Christmas Gifts

Like everyone else I am shopping for Christmas gifts. But it is one of those tasks of the year I do not dread doing (at least for now since we are a few weeks away from Christmas). I like it. Christmas has always been one of my favorite holidays. I like getting gifts for my family and seeing their reactions when they open the gift more than receiving gifts. I especially like the kids reactions at seeing the things they receive. It is all about the feeling of holiday for me.

While it is not true for everyone, when I looked about the mall today with people running about and doing their shopping, for the most part everyone is happy and everyone is thinking of others more than themselves. You can feel the good energy around you, it is genuine, and it is contagious.

Could you imagine if this concept of "thinking of others more than yourself" carried forward into the workplace and your personal life on more than just November/December of every year? What kind of world would this be? This is not a new concept, but it is pretty powerful. Some have called it "pay it forward," the Christian faith refers to it as loving your neighbor as yourself, and others have even built marketing campaigns off of it like Liberty Mutual:



I think for the most part, people have the ability and demonstrate that they can do it, because if they could not, then Christmas would not come for anyone every year. I think this type of generosity and feeling is what the new, improved Ebeneezer Scrooge was described as having learned in Dickens, A Christmas Carol. The issue I think is that people lose the feeling and go back to the day to day and the same old, same old once the holiday is over. Also, when we encounter a bad situation, "jerkstore" person or negative energy a big, dark cloud forms over our heads that dampens our spirit. But if the Christmas feeling really is contagious and the energy perpetuates from one person to another, then why can it not happen throughout the year? Then what a world this would really be!