Christmas in January

The “twelfth day of Christmas” passed on Jan. 5, ending most religious observations of the Christmas season, but Christmas is my topic nonetheless.

The West Plains Christmas parade was postponed from its original date, Dec. 14. The weather had been frightful and a parade that day would not have been delightful, to say the least. Officials with the West Plains Chamber of Commerce, the organization which sponsors the event, made a wise decision, based on safety concerns, to postpone the parade until Jan. 11.

Because many groups and organizations had gone to a great deal of creative effort to build floats with Christmas in mind, the details will remain the same as if the parade was happening during the “official” holiday season. The theme, the categories, the prize money to be awarded and all the good cheer are scheduled to be part of the march down Porter Wagoner Boulevard set for 5 p.m. today.

What seems to have changed, barely two weeks after the celebration of the birth of Jesus, is much of the goodwill in the community. My hope is that everyone is looking forward to the fun and the message of the event, but I’ve had several conversations with those who are less than enthused. A couple of people have been downright hostile toward the idea of a Christmas parade in January. Curious, isn’t? The things we choose to get upset or worked up about.

Because of a variety of reasons, organizers of the parade had little choice but to change the date to this weekend. About the only other option would have been to cancel it, and too many people had worked too hard for that to make much sense. As someone who has organized a few events over the years, I can tell you there’s no way to please everyone, no matter what plans are made. And once plans have to be changed because of circumstances beyond anyone’s control, the proverbial no-win situation is what results.

It’s true that probably just about everyone is disappointed the parade will be after Christmas, no one more so than Chamber of Commerce officials, we can be assured of that. But instead of saying things to make anyone feel bad or suggesting things which simply aren’t possible, I propose we make the best of a less than ideal situation. We may have already put away our Santa hats, but let’s break out our smiles, put on a spirit of compassion and appreciation for all the hard work that goes into putting on a nice event for the community and most of all, remember all that talk back in December about keeping Christmas in our hearts all year long.

When Chamber Director Joanne White provided the reasons for changing the date, she added, “We hope everyone will want to continue spreading the joy of Christmas into January.” I agree. Let’s start with joy in January and carry it all through the year. Jesus isn’t just the reason for the Christmas season. For believers he should be the reason for every season.