I have a special tradition every year at Christmas time that when I make out my Christmas cards and wrap my presents I listen to a very special CD called “Christmas” by “The Singers Unlimited” and a Christmas CD that I have out called “The Spirit Of Christmas”. As I was listening to the Singers Unlimited CD today a very special feeling came over me … it is the same special feeling that I always get when listening to those CDs. But this time it hit me as to why that special feeling happens. It’s because I’m listening to RELIGIOUS carols. You don’t hear carols a lot anymore like when I was growing up in the fifties. Yet, at Christmas time they were the basic songs of TV and radio and stores and that we sang and played in the band at even public schools. But since then the Christmas music first morphed into primarily snow and Santa type songs, and then into songs with a modern musical tone (which is devoid of the sacred feeling of carols). Then I remembered that for many years I often reflected on what was the most special feeling in my heart from throughout my life. (I’m sure we each have one of those). And I remembered that it was when I was in Catholic school in the 2nd and 3rd grades in the middle fifties and we had a large nativity scene in our courtyard. I would stare at that scene and get a VERY special feeling … of beauty and love. Perhaps it was a foretelling of how religion would eventually become the most special thing in my life. But what made it all the more special at the time was that the society in general was having the same experience. Now it’s different. How could anyone be so hard hearted as to want to have nativity scenes legally banned? And religious carols are very rarely heard in public or on TV or on the radio anymore. The true meaning of Christmas is no longer “mainstream”. Christmas has been hijacked by presents and sports and a secular feel. It’s too bad that young people don’t get to experience the great amount of love that was in the public air and in the hearts of people in the fifties when Christmas was closer to its true meaning. Still, many people still say that Christmas is the most special time of year. I wonder if they realize just how much more special it could be, and how that special feeling is a gift from God.