Christmas! As expected, we sang Christmas songs in church last Sunday. Besides singing along with everyone else, I’m now in the choir. I haven’t been in the church choir for many years. I thought I was done with that phase of my life.

I wondered how it happened that I find myself singing bass in the choir again. Oh yeah, now I remember.

My wife is the new choir director. That explains it. Somehow having her as the leader of the choir, with Sunday afternoon rehearsals, trumps NFL football, walks with the dog, and spiritually edifying naps. Life is about priorities.

I have to admit though, that there are some fulfilling feelings to being in the choir. We got compliments from some of the church people after our performance Sunday. Some in attendance were quite impressed.

In a labor of Christmas love, the choir did a little singing in French. We sang the refrain of the old French carol “He is Born, The Divine Christ Child” in French. One of our local church leaders, who speaks French, said from the pulpit that we sounded “magnifique.”

Here’s my “secret sauce” for singing in French. (Don’t tell my wife.) What seems to work best for me is to sing nonsense syllables with a French twist. Then on the last word of each phrase, deliver that word in French with a good Emmanuel Macron accent and punch.

Oh well, being in the choir is just one of my Christmas bug-a-boos. Regardless, I enjoy this time of year. Most people seem to be a little nicer than usual.

The Christmas season motivates good behavior in many people. Sanpeters are good “Christmas Spirit” folks.

The spirit of love, peace and good is turned up a notch by many who don’t consciously think much about it other times of the year. I admit that it’s hard work being extra nice for a whole year; but many of us can handle it for a week or two or three in December.

There’s nothing wrong with using a holiday to spur us on to better behavior. It makes the effort easier. The Christmas Season is the mother of all holidays for this purpose. Christian ideals are brought to the forefront. We try to remember Jesus and what his teachings should mean to us. We try to be givers.

I was in the Dollar Tree store the other day. I literally (and I literally use that word literally with all its literal meaning – not in the non-literal often used usage meant as fake literal literalness) (know what I mean?) heard three conversations between a parent and a child which all were similar. Here’s how the parent side of the conversations sounded.

“Billy, we’re not looking for a present for you. We’re looking for a present for your sister. What do you think she would like?’

“Billy, I don’t think your sister wants a dog toy. That’s something you like to get to use to play with the dog. Think of what Susie would like to have.”

“Billy, we’re going to leave the store if you can’t stop thinking of only yourself!”

Don’t give up, parents of Sanpete. Keep trying to make breakthroughs with “Billy” in the learning of kind acts of giving and service to the “Susies” of the world.

The concept of Christmas gives us a logical place to put “blame” for our unusual good behavior right now. Christmas justifies our kindness. Some of us don’t want people to get the idea that we are to be held to such high standards of niceness all year round. Here’s what I mean.

A Christmas wish and good deed might go something like this

“Hi neighbor. I haven’t seen you for a while. Seeing how it’s Christmas time and the start of a new year and all, I thought I’d give you this little smoked turkey I found in my freezer. Happy Holidays!”

See how this works? The underlying message is that if it weren’t for the holiday, I wouldn’t be so nice. Shucks, Christmas made me do it.

There’s still plenty of time for all of us to make the decision to be nice this Christmas season. There’s time to do something extra, beyond what we’d normally do. We need more random acts of kindness. And, it doesn’t matter if Christmas Day has actually passed or not.

In all the “doing unto others” and being nice this time of year, don’t forget to be nice to yourself. Sometimes we turn this season into such a pressurized hustle and bustle time that we nearly put ourselves into the hospital or the loony bin. We have to realize that we can’t do everything for everyone.

Some of us go a little crazy and think that because it’s Christmas time we suddenly have super human powers. Some women I know attempt to dip thirty pounds of chocolates, make twenty batches of cookies, and crochet 10 afghans in the days leading up to Christmas.

I’m not sure what the adult male equivalent of that is. It could be the high stress of watching thirty football games, the edgy tension of watching twenty basketball games and, of course, the colossal effort of taking 10 minutes to get the 10 boxes of Christmas stuff out of the attic so the family can decorate the house.

All I’m saying is that we don’t need to put unreasonable demands on ourselves to feel good about Christmas. I’m going to try to have a little better balance in my Christmas season this year.

As I say this, I’m wondering how I’m actually going to follow through with all this “niceness” and giving. I really do want to be nice and be a giver of Christmas cheer. But, I’m already putting demands on myself.

And, of course, there really is the pressure of lots of ball games that I feel an obligation to watch on TV. I admit, I’m a little bit stressed as I think about getting through this season.

(Pardon me. I need a moment for a little “time out” for some therapy and self-talk: Deep Breaths – Everything will be fine. Deep Breaths – You can do it Merrill!)