Dear Parents and Grandparents,
The countdown to Christmas is almost over. There are now more open doors/spaces on the advent calendar than closed ones. The tree has been standing in all its glory for several days (if not weeks) by now. If letters were written to Santa, they reached the North Pole and are now stacked neatly on Santa’s desk. Cookies, snack mix, and whatever else your family’s holiday tradition calls for have been baked (and consumed.) Christmas programs–at school and church–have been performed.
Night time “road trips” through town to ooh and ahh at the lights may still be on your to-do list of festivities. You may or may not have finalized who’s coming and who isn’t, for the traditional holiday meal. And you may even still be trying to decide which items on your child’s wish list will find their way under the tree or in their stocking.
That last one—deciding how to best spend your Christmas budget—I get it. I remember oh so well what it was like to make sure each of the kids got something on their list while making sure it all came out “even.” I also remember all the things we did to make their Christmas memories special without spending any money (or very little.) And you know what? Those are the ‘gifts’ my now-grown kids remember the most…and most fondly. Things like…
• Decorating sugar cookies even though we really weren’t all that fond of eating them.
• Going caroling with our church family and getting hugs and treats from the older people who were so glad we came.
• Decorating the tree and putting the new ornament they got every year in ‘just the right spot’.
• Hanging out at Granny’s house. We were always together anyway, but Christmas was even more special.
• Going to the $1 store to pick out gifts for each other…and trying to keep it a secret until Christmas day.
• Going to Charlie and Linda’s to see all the decorations.
• Driving around to look at Christmas lights.
• Listening to my old records and dancing around to Alvin and the Chipmunk’s Christmas tunes.
• Being part of the Christmas program at church.
• Watching the traditional Christmas shows on tv…with popcorn and soda (of course.)
• Sitting in the dark with nothing on but the Christmas tree lights just because…
• “Doing” an advent calendar–especially when it was their turn to complete the task/read the verse.
• Stocking scavenger hunt.
Those were good times. No, make that GREAT times. Great times filled with good tidings of GREAT joy. The joy of knowing what Christmas is a celebration of. The joy of not worrying about paying off Christmas debt. The joy of giving and receiving gifts given from a loving and sincere heart. The joy of experiencing Christmas vs. doing Christmas.
That’s my hope for you and yours this Christmas. I hope that you experience the joy of Christmas instead of merely doing Christmas-y things. Why? Because I know from personal experience that what you and your children experience together stays with all of you long after any gift found under the tree.
