During the frantic holiday season let’s pause once in a while to watch the children in their moments of sheer joy beyond the moment of opening gifts or our viewing them through the lens of a digital camera.

We see the word JOY everywhere during the holidays. After all, it rhymes with …__ __ __, a good advertising ploy. But joy is the most important gift given to children as they develop. It is not something we can give to them, but rather something they discover, feel, and exhibit themselves over and over in their young lives. By three months of age children begin to smile and show excitement when they see their mother approaching. Author Michael Lewis, a psychiatrist and pediatrician, known for his work in the study of emotions, notes that this behavior “allows us to assume from the adult meaning system, that the child’s expression reflects something more than a surface manifestation of the emotion.  Our observation allows us to assume that an internal state of joy exists.” (Handbook of Emotions, 1993)

It was in a poor family with few means for the holidays. The small boy had taken his stocking down from the mantle and was examining its meager contents; an orange, a candy cane, a knitted hat, and “Oh, look, Mama, a glass tack!” as a look of sheer joy spread over his face, unaware that the magical gift was the very same tack that moments ago had held his stocking in place at the mantle. The small boy was my father and his story has passed beyond his lifetime into our family stories of joy. I hope you’ll pass it on and share back your observations of joy in your own children or students.

Holiday Greetings! Chip Wood