Dear <<First Name>>,

What does Christmas mean to you?

No doubt, the Christmas season carries load of meaning, embedding deep into our being. Customs, culture, faith, and more all come together in a reeling and spectacular way at Christmas. As I contemplate what it means to me that the creator God of the universe made himself incarnate through his son being born in the lowliest of situations, I can’t help but marvel in the creativity of it all.

I’ve been particularly intrigued by the excitement of our children and the story of the Magi. If you have some time you might read a little bit of T. S. Eliot. He has two short poems, both of which have helped me consider what the arrival of Christ means to me. Please enjoy.

Wishing you a warm and Merry Christmas, celebrating the joy of the arrival of the Christ child.

From the Eisenmann Family to yours

So that the reverence and the gaiety

May not be forgotten in later experience,

In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium,

The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure

Eliot, T. S. “The Cultivation of Christmas Trees.” Farrar Straus Giroux. New York. 1956. Lines 18-21.

** Click the links in the citations for the full text.**

We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

Eliot, T. S. “Journey of the Magi.” The Poetry Archive. n.d. Web. December 2020. Lines 40-43.