Can you believe in magic again?
Usually at this time of the year we are starting to turn our thoughts to the last minute Christmas gifts, chasing our tails trying to follow through on our social commitments, the office party and filling the fridge with our favourite bits.
It’s been very well documented that 2020 has been a year like no other and it also looks like this Christmas will be the same. Different.
Notwithstanding that, I've been trying to think exactly what is it that makes Christmas feel so special? Clearly, it’s not just the receiving of presents, the big turkey and ham dinner or the addictive cheesy Christmas movies!
My personal belief is that Christmas is so special because it is the one time of year that we unconsciously, and very quickly, get taken back instantly to our childhood.
Think back to your earliest Christmas Eve’s, when you fully and wholly believed that Santa was on his way. He had seen, read and acted upon the letter you had sent him. This same letter that was in your head for months as you deliberated over the ultimate choice of Tiny Tears, Barbie, Cindy, Girls World or roller skates.
Showing my age with that list, I know, but my point is simply that as children (if we are fortunate enough) we have nothing but happy memories from that time of year - the decorations, the Christmas tree, having all your family together, your presents, selection boxes, Quality Street, mince pies, crackers honestly, the list of reasons that Christmas evokes such joyful memories is endless.
Honestly, nothing else transports you back to that joyful time with such speed, more than Christmas!
As you get older, reality inevitably moves in and you are reluctantly forced to grow up. Over the years, you'll lose some of the people that feature heavily in those memories and that’s so incredibly hard.
Christmas changes and with each loss we find ourselves a little more disconnected from the memories.
But the magic never dies – that part of you that feels the love, believes you are cherished, who feels connected and part of something special - it’s there if you just close your eyes and open your heart.
That's the magic of Christmas.
It's the power of deep memories. They never leave you.
Notice the signs all around you, no matter what your beliefs, it could be seeing white feathers in unusual places, or red-breasted robins in your garden, or even rainbow reflections - I believe these are the ways our loved ones have of letting us know that they are with us from the other side!
That's my version of magic and I cannot tell you the comfort it brings me! Christmas changed for me when I lost my family, but the memories are as strong now and just as reassuring at this time of the year as they always were.
So no matter how sad you might be feeling about all how this year won’t be the same, or that you won’t be able to spend it with all of those you would want to, return to that childhood memory, cling to it, expand it and know that next year it will be your reality again.
But for this year you just have to let the magic in.
Are you ready to believe in magic again? I do hope so...