Spirit Found Think Back To Times When That Special Holiday Mood Came Upon You

We all know how we are supposed to feel today.

It’s written in bold type, right there in the script for American life.

And the calendar is giving us our cue: Be happy.

Here’s hoping that you are.

But perhaps you’ve noticed. Real life isn’t much like a feel-good holiday TV commercial. Sometimes Christmas spirit doesn’t stick to a schedule. Sometimes it sneaks up on you.

Think back. Try to remember moments when you have felt a special surge of holiday mood. You know, one moment things are normal and then - wham! - you get blind-sided by a song or a smell and suddenly find yourself feeling all holly jolly.

Have those twinges of Christmas connection been triggered by some marketing department’s calculated attempt to manipulate your emotions? Maybe. After all, billions of dollars and countless focus groups are stacked against you.

But there’s another possibility. It’s this: Christmas is so glorious, so beautiful, that even a relentless campaign to turn it into a packaged product cannot diminish its power to move our hearts.

And the magic is that you never know just how or when it will happen.

Mark Charbonneau’s teenage son died this summer. He was a boy who loved everything about Christmas.

So naturally, this has been a tough holiday season for the Spokane fishing tackle dealer. But along with the lingering grief, something unexpected and bittersweet has happened.

Charbonneau has found himself noticing the neon-like joy and anticipation of the holiday in the faces of boys his son’s age. It has made him recall with piercing clarity how happy his son was at Christmastime.

Some smiles live on in memories.

Smith has found that her own Christmas spirit invariably gets jump-started by the enthusiasm of her customers. “Their excitement seems to rub off on me,” she said.

Of course, you don’t have to sit back and wait for the yule mood to grab you. There are lots of time-honored ways to give your holiday outlook a booster shot.

Church services, charity work and spending time around small children are among the classics.

Decorations, cards … the list goes on and on. Cusick’s Sherry Porter has only to recall a special gift she received from her parents when she was a grade-schooler to get a little glow going.

For William M. Wilson, a retired Air Force officer, the thing that gets to him is an exceedingly familiar tune. “Just the song ‘White Christmas’ seems to turn me on,” he said.

So may your day be merry and bright. This is, after all, precisely the time when we are expected - some might say pressured - to be warm-hearted and cheerful.

But sometimes we don’t find Christmas. Christmas finds us.

For many, the emotional wiring is already in place. It’s just waiting for something to complete the circuit.

Hearing a baby’s voice. Smelling a scented candle. Seeing a son help his mom put on her coat. A stranger expressing concern after you slipped on the ice. A family member’s gesture of reconciliation.

For those who are at all susceptible, Christmas spirit is an unexpected moment away.

You just can’t always predict what will provide the spark. The possibilities are countless.

Seeing a snowflake drift through a street light’s glare.

Noticing the terrible actors in your family clam up when you enter a room and realize instantly that they had been discussing your present.

Hearing “The Holly and the Ivy” somewhere off in the distance and remembering how your grandmother loved that song.

Watching the birds at your feeder scarf up the special seeds you put out on Christmas Eve.

Someone giving you a foil-wrapped chocolate ball just like the ones your aunt used to send you when you were little.

Hearing that barking dogs’ “Jingle Bells.”

Seeing an old movie that you used to watch this time of year with your sister.

Watching “A Charlie Brown Christmas” for the umpteenth time and hearing, really hearing, Linus read that stirring New Testament passage.

A neighbor’s smile.

Or maybe just seeing someone bend over to pet a cat or hearing wind chimes.

You never know. It could be something spiritual. It could be silly.

When it happens, you’ll feel it.

The Christmas season’s best gifts aren’t available in stores.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Staff illustration by Molly Quinn