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The Grinch is Right!


By Megan Kiehne

Fri, Dec 7th, 2012
Posted in Lanesboro Journal Student Writing Project

My favorite time of the year is approaching! Vibrant lights illuminate houses, Christmas songs play on the radio, ornaments adorn Christmas trees, and everything is covered with a blanket of fluffy white snow for the holiday season. People are busy planning festive celebrations. Children wait anxiously to open their Christmas presents on Christmas Eve. Adults host Christmas parties and enjoy each other’s company. Stores stock their shelves and lure customers in to spend money on holiday bargains. In 2011, the American Research Group for StatiticBran.com concluded that Americans spent 52 billion dollars on holiday shopping!

I pause from all the commotion to ask, what is the true meaning of Christmas? If we take away the trees, presents, and food, what do we have left? One of my favorite Christmas quotes is from the book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. It reads, “And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ‘till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store? What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more?”

The Grinch is right! To me, Christmas means so much more! The Christmas holiday is about celebrating the birth of Jesus. He is the reason for the season. Christmas should be filled with laughter, love, and family traditions. Each year, I spend Christmas with my family, and it doesn’t matter where we are or what we do as long as we are together. The memories we make are lasting treasures, and much better than anything you can wrap in a box.

One of my fondest memories of the Christmas season is a tradition we call “Snip Candy Making.” My family comes together before Christmas each year and spends a day making these special candy treats. Ingredients are boiled, and then snipped with scissors before they cool to a rock solid candy. Each batch is made of various colors and flavors. All ages join in the fun, whether cooking, snipping, or tasting. We each go home with a jar of mosaic colored hard candy to enjoy beyond the holiday season.

Amidst all the joyous celebration of the season, I realize there are many people who don’t have the gifts wrapped in boxes or the gifts of family. Some can’t afford toy .....
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