As posted here: http://www.hamiltonmountainnews.com/opinions/article/226326

Christmas can mean so many different things to each and every one of us based largely upon our personal experiences at this festive time of the year.

Santa, who seems to dominate the holiday today, is a rather recent participant in the overall image of Christmas.

It was the poem, The Night Before Christmas, written in 1822 that conjured up the concept of a jolly old elf visiting everyone with reindeers on Christmas Eve. But it was the advertising Mad men of Coke in the 1930s who gave us the rotund jolly gent in the corporate Coke colours and drinking his favorite beverage by the fire with the stockings hung with care on the mantle.

That image has engrained itself in the mindset of those of us who are products of the influential television age, 1950s and ’60s.

Today new electronic communications are shaping the perception of Christmas for a new generation. One of the most recent examples of the influence or power of new media was the 15 million-plus hits on a YouTube video of a choir, s p o n t a n e o u s l y singing the Hallelujah Chorus from the Messiah in the food court of a Niagaraarea shopping mall.

Many groups and individuals are using this evolving media to share Christmas experiences or blog about desired Christmas gifts.

Regardless of Christmas perceptions and the politically correct world in which we live, Christmas is about the birth of child in a backwater rural village in the Middle East over 2,000 years ago whose life would change the Western world.

Christmas is the nativity scene or the crèche on the mantle in your home.

Christmas is the play at church, or in my day, school, whereby a bathrobe transformed you into one of the three wise men or shepherd! Christmas is the carol service where you sing your heart out, and the fact that you are a little out of key is not an issue.

Christmas is gazing at the Christmas star and reflecting upon the magic and wonder of that special birth in a stable so long ago.

Christmas is sharing and caring for those of us who are in despair this year.

And a wish this year. That week after the gifts have been opened and put away, and the tree taken down, that the magic, the love and colour of Christmas will continue to live in our hearts throughout the entire year.

Best wishes for a Christmas filled with love, laughter and joy.

Barry Coe is Director of Community Relations and Resource Development for Mission Services of Hamilton (www.missionservices.com).