Christmas List

I love Christmas. The decorating, the gift giving, the family time. It is literally my favorite time of the year. Not just because my birthday is also in the mix, but there’s that too.

As soon as it’s mildly socially acceptable, I break out the Christmas music. The boys tolerate my singing for a song, if I’m lucky, and then they clamor for their own entertainment. One of my favorite CDs is the Pentatonix Christmas CD. For those of you who don’t know, it’s just voices, no instruments.

Every year, I weep when hearing this song …

Grown Up Christmas List by Kelly Clarkson

Do you remember me
I sat upon your knee
I wrote to you with childhood fantasies
Well I’m all grown up now
And still need help somehow
I’m not a child but my heart still can dream

So here’s my lifelong wish
My grown up Christmas list
Not for myself but for a world in need
No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end, no
This is my grown up Christmas list

As children we believe
The grandest sight to see
Was something lovely wrapped beneath the tree
But Heaven only knows
That packages and bows
Can never heal a heartached human soul

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end, no
This is my grown up Christmas list

What is this illusion called the innocence of youth
Maybe only in our blind belief can we ever find the truth

No more lives torn apart
That wars would never start
And time would heal all hearts
And everyone would have a friend
And right would always win
And love would never end, no
This is my grown up Christmas list
This is my only lifelong wish
This is my grown up Christmas list

As kids, the packages under the tree are pretty much all that you see at Christmas time. The magic of giving and family time and wider concerns are lost on most kiddos and that’s the way it should be. As an adult, though, my list is so very different. The only thing I would add to the list enumerated in the song would be a cure for cancer.