Spreading Some Christmas Cheer!

But I am sure that I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round… as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely. –Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

I love Christmas time it tends to just go to my bones!  Unfortunately like many Holidays it has tended to lose its real meaning in the hustle and bustle of commercialism and stress that comes with trying to do all the shopping in time for the big day.  But as I shared in My Christmas Message 2011 it is a great time to go out of your way and to reach out to others in a very special way!  As I shared in the video message, we do “clown therapy all year round, but Christmas is a special time for everyone to put our pride, and our business aside and reach out to others.

This year, as in past years, we have been visiting several hospitals to sing and make special balloon characters and just cheer people up who may need a bit of cheering.  In this picture to the left both Alisa, our 16-year-old daughter and James, another young man went to visit both the Pediatric and Elderly wards of a local hospital.  They went around with our son-in-law Danilo who played the guitar and sang some traditional Christmas carols for the patients.  After singing, they were also able to share a few words with the patients to let them know that they were there for them.  This one woman in particular was awestruck by these two young people, she is 96 years old and had not experienced anything of the sort!  Needless to say, she was happy to have this special visit!

Sad to say, many of these older folks hardly ever have a visit so it is even more special to have, and in this case, a visit by young people both Italian and American to take the time to have a little chat together!

James went all out and dressed up as Santa to visit with the children in the Pediatrics ward and needless to say they were pretty surprised to have this visit by probably the youngest members of  Santa’s helpers.  The kids didn’t know what to think about this room invasion, but they were glad to get distracted from their otherwise unpleasant hospital stay when they would very much prefer being somewhere else doing anything but be bed-ridden!  It is kind of nice for the parents as well as they tend to run out of things to entertain their children with.

Danilo knows a few magic tricks and will pull out a few tricks here and there as well, a pretty talented Santa’s helper with a guitar strung around his neck.  They spent the better part of the day at the Hospital in Magenta, Italy and had lots of fun. It was a bit difficult to have to leave at the end of the day!

I truly hope that you too will be able to have some fun, even if not in a hospital, just do something unusual to make the days leading up to Christmas more pleasant for those around you, and before you know it, you’ll be having the time of your life!  There are memories that last forever and will go a very long way in making this Christmas, despite the current difficulties you may be facing, the best one ever!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!