Christmas is only 10 days away.

Let that sink in for just a moment. One week plus three days, 240 hours, 14,400 minutes, and no doubt another trip or two to the Wal-Mart and the grocery store.

Are you ready?

Christmas means different things to different people. To many, it’s about the special church services, the music, the plays. To others, it’s about family and friends, and being together on the most wonderful day of the year. And, whether or not we agree, it’s about gifts.

This year’s hottest toys include interactive animals, superheroes, action figures and the indelible madness that is a slime kit. Playmobil and Lego remain top brands. Requests for fun new tech toy picks like Lumies, Osmo and #Snapstar are also bound to show up under the Christmas tree. Star Wars remains a force to be reckoned with along with the latest scooter and some retro roller skates to pick from.

Having come from modest means, Christmas was quite different for me and my brothers and sisters. Our mom stayed home and cared for us kids, while our dad worked full time at the rayon plant. We had enough to eat, clothes to wear, and a roof over our head, but there were few, if any, frills, and our Christmas gifts were largely of the practical kind.

When I was much younger I remember watching the firstever airing of “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” At one point in the show, the long-suffering Charlie Brown is lamenting the excessive commercialism of Christmas, when he cries, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”

And Linus answers with the words from Luke, chapter 2, verses 8-14, detailing the birth of Christ, concluding with “And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.”

And that, friends, is what Christmas is all about. It’s about a gift all right, the greatest gift in history.

What would you say if you had to explain Christmas to someone who knew nothing about it? You might begin with the shepherds in the fields by night or Santa at the North Pole.

And yet to really explain Christmas, you would also have to try to answer the question that seems more pressing every year: how do those emotions and memories connect to the frenzied activity of the weeks and days that lead up to Christmas? What does all that retailing and wrapping paper have to do with peace on earth?

A stranger might well wonder, don’t you always hope for peace on earth? Does goodwill really have a season? And if you genuinely love one another — truly hold one another in your hearts — wouldn’t simply saying it be far more eloquent than any other gift that you could give? These questions point to something most of us already know, that for all the push and pull of the Christmas rush, for all the sputtering of the buying and giving that erupts at the end of every year, this is truly a holiday of modest spirit, a day of humble aspirations. What we want is to love and know we are loved and to imagine a world that lives up to that.

This week and next, almost every church in Elizabethton and Carter County is celebrating Christmas with a special program. It will perhaps be a play, a cantata, a live nativity, or perhaps a Christmas Eve candlelight service. Opportunities abound to celebrate the true gift of Christmas.

Carolers are out in force, visiting neighborhoods and nursing homes. Christmas baskets are being distributed.

We urge you to take time out during the next week to truly reflect on the meaning of Christmas, take time to worship, and offer a helping hand to someone less fortunate. Visit someone who is lonely, and offer your hand in friendship. These are the more costly gifts, but they are the most cherished gifts and are inspired by that little baby born in a manger on Christmas, who became the world’s great gift.

It’s just a cartoon, but yes, Linus got it right in “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

– Rozella Hardin, STAR Editorial Director