Happy Holidays

I’m deep into the last-minute preparations – baking, cleaning, wrapping presents – for our family’s Christmas celebrations. But today, I took a couple of hours off to have a hot chocolate with a good friend, and when I got home, a package was waiting for me from another, who lives on the other side of the country from me.

Inside? A box of her homemade sponge toffee.

It made me teary-eyed when I opened it and saw that she’d taken the time to send a homemade treat from 3500km away.

For me, that’s exactly the kind of thing that makes the magic of Christmas. It’s lovely to do nice things for people at any time of year, but there’s something special about a stretch of time in darkest winter when so many people make an effort to be especially kind to one another, to help out, to choose gifts for people they might not regularly have the chance to buy or make things for, to remind the people they love that they love them, to send a handwritten card, to wish each other happiness, to hold a door open for someone laden with packages, and so much more. That’s what this time of year is about for me.

To all of you, whatever you celebrate, happy holidays. I wish you magic.