Open your heart to the holiday spirit

Let’s change the subject to how, having given up on the politicians, we can change our world to one of delight, hope and kindness.

Here’s my list of how to have a warm and wonderful Christmas season:

Change an attitude. You know which one.

Drop one activity that doesn’t involve your family and add one that does.

Listen to Christmas songs often; weep at the ones that make you weepy, smile and sing along with those that delight.

Read the biblical account of the first Christmas to your family. Read aloud at least three other Christmas stories. Suggestions: “The Gift of the Magi,” “A Christmas Carol” and “A visit from St. Nicholas.”

Go to at least one Christmas program.

Say “yes” to a task, situation or person you have been avoiding.

Decorate the outside of your home. Glad tidings are meant to be shared.

Have a Christmas party. Remember, the shepherds welcomed the first Christmas with singing and dancing.

Convene a family meeting to pick a piece of good works — adopting a family, ringing the Salvation Army bell, whatever. Apportion votes in reverse relationship to age. If there are, say, five of you, the youngest gets five votes, the next youngest four, etc.

Help the children bake cookies or make candy. Do it every year. The memories last a lifetime.

Write personal notes with your Christmas cards.

Take a day off. Wander among Christmas shoppers, eavesdrop on children talking to Santa and then buy yourself a festive lunch, a Reuben, steak fries and hot chocolate, for example. Nap. Consider the day anything but wasted.

Do not add the tasks you skipped to the next day. They probably didn’t need doing anyway.

Arise early on Christmas morning, sit alone under a soft light, take deep breaths and make a list of all the reasons you have for being glad you are alive.

Like Mary, hold those thoughts close to your heart.

(Note: Adapt these practices to your own religious traditions.)