I don’t know about you, but I feel like Christmas is speeding toward us too quickly. I like to enjoy the season at my leisure: read the Christmas Story (you know, the Christmas story), listen to the Time-Life Treasury of Christmas (the soundtrack to my childhood), eat—and make—way too many Christmas cookies, stare at the glittering tree, watch classic Christmas movies (It’s a Wonderful Life, The Bishop’s Wife, Home Alone, Elf). Basically, the good stuff. I hate feeling like I’m too busy to properly enjoy the season, because that’s not what it’s all about. It’s about Jesus Christ. It’s about love and giving. It’s about joy and happiness. Which is why the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints’ Light the World initiative is perfect: it focuses on the important stuff.

Light Your Community

“Service doesn’t just happen on a grand, global scale. Your own community is full of opportunities to get involved, make a difference, and give as Jesus gave.”

If you want to Light Your Community—and I hope you do; we’re all in this together—here are some ideas from the website:

• Perform an anonymous act of service for a neighbor.
• Volunteer at a homeless shelter.
• Give blood at a blood bank or blood drive.
• Help clean a church building.

And here are some other ideas (some from the Light the World calendar):

• Select a gift from an angel tree to give to someone in need.
• Donate a toy to children at the children’s hospital.
• Smile at others while you do your shopping.
• Be a polite driver.
• Take neighbor gifts around.
• Visit the elderly. (Yes, visit my parents; they’d be so thrilled!)

The fact is that we should think globally, but our service tends to be local. And that’s okay. We need to build strong communities that can weather anything. We should be “knit together in love” (Colossians 2:2). If all communities did this, then we’d truly, finally, have world peace and happiness.

Choose Joy.

—A