
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 24, 1993                   TAG: 9403180050
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

AND TO ALL, A GOOD NIGHT

SANTA CLAUS was already a jolly, old elf when he first sprang onto the Christmas scene. No one knows how old "old" is for an elf, or how many Christmases he had landed on rooftops and squeezed his ample girth down chimneys before Clement Clarke Moore gave the generous soul the publicity he now enjoys.

But Santa didn't become a holiday superstar until after Moore wrote "A Visit From St. Nicholas," revealing to children a delightful picture of the magic that lay behind the gifts they found under their Christmas trees. That was a mere 171 years ago.

Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit and Scrooge are even fresher features on the Christmas landscape, appearing just 150 years ago, when Charles Dickens told their tale of wretchedness and redemption.

Christians have been celebrating Christmas at least since the year 336, when the celebration of the birth of Christ is noted in a Roman calendar. The significance of the holiday is chiefly religious, but everyone lying in bed tonight, listening for reindeer hooves to sound on the roof, should rest peacefully in the knowledge that the secular has always been mingled with the sacred in celebrating this day.

Modern retailers didn't invent the customs of gift-giving and merrymaking - these were incorporated into the celebration in ancient Roman times, with embellishment from Northern Europeans who decorated their homes with greenery, prepared special foods, sang and exchanged gifts to celebrate the end of the harvest season.

To decry the holiday's materialism is a yearly refrain. But the spirit of Christmas - in both its religious and worldly manifestations - transcends what is made of it, or from it.

Many churches will be holding services tonight to welcome the birth of Jesus. For the Christian faithful, the spirit of Christmas will be there.

Tonight, too, many parents will be reading "A Visit From St. Nicholas," delighting yet another generation with its magic and good cheer, and the spirit of Christmas will be there.

Many an adult and child alike will be captivated again tonight by "A Christmas Carol," no matter how many times it has been read or watched before, and in its message of sharing and spiritual transformation, the spirit of Christmas will be there.

The stores were all out of the computer game your kid was expecting? Relax. It won't matter tomorrow morning. Your family will have only a modest Christmas this year because of hard times? Never mind. The magic of the holiday will be there - not in brightly wrapped packages, but in the joy and the cheer shared on this holy day. A star still shines bright on this night before Christmas.

by CNB