&uot;At Christmas play and make good cheer, For Christmas comes but once a year.&uot; &045;Thomas Tusser (1524-1580)

Once again the season of Christmas is upon us, the season of &uot;joy and peace on earth&uot; celebrated by people just about everywhere &045; including outer space, where three human beings will be celebrating Christmas and ushering in a new year on the International Space Station.

What would those early Christmas revelers think of how the world and Christmas have changed? What would they recognize in the ways we &uot;play and make good cheer&uot; and what would seem totally bizarre?

It is a busy time, our modern Christmas, filled with the wonderful smells of cookies baking and sauces simmering. It means a little bit of &uot;magic&uot; may come into even the humblest home, with presents from &uot;Santa&uot; for both children and adults. Many of us will spend time with our families, playing games and sharing stories. We’ll say some prayers for peace, sing some carols, and head to church (some of us for the only visit all year).

But Christmas is also busy for some not-so-festive reasons. There’s the economy to think about. For retail workers, Christmas means lots of time spent at work and less time spent with family. Many businesses need to sell a lot of merchandise in a short time; they need the income Christmas shopping provides to have a chance at making a profit for the year &045; or sometimes just to break even.

And what can be said about all of those consumers making profit possible? We convince ourselves that shopping for pricey presents is the best way to show our love for each other. We spend time purchasing supplies for elaborate meals that end up not being as festive for the hosts as we had hoped.

I have to admit that it’s tempting to reject the glitter and spice of our modern Christmas with the disdain of a Grinch or the cynicism of a Scrooge. What about the hypocrisy? Is feeding some hungry people a Christmas dinner and handing out a few toys to poor children all it takes to ease our consciences? Does handing around some gifts erase the carelessness with which we treat each other the rest of the year? Why not say &uot;Bah, humbug&uot; and be done with it?

But skepticism is not the same as cynicism, and even someone like me, who is way too skeptical about way too many things, can find something to love about Advent and Christmas. As a parent I’ve even invested energy in trying to make this season special, in keeping it a time of mystery and magic for children of all ages. Our tree is fabulous, as usual &045; even if only some of the lights work, and the bottom branches are bare of ornaments, because of our cats. The cookies are delicious. The traditional lasagna will appear on our table Christmas Day.

There really is a &uot;deep magic&uot; in the season. If you sit still long enough to experience it. You can hear it in the songs about Mary and the tiny baby, songs like &uot;O Come, O Come, Emanuel&uot; or &uot;What Child Is This.&uot; A popular slogan says that Jesus is the reason for the season, and &045; despite the fact that selling merchandise with that phrase renders its true meaning somewhat ambiguous &045; I find that the deepest appreciation of Christmas really is spiritual. Underneath the shopping and baking, it’s about a tremendous gift from the creator of the universe. Yes, the middle part of that story is filled with pain, and terrible suffering. But the beginning is a tale of simple joys, of a baby and his parents, and the promise of peace on earth.

It’s the simplicity of the story at the heart of the season that serves as the greatest check on our attempts to fill it with complicated and expensive excess. There were gifts to unwrap at our house on St. Nicholas’ Day (the day that &uot;Santa Claus&uot; comes to our house each year), and there are still more waiting under the tree. There will be a nice meal on Christmas Day. But each Christmas I try to remember that simplicity and generosity can go hand in hand.

David Rask Behling is a rural Albert Lea resident. His column appears Tuesdays.