Nothing all that profound to say except Merry Christmas to those I love

This is the 65th Christmas Eve of my life, although I would be surprised if I have specific memories of even a quarter of them.

Each year I try to think of something original to say. As a writer, you're always supposed to be able to call on insightful thoughts, but most of the time I realize I'm only recycling thoughts I've written of at some point in the past.

In the final years of the last century, when I was working as a newspaper columnist, I had a good friend who probably had the greatest take on Christmas of anyone I've ever known who wasn't some sort of saint. My friend Sally Jenkins, who was a mother of two in Rancho Cucamonga, California, said there was one reason Christmas was such a wonderful time of year.

"It's the one time of year we give ourselves permission to be nice," she said.

Christmas 2011

What a great way of putting it.

People who might be suspicious or even selfish all year allow themselves to be nice, to be generous, once the Thanksgiving turkey is finished.

My late grandmother once told me the story of a family with three children. By the time the youngest was 18, they were no longer getting excited about Christmas and no one was making the effort to be awake at dawn to see what Santa Claus had brought them.

Then, surprise of surprises, their parents had a fourth child. A little baby girl was born, and all of a sudden, the older kids were excited about Christmas again. For years after she was born, they did whatever they could to give their little sister a wonderful Christmas.

The reason for the season.

In a way, having grandchildren has done that for me. Seeing how much Madison and Lexington enjoy their gifts -- indeed, enjoy everything about the holiday -- has done more to heal my heart than almost anything else could.

We don't decorate anymore. At least we haven't for the four Christmases we have spent in Georgia. We have both been battling health problems, and with it being just the two of us, we have kind of let it slip past as quietly as possible.

This Christmas, there are so many people I love scattered to the four winds. Most of my family is in Boston at my sister's house, my daughter and her family are in Jamaica and my son and his wife are in Mexico. I hope they all know I love them, and that my Christmas would be better if we could all be together.

Without anything truly profound to say, I'll leave you with the Christmas carol I have always loved best.