I love Christmas.

I know, I know, this isn’t really going out on a limb to say – it’s kind of like saying “Puppies are cute” or “Lying is bad.”

But I really do love the holiday.

And, no, cynics, it’s not just because you get presents (that is just a giant perk).

I love the beauty of Christmas, the whimsy, the songs and the celebrations.

But most of all, I love how Christmas inspires people.

All throughout the Christmas season, you routinely get to witness those moments of wonder, as ordinary men and women do extraordinary acts of love and kindness for one another.

And I, for one, find hope in those moments.

I sometimes wonder about our society, specifically about my generation. When all is said and done, what will our legacy be? We are merely decades away from our grandfathers and grandmothers who have been heralded as the “greatest generation,” yet our reputation is nowhere close.

I read article after article that says we’re the desensitized, cynical, ADHD Generation Y that would rather cheat and win than try and lose and would rather be callously unattached than vulnerably committed.

Sometimes the evidence for such status is clear, but not during the Christmas season.

During this season, and on this day, young men and women join their older counterparts to spend their hours in soup kitchens and donate their resources to deserving programs and organizations.

Friends, families and acquaintances of all ages, all walks of life, come from great distances and go through great difficulty to sit around a dining room table to break bread together.

People write cards…and people are thrilled to get them…so they write cards of their own to people who are equally thrilled to get them.

And it gets paid forward over and over again.

It gives a glimpse into what is possible, and the good that is right on all our fingertips.

It’s hopeful.

And that’s fitting, isn’t it – Christmas has always been about hope.

Regardless of what you personally believe happened a couple of millennia ago, there is no denying that this holiday was based on the hope of how a baby king would deliver his people.

That Christmas hope is still alive, and it is palpable in cities and countries across the globe, including right here, right now in good ol’ Suffolk.

So, Merry Christmas everyone. I hope each of you are celebrating today with family and loved ones, and I hope that the joy and the hope of this holiday is resonating with all of you, too.