Christmas is…big enough for all the varied traditions which it encompasses, and then some, and any attempt to reduce it to one specific “reason for the season” which excludes all others is selfish, childish and ultimately a theft of the spirit of the holiday, which is about giving and sharing. – Maggie McNeill
Over the past five years, I’ve written quite a lot about Christmas; every year I do columns for Yule, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day, and that isn’t even including the annual Saint Nicholas columns and my day-after-Thanksgiving grouse, the one I did for Cliterati last year, several different Christmas fictional interludes and other Christmassy sorts of columns. Unless you’ve been reading me religiously for most of those five years, I doubt you’ve read everything I have written on the subject…and if you have been reading me religiously for most of those five years, you’re probably ready for me to shut up about it by now. So this time, I’m just going to point you to the columns I linked above, and to suggest you also scan the December archives for each of those years. Y’all have probably noticed that my holiday columns are a lot shorter these days; I’m mostly down to the equivalent of a greeting card now, and I’m comfortable with that because I’ve written a lot about those other holidays, too. Christmas is for being with those one loves, so that’s exactly what I’ll be doing for the next several days; I hope all of you have similar opportunities, and I wish all of you the very merriest of Christmases. 
