December 2nd. It’s the second day of December. By now, it’s becoming clear that Christmas is in full swing. Yes, the Christmas gifts and goodies have all been up in stores for months, but it’s more of the energy in the air. Magic.

The Christmas music has been (loudly) playing on the radio, so there must be chestnuts roasting somewhere. And, there must be snow coming down — just in time to give us the White Christmas we dream of.

Better yet… snow flurries actually were seen in the sky this morning!

Charles Dickens Reading

Charles Dickens famously traveled to the United States for his Continental tour in 1867. And, on December 2nd, he began his first American reading. If I could go back in time, for a Christmas celebration, I’d like to experience one of his readings. Or, perhaps, it would be enough to just sit and watch his family at Christmastime as they put on their famous plays.

If nothing else, imagine dressing up in 19th-Century costumes, and putting on a Old-Fashioned Christmas, with all the characters from A Christmas Carol. There’d be a blazing fire, stories to tell, and all the friends and family we could muster.

Nikos Kazantzakis Day

Nikos Kazantzakis, Greek writer, was born on December 2, 1885. He is famous for his translations of Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Goethe’s Faust. He wrote novels, poems, essays, plays, and travel books.

He once wrote: “We are not simple people who believe in happiness; nor weaklings who crumple to the ground in distress at the first reverse; nor skeptics observing the bloody effort of marching humanity from the lofty heights of a mocking, sterile wit. Believing in the fight, though we entertain no illusions about it, we are armed against every disappointment.”

What do writers say?

In The Pickwick Papers (1836), Charles Dickens wrote,

“Happy, happy Christmas, that can win us back to the delusions of our childish days; that can recall to the old man the pleasures of his youth; that can transport the sailor and the traveller, thousands of miles away, back to his own fire-side and his quiet home!”