Lost In A Christmas Store

Here we are near the end of July and I’m thinking Christmas! It’s been delightful to watch Christmas movies on Hallmark all month.  Just yesterday my daughter was showing me pictures of ornaments she’s ordered for her children for the tree this year.  Perhaps your not a Christmas in July type person, but I ask you to stay with me a few moments.

I heard the cutest response about what a person might do if they were lost in a store overnight.  One excited girl said she’d go to the food court, have sundaes, try on new make up and all the different clothes styles;  then visit the electronic department, choose several DVD’s and watch them on the big screen TV’s.   Next she’d go to the craft department, open watercolors and create a painting.  And finally end her night by choosing a good book, curling up on the mattress of her choice and go to sleep!

Her answer was interesting, but I wonder if it would change if it were a Christmas store?  I have these images of “elves” lurking in the shadows until everyone is gone, then they come out and enjoy the Christmas trees, throw “elf dust” around so everything shimmers and reflects the marvelous decorations.  Christmas carols are playing and then they gather around the fire place to eat cookies and other sweets and drink eggnog.

So if a body were locked in a Christmas store with “elves” what would be the possibilities?  There are lots of Christmas shows that use elves, especially any that include a Santa storyline.  Elves apparently can come in a variety of sizes and can look completely human and totally unlike what we think elves might look like.  In Christmas shows they often come in the sense of “angels” to help someone “find” Christmas.

Would our ‘experience’ look totally different from each other if we were wealthy or poor, disabled, from a different country and culture, of a different faith, or even as a child, teen, mid-adult or senior citizen?  I suspect yes, to all those possibilities.

The likelihood of getting locked in a Christmas store is minimal, but the idea of being an “elf” might be a really neat idea.  Could we be the elf in someone’s life who desperately needs encouraging?  Could we be the one who “showers elf dust” on a family who has little or nothing for Christmas?

I just recently learned about the tradition of “The Elf on the Shelf.”  It seems the elf is Santa’s scout to keep an eye on boys and girls around the world.  I heard the elf is used as a behavior modification object so children are on their best behavior during the Christmas season.  I’m not sure how I feel about that, yet the expression, “Santa knows who’s been naughty or nice” has been around for years.

We seem to have no trouble believing in Santa.  Our children learn about the “fat man in the red suit” as soon as they can understand information.  What about the idea of being the “elf that helps!”  Suppose we are locked in a Christmas store and we assume the identity of “The Elf That Helps” and readies all the merchandise for those families who have little or no Christmas.

I know there are organizations who do this sort of thing, but is it possible to take it a step further and make it personal for someone in our neighborhood, in our child’s class at school, or someone in your church?  The possibilities are endless but as “The Elf That Helps” we could devote part of our Christmas time to helping others.   ….And being locked in a Christmas store would generate a lot of ideas; kind of like when I was a child and scoured the Sears, Montgomery Ward and J.C. Penny Christmas Catalogs!

Christmas shouldn’t be ‘just a season.’  It’s a state of mind that should remain in our hearts all year long.  Perhaps there is someone who needs a dose of your “joy” to make this day special!

Happy Summer ‘Christmas’, everyone!