There are five short stories about Holiday Spirit here on the web site for you to read. You have a couple options:  you can read all of them at once and pick your favorite story that speaks to you most about what the Spirit of the Holidays means to you this year.  Decide for yourself how it can inspire you to bring out more of your Spirit during the holidays.

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You can read one story a week to your mate, partner, with your family or among your friends and co-workers. Share with each other what the story means to you, how it reflects a Holiday Spirit, and how you might use that story to guide you in celebrating the Holidays this year.

Before your special Holiday dinner, go for a walk outside or search around the house for a symbol, that for you, captures the Spirit of the Holidays. It doesn’t have to be big. It could be a picture, or an ornament, or a sprig of pine. It could be anything.

If you are with a group, ask each person to go find a symbol representing the Spirit of the Holidays for them. Come back to the table and at sometime during the meal, go around to each person so they can share with those present about their symbol, why it reflects the Spirit of the Holidays, and telling everyone what the Spirit of the Holidays is for them.

If you are by yourself, place the symbol in a prominent place where you can see it always, and at the first opportunity, express your special Holiday Spirit to someone.

Read the first story from Joan called "The Beggar’s Curse." Find a small container, one for each person in the room.  If it’s a large group, pick a partner. With your eyes closed, decide on a gift you wish to give to your partner. Take a deep breath, pry open a corner and breathe that gift into their container. Quickly close the container. Tell your partner the gift you are bestowing on them. Pass the container to your partner, who will pry open a corner of their container and quickly breathe in the gift you gave.  Now switch and it's your turn to receive a gift from your partner.

If the group is small, have each person place a gift, as described above, in each person’s container. One person at a time, go around the room and share the gift you give each person.  Then switch to another person who bestows their gift, one-by-one, on each person in the room.