontario. Typically, being in another country will make you a little more wary of your surroundings, because it isn’t as familiar to you. The holiday spirit really wasn’t in me that day, I was tired from traveling and I wanted to go home.

My family and I were shopping at a large chain store, and as we were checking out we were given a free roast chicken with our purchase. My family is vegetarian, but we accepted the chicken anyway. My family never turns down a good deal. Obviously we weren’t going to eat the chicken, so we had to decide what to do with it. We could bring it home for our dog (who most certainly would have appreciated it) but it didn’t seem at all right to feed a perfectly good roast chicken to a dog.

We exited the store, and wished the man attending a Salvation Army Christmas kettle a Merry Christmas. There wasn’t really anything about him that suggested he was in need, but as we walked to our car, my mom suggested we give the chicken to him. So as we unloaded our purchases in the car, my mom took the chicken back to the front of the store to give to him.

Just take a moment here to understand the situation. That roast chicken was free. We didn’t even know about it until we bought enough stuff to actually be given one at checkout. We also don’t eat chicken, and haven’t for about a decade. That chicken meant nothing to us, but to the man attending the Salvation Army Christmas kettle, that roast chicken meant a whole lot. He didn’t tell my mom why, but I remember that she said he was incredibly emotional and grateful.  

It has stuck with me, his reaction, to that roast chicken that meant nothing to me. It’s difficult to realize the level of blessed you are until something like that happens. I think about him sometimes, hope that he’s okay. Maybe that roast chicken was his Christmas miracle. If it was, I wish I could’ve given him a better one. I like to think that God took care of him that Christmas, gave him what he needed when he really needed it. And I hope God sent some other miracles his way.

I love Christmas because it encourages people to spread a little more kindness, and I believe it is because the Holy Spirit works in people’s hearts in an especially wonderful way during the Christmas Season. Christmas miracles really do happen!

“Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” ~Romans 5:5 

Merry Christmas, dear readers!

Until Next Time,

~Sienna