Despite controversy, this is Christmas Day. That's a fact.

It's also a fact that Hanukkah begins at sundown.

In all the years I have written for Pittsburgh newspapers, I have always felt privileged as well as challenged when I knew my column would appear on a holiday, whether it be Valentine's Day, Mother's Day or, rarely, like today, Hanukkah as well as Christmas.

I often wonder why I feel a bit more pressure sharing my thoughts when I am never sure how many people will have time to read them, with so much excitement all around.

If you don't read this until next week, I understand. The message, I hope, is forever timely. Maybe you will get a computer as a gift and you will find me online!

Today is about giving and sharing and feeling nostalgia. There is much of the latter. Nostalgia can be sad, and it can be joyous. It's love in the best sense, it is friendships renewed, it is festive. It is tiring, exhilarating and filled with wonder.

I love Christmas. I've certainly written about it often enough the past 50 years.

Beyond its religious meaning, which many people seem to feel we have lost -- believing that consumerism has taken over -- I find what Christmas should be as the reason we should all celebrate together and forget the so-called "differences."

Yes, I'm a dreamer.

This day brings out the best in us, and the shame is that it doesn't go on other days of the year. There has always been consumerism related to gift-giving, but finding that special gift transcends the buy-buy-buy attitude.

We spend too much -- no argument there -- but we try to make others happy, and that's why we do it. If we have one present with a bow on it, or even just a bowl of soup, we have more than many people all around the world.

Most of us couldn't take all of what leads up to Christmas more often than once a year. The tinsel, gifts and feasts delight us, but when you think about it, those things are just traditions.

We can feel Christmas without them.

It's the mood we should feel beyond Dec. 25.

They come out of storage once a year: ornaments, old dolls, trains, collections of angels, Santas or whatever your fancy. It's my favorite part of all the fussing, this tradition, because loved ones are remembered.

Miniature red velvet gloves rest on a branch of my tree, as they have for as long as I can remember. It wouldn't be Christmas without them because I recall them from my childhood.

It means my parents and my sister are with me again. I see Christmases past so clearly.

Love for friends and family remains forever, and expressing love through the year needn't be wrapped in ribbons. When you feel love in your heart, it can be Christmas every day.

It's idealistic, but that's what I'm thinking today. I am so fortunate to be permitted to tell readers, many of long standing, what is on my mind.

It is the gift given to me each Sunday. Today is special, but I also realize everybody in the world isn't sitting around a tree opening presents. The smell of the turkey isn't in every home, and all the people we love aren't with us to celebrate.

This is just another Sunday for many people, either by religion or by circumstance. I suppose those of us lucky enough to have gifts under the tree and family by our side fail to recognize that fact.

That's what I'm thinking.

Tradition, as Tevye might sing in "Fiddler on the Roof," is at my house today. My good friends, known as my son's adopted Jewish aunts, will be sitting at my dinner table -- the same table where I sat with my family for so many years -- and we will share this day as we have for more than 30 years.

It's the spirit of Christmas, whatever form it takes, that should matter to all of us. The words to remember beyond what the season should be called, are kindness, love and sharing.

It's a common language. And if you want to do that by giving a present with a perky bow on top or by lighting a candle on the menorah at sundown, follow your heart.

Merry Christmas. Happy Hanukkah.