Jacquie Lawson cards history

“Christmas is the keeping-place for memories of our innocence.” — Joan Mills

I couldn’t find anything about who Joan Mills was, but she must have had memories of Christmas that were similar to my own. For me, no other time of year brings as deep a connection to childhood. Perhaps it’s the combination of scents, sights and sounds unique to the season that can so quickly and directly tap into the subconscious. Or maybe we see ourselves reflected in the young ones who so enjoy the excitement, free from all the cares and obligations and exhaustion that inevitably accompany our adult experiences of holidays.

As Charles Dickens said, it’s good to be children sometimes. I hope that you can grab a few minutes tonight to sit quietly and think back on your earliest memories of this season. It’s likely to be a bittersweet recollection. Not everything in the past was happy, and even when joy predominates, many of us are looking back at that joy through the lens of later sorrows we could not have imagined at such a tender age.

Regardless of whether our mind’s eyes see our six-year-old selves living in innocent bliss, harsh reality or somewhere in between, we can remember and celebrate the child who is, after all, still very much alive somewhere inside us. I’m thankful to be an adult now, but also grateful to the child inside me who taught me so much, and continues to teach me. I invite you to join me in allowing that inner child to play a large role in the season, however you choose to observe it, and maybe a little bit of the lost enchantment will awaken.

Just to give you a jump start (and with the help of Jacquie Lawson, whose cards I have sent out via this blog each Christmas) I invite you to choose any or all of these greetings that may bring out the kid in you.

For a fanciful look at Santa’s workshop and the elves getting ready for the big night tonight, you can view this card— and maybe even work the puzzle at the end.

Did you love kaleidoscopes as much as I did when I was a child? If so, you may want to of a childhood favorite.

Or how about a ride through the English countryside? Hop aboard the fabled “one horse open sleigh” for .

Thanks for being here with us! I wish you a very happy Christmas, and a year full of blessings in 2016.