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I’m Not Dreaming of a White Christmas
I’m not dreaming
of a white Christmas
bedecked with tinsel
and mistletoe.
That bougainvillea spilling down the wall
is festive enough.
Who said a Christmas had to be
composed of personal memories decades old?
I like a little sand in my Christmas,
good friends and not a holly sprig in sight—
our memories being made,
not dwelled upon.
Where was the snow in Bethlehem?
On what day did Santa finally arrive,
bag laden with gifts more frivolous
than gold, frankincense and myrrh?*
What we celebrate at Christmas
is more than anything
Bing Crosby
might have devised.
The warmth of friendship.
Finding those things,
in spite of our many differences,
that are the same.
That first Christmas
celebrated in the desert,
there was a star.
The animals were its first celebrants.
Only afterwards
came those wise men
who in their gifts
predicted its ending.
*The three gifts had a spiritual meaning: gold as a symbol of kingship on earth, frankincense (an incense) as a symbol of deity, and myrrh (an embalming oil) as a symbol of death. This dates back to Origen in Contra Celsum: “gold, as to a king; myrrh, as to one who was mortal; and incense, as to a God.”
The word prompts today were white, compose, bedeck and festive.
https://ragtagcommunity.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/rdp-saturday-white/
https://fivedotoh.com/2018/12/22/fowc-with-fandango-compose/
https://wordofthedaychallenge.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/bedeck/
https://onedailyprompt.wordpress.com/2018/12/22/your-daily-word-prompt-festive-December-22-2018/
https://lindaghill.com/2018/12/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-dec-22-18/
lifelessons - a blog by Judy Dykstra-Brown 
It looks like we’ll have rain on Christmas — dinner on the pier sounds like a great idea, but it’s expensive! I hope you’ll be with friends on the sand, enjoying the warmth and sunshine! Merry Christmas!
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No, I’ll have friends from the beach here with me for a week before we all go to the sand!
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Lovely and thought provoking. I’m more of a Mele Kalikimaka kind of person 😉 myself, give me palm trees and beaches!
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I’m dreaming of a winter where we don’t have to shovel the roof to keep it from caving in on us. I’m dreaming of free plowing. I’m dreaming of rain rather than snow. The dogs don’t like it, but the dogs don’t have to hire a plow! I’ll take the hibiscus and bougainvillea!
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Me, too.
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Hope your dreams come true, Marilyn.
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I never really thought about that before: the first Christmas was in a desert!
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Very cool 😎 merging all those prompts into one post. Cheers to making memories 😊
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I love this. I never thought about the location of the first Christmas before, either.
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