A6 - Wednesday, December 22, 1982 - North: Shore News traditional Christmas messages | hollow this: year. | sreeting don't ‘fill: empty ‘stockings or change Leaabenger into turkey. And. their -privations cast.a. shadow, too, over the lucky majority still earning a: pay packet. Will ithe -MEnext? - : Its now widely agreed that the “key to _economic: recovery — which alone can . brighten the sombre year-end picture — is ~ largely psychological:-the need to banish fear ' and ‘rebuild faith ‘in tomorrow, not merely portandly, insong. the many more who HAVE the. money to restore ‘prosperity but remain afraid to spent it. yo! YOU | not, that, while-I. ‘cannot give, } you can.take, ‘No heaven can come to us.unless aur hearts find rest in it today. Take Heaven. “No peace lies in the future which is not 7 hidden i in this present instant. Take Peace. thought timely. “ While it’s easy: to. complain is: “particularly : about: ‘our shortcomings.-(of _which «we: have -many).and consider Solutions, Canadians sometimes tend to forget just how much we ‘-have'to be-thankful for. _ ‘Consider i afew examples: © This is: one Of the’ few the. produce is available at prices that are~among the lowest. in the world. While Cie cp it aes); we “The gloom. of this world is but.a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy. “And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you, with the prayer that for, you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee y Christmas ending to the _ “Above all, the Holiday Season should be a time ‘for hope, and this--year-. that ure pls Heroes ‘in 's litde: | bells tinking- time again: They “peal” for the world story of that talling doll that squawked “kill Mommy!" t rrified buyers. What it ac- tually says, according to the manufacturer, is HOPE. you've had ‘a wonderful Christmas — the eight out of 10 of you still with a job. anda pay . packet, that is. And: no, I haven't’ got my weeks © love | is flowing, as the 7 January bills: will reassure you. + “Kim loves Mommy!” but the words were -distorted—when—a—new. battery made the record run too‘ fast. Just shows what nasty things you can say to people without meaning to, simply because you get yourself all charged up. a ve ut mh etn WHE VOICE OF OTM ANG WEST VANCOUVER im” sunday news mm north shore | Display Advertising _ Classified Advertising Newsroom Circulation 980-0511 986-6222 985-2131 986-1337 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, 8,C.V7M 2H4 Publisher Peter Speck « . Advertising Director Tim Francis Associate Publisher Robert Graham Editor-in-chief Noel Wright Personnel Director Mrs. Berni Hiltiard Circulation Director Brian A Ellis Production Director Office Manager Photography Manager Chris Johnaon Oonna Grandy Terry Peters ee North Shore News, founded in 1969 as an independent community newspaper and qualified under Schedule tll Part tl Paragraph fil of the Excise Tax Act. Is pubtisned each Wednesday and Sunday by North Shore Free Press Lid and distributed to every door on the North Shore Second Class Mail Registration Number 3886 Entire contents 1082 North Shore Free Presse Lid. All rights reserved. Subscriptions, North and West Vancouver. rates available on request No responsibility accepteo for unsalcited maternal inctuding MANUACAPES and pictures which should be accompaned Dy a stamped addressed envelope $25 per year Maiting VERIFIED CIRCULATION 64.543 Wednesday; 64,093 Sunday On ge «=6 SIN Ce om THIS PAPER IS RECYCLABLE mixed up. Christmas, you sec,-~isn't- really December 25th at all. Christmas is getting there. Over.the past 35 years or so Christmas has become a marathon cight-week festival of planning, remembering, spending and socializing, wedged between Hallowe'en and New Year's. That’s why I always feel a trifle sad around December 22nd that there are only three more days: of Christmas left. Let's face it. Unless. you belong ‘to the church-going minority’ for whom Christmas services are the joyous highlight of the whole preceding two months, December 25th itself can actually be a bit of a let- down. «| After . the -kids have wrecked ‘the ‘living room with torn wrappings and settled down. to bore themselves with their loot, December 25th becomes, as often as not, just a kind of extra Sunday, dominated by worrying about the turkey and wondering what to do for an encore. Except for Mom, quite pleasant and = relaxing, of course. “A marvellous meal", everyone gushes politely, even if the bird is overcooked. Finally, the evening hours to fill in somchow, doing something vaguely Yulctidely -- talk around the fire, carols on the sterco, a little more bottled cheer -- and suddenly a'slight feeling of anti-climax. Once more Christmas Day has come and gone in a flash. That’s why I prefer to think of Christmas as cight weeks, not 24 hours. And I don’t go along with all the pious waffle about its .““commercialization” . If Christmas is the season of love, thesecight weeks to Christmas Eve pack an awful lot of it. * Anyone who pretends that battling the elements, the shopping mall. hordes and the checkout line-ups ‘week after week to hunt and buy gifts for others isn't a labor of love, simply doesn’t know the meaning of the word. if you That's . true even happen to be able.to afford the gifts. Further love goes into the time—consuming chore of wrapping them, knowing full well your cherished han- diwork will be ripped to shreds by the object of your affection in three seconds flat. Christmas cards are. a love story to themaclves. Remembering people you enjoyed in the past and haven't seen for ages. Searching for their ad- dresses, used only once a year. Penning the ap- propriate little “update” messages. Writing en- velopes. Lining up to buy stamps. Doing it all over . others by Noel Wright y * + so again for the ones you forgot who didn’t forget you. - Love is wading through a sea of: mud in a December monsoon to buy the tree. It's risking life and limb at the top of a wobbly ladder, putting, up the lights. It's lengthy overtime in the kitchen, preparing Yuletide treats. It’s donating to the Christmas Bureau and the Sally Ann. All aimed at making happy, not just yourself. That has to be love. The fact that it makes the stores happy as well -- as you respond to their cight-weck torrent of Christmas ads and commercials -- is irrelevant. It’s still from you that the Don't. forget, “too, that many merchants couldn't remain’ afloat at alt during the rest of the year without their annual Christmas bonanza. In fact, all the economic pundits now agree that the only way out of the depression.is for you and me to empty our piggy banks and get the cash registers ringing faster and longer. Spending, they say, offers the ‘best hope of getting the jobless -; for whom this particular Christmas may be a hollow joke -- back to work and pay packets of their own again -And hope, of course, is the whole essence of the pre- Christmas weeks. Maybe it has something to do with the approach of the shortest day, December 21, the first signal that distant spring is on ita way once more, Travelling hopefully may be better than arriving, goes the old proverb. Getting there is half the fun. - In fact, the modern two- month Christmas makes getting there most of the fun. That's why I'm a staunch supporter of starting the whole business promptly on November Ist. And when it all ends, December ‘25th becomes a kind of brief, closing benediction of an cight-week love affair with fellow humans, Come to think of it, an hour in church on Christmas morning could be a happy way of sharing that benediction.