Christmas character should be a given, shouldn’t it? I don’t mean your favorite character in a Christmas story or pageant. This isn’t about Christmas character cards with Mickey Mouse and friends celebrating the holiday. Nor is it about Christmas characters that decorate lawns and gardens, boxes and bags. I mean the kind of excellence in moral values this blog always discusses. The qualities we find on every good list of character traits.
Christmas character is the exercise, during the Christmas season, of that same excellence in moral values. That should be a given, shouldn’t it? If ever we were going to see the exercise of love, respect, responsibility, compassion, integrity, and other such traits, we should see it during this season of the year. If ever we going to be serious about exercising moral values ourselves, it should be during these holidays.
Christmas character can be shown in shopping malls, but is it? Do we exercise it when we go shopping? When purchase of that “must-have” toy involves standing in a long line, do we exercise patience and respect for others in the line? Do we teach our children to exercise respect when standing in line? They learn readily from Georgey Giraffe’s Giant Respect that this is a good thing to do. Do they learn as readily from watching us? we can model respect for our children while shopping, or we can model disrespect.
Christmas character can be exercised in our homes, too. Is it? With the added shopping, the parties, extra cooking, and other activities, do we exercise responsibility? Do we still maintain priorities, and accomplish the work we know we should? When we accept responsibility for providing cookies for a party, or getting the decorations, do we fulfill that responsibility with all that is in us? Do we teach our children to be responsible at this time of year, just as they should be at any time? Cubby Bear’s Big Responsibility is a lovely way to do that teaching, and the book’s bright red cover helps children fit in right into their holiday imaginations.
Christmas character can be shown in our gifts. It’s much more important than the DVDs, cameras, or toys we give. We insert Christmas character into gift-giving when we take time to show love – when we think through what is best for the person to whom we are giving. We insert Christmas character when we give children gifts that build, rather than destroy, high moral values. There’s a huge difference between a toy gun and a Jeremy Rabbit gift set. Teenagers who love to read can be given character-destroying books or character- building books such as Passport to Courage and Date with Responsibility. We can wrap up preteen books that encourage character, such as the Character Mystery Series, or give preteens the latest pop culture books. Even adults on our lists will appreciate character – and a Character Builder book will get them ready for New Year’s resolutions.
The choice is ours. We can show others with our actions and gifts that we value character, or we can hide it away until the holidays are past.
Christmas character consists of the same strong moral values a man or woman of character exercises throughout the year, but they can be strongly tested during this season.
That’s the view from my chair. What’s your view?