For me, Christmas is all about the lights – indoors, outdoors, wherever. While I’m not thrilled with putting them up and taking them down, I always appreciate the effort others make to create a festive spirit. Our small village puts up a lovely annual display called “Festival of Lights” in the town park near our home. The dogs and I have observed the workers putting up the lighted displays since right after Halloween. Festivals take time to organize, and the big kickoff for the Festival of Lights was a holiday parade on Black Friday evening. There was a high school band (at least one) and lighted floats and of course, candy tossed to the spectators. I could have walked down the street to watch that night, but it was cold and windy, so I saw what I could from a bedroom window. Now the lights are on every evening at dusk through sunrise the next morning, and I can see some of them from my home.
The beautiful light displays make the cold and blustery winter season a little more bearable, a little more beautiful though certainly I can’t discount the beauty of a skiff of snow covering the grass before it is marred by footprints. My point is that someone had to make an effort to create that beauty. It didn’t just happen, like the dusting of snow I was talking about. The lights required somone, a whole crew of someones, to plan, make sure sufficient electrical power was available, and endure the weather conditions whatever they might be to install the displays. Someone or someones had a vision for what this Festival of Lights might bring to our little community as well as the rural folks living nearby. I mean, my husband and I drove through the festival on a Monday night, and there were two or three cars ahead of us and behind us. It takes all of seven minutes to do that, so you get the idea that it’s not a large, professional installation that businesses charge people to see. The people behind the Festival of Lights in my little village intended to create beauty and share it during the darkest time of the year, I’m pretty much sure of that.
I have a friend who knits beautiful baby sweaters and then sews matching dresses for them. They often are made from the softest wool (the kind you have to handwash) with decorative beading knitted into them. Making these beautiful sweaters gives her such pleasure, but the joy doesn’t stop there. Her son asked if he could gift a sweater she had made to his hair stylist who had just had a baby. When he gave it to the hair stylist, she cried and said it was the most beautiful sweater she had ever seen. As a result of my friend creating beauty and joy for herself, two other people (her son and the hair stylist, maybe the baby, too) also shared in the beauty and joy. And that makes me consider how I might create beauty and share it, not for money but for the joy that comes from creating something and sharing it with the world. Intentionally creating beauty and joy, whether it is smalltown holiday lights or beautiful baby sweaters, can’t help but spill out and meet the need everyone has for beauty, joy, and light.