Yesterday, I watched a movie on the Hallmark Channel called Annie Claus is Coming to Town. It was, in many ways, a typical made-for-cable Christmas film: cute, sweet, and inoffensive. The flick's plot: Santa Claus' daughter Annie (Maria Thayer) makes her first-ever trip outside the North Pole, and ends up in Los Angeles. As you'd expect, she ends up making friends, finding love, and helping others. One thing that Annie says in the movie is, "Miracles always happen at Christmas." She says that to try to encourage the owner of a small toy shop who has been hard-up for money ever since a giant competing chain (a la Toys "R" Us) opened not too far from there. That optimistic statement proved to be correct, thanks to the work of her and her new-found friends.
Although that may just be a Hallmark Channel movie, I believe Annie's statement is true. In fact, Christmas is all because of a miracle; the whole reason for the holiday is because of the Savior of the world coming to our lowly planet to live among us. Even beyond that, good things can happen during the holiday season. That's not to say everything that happens is wonderful; the "shoe bomber" incident, which happened on Christmas 2009, was quite shocking. Still, the holidays are a very happy time, unlike any other part of the year.
Some of you long-time friends of mine may remember that, during previous Decembers, I've expressed feelings of despair, usually because of what I didn't have: a job, a relationship, a social life, friends to hang out with, etc. That's actually nothing new; I can still remember feeling that way as far back as 1995, when I was only seven. Still, the key difference is that I'm not feeling that this year, which, in my opinion, is a Christmas miracle. It may be because 2011 has been a year of huge changes; between being hired by a library in October, deciding to look at others' relationships differently around the same time, and making Victoria Justice my top celebrity crush in January, things are entirely different now than they were at the end of 2010. It actually makes me excited for 2012; who knows what great changes are waiting down the line? I'm sure that, barring some sudden tragedy between now and then, I'm going to have a truly Merry Christmas this year, the likes of which I haven't seen in a very long time, if I ever have. That's truly something to be thankful for, and I think that's the way the true reason for the season would want it.
Any comments?
