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Christopher de Vinck: Christmas Is Everywhere

Christopher de Vinck: Christmas Is Everywhere

The author of “Mr. Nicholas” on the poetry and deeper meaning of the holiday season.

Dec 20, 2022
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The First Person with Michael Judge
The First Person with Michael Judge
Christopher de Vinck: Christmas Is Everywhere
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Stained glass in the Cathédrale de Monaco (iStock, Jorisvo).

By Christopher de Vinck

Christmas is hidden in everything that I see. Ebenezer Scrooge agreed. In Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, after his rejuvenated heart was infused with the lessons of the three ghosts Uncle Scrooge said with glee “I will honor Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, the present and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”

Christmas is more than an idea draped with tinsel or tied with green and red ribbon. Christmas is the time of year to follow what Dickens said about Scrooge: “For a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was splendid to laugh.”

I have on my wall here in this little room where I write framed pictures of my wife and children, photographs of the poets William Carlos Williams and Edna St. Vincent Millay. I framed the famous rabbit painting the Germans artist Albre…

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