Its Christmas Day and i am here writing to you from Salesman's corner. Of course, no selling today on the most holiest of days, but a perfect time to recall stories and sip the egg nog.

Weeks ago, i started to convince myself that this Christmas didn't feel like a festive one. The recession woes, the stalling of my deals that remain in contract into the New Year, and the fact that finances have tightened up even my wallet, didn't leave me with much spirit to sing HO HO HO. It has been more like low, low, low. I know people who often feel melancholy this time of year, because that's all they have. That's all they know.

I have always tried to maintain a positive outlook for the holidays, despite the witnessing of so many customers and clients who bring me down around this time of year. I guess with so many people suffering their own financial woes, its hard to get into that spirit that moves the child in all of us. Even our President has thrown doom and gloom over us, with this health care bill and his lavish spending holiday vacation home in Hawaii, that is a bit hypocritical if you ask me.
"Save me from this all you who write on Facebook, twitter and Linked in, save me from yet another holiday downfall", i cry out. I then took refuge in the social media to pick my spirits up before the last few days until Christmas.

Then it suddenly occurred to me, last night at Christmas Eve dinner, through the eyes of my nephew Andrew, how i shouldn't allow myself to damper the holiday further. His anticipation of Santa Claus, and the expectation of gifts. I saw the spirit of Christmas through his eyes and remembered my own childhood, in a much simpler time. A different place altogether, Brooklyn USA. We had a tree the size of Gibraltar, or so i thought because i was only 3feet something as a kid, and everything looked big. My dad and mom would sing their annual Christmas Eve midnight mass and the spirit of Christmas was alive and well. What a childhood, where in the silence of Christmas Eve, the tree glistened and all sang "Silent Night".

It returned, the memories that give us the Spirit that seems to get lost in the last few weeks before Christmas. The hustle and bustle of shopping sprees, and decorations. The cards and the 387 calendars I sent to all my customers and clients to stay a step a head of my competitors. All this i did to get into the mood, the spirit of Christmas, that i almost lost it along the way.
The Spirit returned to me, last night right before midnight mass. Times have changed, yes, but the spirit of the holidays will never change as long as we can hold that one memory in our hearts which return us to a simpler place, greeting a familiar face and keeping Christmas alive in our hearts all year through.

To a salesman, it means more giving, more plentiful days ahead, and putting fear and concern on the back burner while trying to make a living in the new year. There is no sense of worrying, no sense of anticipating what we cannot control. That's what i have learned this Christmas. Time has no limits. And i should stop trying to write my own life script and let things be.

So when you are with your families this Christmas, take yourself back to your childhood and smile. Because when you had that innocence, nothing else mattered and you were happier as a result. To Bing, Nat, Frank, Josh and Andre, yes the songs inspired me to some degree this year, but I think I found my Merry Christmas in my childhood.