Keeping Christmas

Henry van Dyke was an American author, educator, and clergyman who graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary in the 1870's where he subsequently served as a professor of English Literature.

Mr. Van Dyke also chaired the committee that wrote the first Presbyterian printed liturgy, The Book of Common Worship of 1906. He authored a variety of poetry, hymns, short stories and essays, as well.

The following essay of his poignantly captures the necessarily vertical nature of our Christmas celebrations:

Keeping Christmas

by: Henry Van Dyke

He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord... Romans xiv, 6.


There is a better thing than the observance of Christmas day, and that is, keeping Christmas.

Are you willing...

To forget what you have done for other people, and to remember what other people have done for you;

To ignore what the world owes you, and to think what you owe the world;

To put your rights in the background, and your duties in the middle distance, and your chances to do a little more than your duty in the foreground;

To see that men and women are just as real as you are, and try to look behind their faces to their hearts, hungry for joy;

To own up to the fact that probably the only good reason for your existence is not what you are going to get out of life, but what you are going to give to life;

To close your book of complaints against the Management of the universe, and look around you for a place where you can sow a few seeds of happiness?

Are you willing to do these things even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing...

To stoop down and consider the needs and desires of little children;

To remember the weakness and loneliness of people growing old;

To stop asking how much your friends love you, and ask yourself whether you love them enough;

To bear in mind the things that other people have to bear in their hearts;

To try to understand what those who live in the same home with you really want, without waiting for them to tell you;

To trim your lamp so that it will give more light and less smoke, and to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;

To make a grave for your ugly thoughts, and a garden for your kindly feelings, with the gate open?

Are you willing to do these things, even for a day? Then you can keep Christmas.

Are you willing...

To believe that love is the strongest thing in the world—Stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than death—

And that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem nineteen hundred years ago is the image and brightness of the Eternal Love?

Then you can keep Christmas.

And if you can keep it for a day, why not always?

But you can never keep it alone.