Editorial: Spirit of giving hits centre stage

OPINION: For most New Zealanders, tomorrow is a special day, one of the most important of the year.

Religious or not, Christmas Day is a holiday arguably marked by a greater proportion of our country's population than any other throughout the year.

For many, that means remembering the birth of Jesus Christ, an event that is one of the cornerstones of their Christian faith.

For others it's simply a time to relax, unwind and spend time with family.

Either way, it's a day that is traditionally marked by time together with our nearest and dearest, should they happen to be close enough for such a gathering to be arranged.

It's a time for children, many of whom will be wide awake much earlier than normal tomorrow, eyes shining with excitement and anticipation, and will race through the day, playing with new toys, eventually to collapse in an exhausted heap some time tomorrow evening.

That will be the scenario for a lot of us, but not for all New Zealanders.

Some will spend the day alone, or will be with family but will go into Christmas feeling the effects of a tough year as New Zealand has battled economic recession. They may not be able to give their families all that they want to in order to celebrate the big day, because the money's simply not there.

Others will wake with sore hearts, because the year has brought the loss of a loved one or a rift in a relationship, and while time heals all wounds, Christmas is a day when the pain of that loss can be accentuated.

Sadly, history also tells us that for some it will be a day when too much is drunk and tensions within families, be they over financial concerns or for other reasons, can be brought to a head, resulting in incidents of domestic violence and bringing the police and possibly organisations like Women's Refuge into play.

Fortunately, against that somewhat sombre background, we can remember that there are many in our community whose thoughts tomorrow will be not for themselves but for others. Some will be fulfilling a calling that has become their life's work while others will be volunteers; nurses, paramedics, doctors, firefighters, pastors and priests, who will either be at work as scheduled, or on call and thus less able to relax and enjoy the day.

Some volunteers will have chosen to spend at least part of their day making Christmas special for others in some way, such as at the annual community Christmas dinner in Timaru.

As we celebrate this most significant of holidays in our individual ways, hopefully we can all be touched in some way by the spirit of giving those people so clearly demonstrate and take it into the New Year with us.

- © Fairfax NZ News