Herald on Sunday editorial: Goodwill the secret of a happy Christmas

At Christmas, children are appreciated more then ever. Photo / Thinkstock

Christmas has a spirit all its own. A sense of goodwill is around, extending even to those we find irritating and avoid at other times. Christmas is particularly suited to the Southern Hemisphere.

Coinciding with the arrival of summer (we trust, despite the past week) Christmas means the end of the working year and the prospect of a long, languid holiday in the sun. Who could not be imbued with spirit?

Families get together from near and far. Relatives, not necessarily close, catch up on all that has happened to them since the last time they met, probably at Christmas. Children are appreciated more then ever.

Their delight in decorating a tree, the glitter and tinsel, Santa in the malls, is shared by adults if they would admit it.

Children's excitement when the time arrives to exchange gifts and tear off the wrapping paper makes all the shopping worthwhile.

Sadly, the news at Christmas is never entirely of goodwill.

Somewhere in the world, hatred is having its way. Gross inhumanity is hard to understand at any time. At Christmas it is incomprehensible. What possesses the minds of those who went into a school in Pakistan last Tuesday and shot 132 defenceless children?

Unlike the hostages killed in Sydney the previous day, the atrocity in Peshawar's Army Public School was not the act of a "lone wolf" certifiably mad. It was carried out by the Pakistani Taliban whose spokesman said, "We selected the army school for the attack because the Government is targeting our families and females. We want them [the army] to feel the pain."

Nobody, including the Taliban, really believes anyone is "targeting" their wives and children.

The Taliban are the targets, the more so now that they have demonstrated a new depth of depravity. They have severely tested the Christmas message of goodwill to all men.

Their mission will not succeed because it is at odds with the human spirit. Tolerance, generosity and joy are humanity's driving forces, tolerance of differences and joy in human company. Everyone succumbs to intolerance, selfishness and dislike often enough but we know those get us nowhere.

Wendyl Nissen today takes a lighter look at intolerance within our own families, and includes some advice on navigating the thorny relatives who land on the doorstep on December 25. Take a little of that spirit to those you share the day with.

This is the time of every year we realise how much we value each other and say so with a heartfelt Merry Christmas.