Tis the season for giving.
Retail stores wait all year for the Christmas boon. You have to wonder if they’re really making any money at all with the deep discounts they offer. When you find the perfect gift, you feel satisfied. But how many gifts do you purchase which are more obligations than thought?
My best Christmas memories are with family, but not the large family gatherings and mounds of brightly wrapped presents. They’re the ones my immediate family spent together in untraditional ways.
In high school when life got too complicated and spending time with family was a quick meal, my parent’s planned our annual ski trip for the week of Christmas. Just my sister and parents on white powdered slopes. There were no lines leading up to the Christmas holiday. We’d ski down a hill and immediately ride the lift to the top again. My sister and I’d while away the time singing Christmas carols at the top of our lungs until we could race down the slope again. We’d find a small local church to attend Christmas Eve service and were never disappointed to find room at the Inn.
Because we were traveling we only could bring one gift a piece to our holiday away. That one gift was more precious than all the Christmases past. It had to do with family and the time we shared, more than any gift we could have brought along.
Living on a sailboat I remember the first Christmas we spent away from the hustle and bustle. We spent it out to sea. It was one of our first overnight passages and we were either on watch or sleeping. At midnight we all gathered in the cock-pit, under a full moon and a sky sprinkled with bright stars. My youngest had put together a service and we read the Christmas story from the bible. Finally, we finished our gathering by singing “Silent Night”. The silence that followed was not empty, but full of awe and miracles. It will be the Christmas I will remember for a lifetime.
So as we count down the next two weeks. Take a moment to think about the memories you are making. It’s not the brightly wrapped packages or the crowds of people, it’s the moments you share that are important.
What’s your fondest memory of Christmas past? What are you giving this season to make memories that will last?
I think my favorite Christmas memories all had to do with going to church. Watching the play – there’d always be some great comedy moments there – having the lights dim and singing joy to the world as we exited the church. The songs always seemed more powerful, the people more cheerful. Nowadays, I’m so busy running back and forth, I don’t feel I give Christmas the time it deserves!
Songs are a great calming agent. It’s the busy schedule that gets us everytime.
Reading your post about your 1st Christmas at sea and singing Silent Night made me a bit misty eyed. My favorite time of every Christmas is at the midnight service and singing Silent Night by candle light. (I always get emotional.) Always the handmade gifts mean so much. It all began the Christmas my Father made a rocking horse for me. I must have been 3 or 4 years old. We still have that horse and now my Grandson enjoys it. DH would like to just give gift cards to everyone. I dislike that in so many ways. 🙁 We comprimise and I find or make something personal (and hopefully perfect) and fill in with a gift card.
It’s nice that you take the time with the personal. Life seems to get too busy and the gift cards too easy to hand out.
Sniff. Beautiful post Nancy and a great reminder that it’s about family and friends and not the gifts under the tree. The last few Christmas have been a struggle without Mamma K. I lost a little bit of my spirit and have had some issues with my extended family and not feeling like “we” were a priority. It’s been a hard few years. I am hoping this year we can get back to the true spirit and make some wonderful memories!! Thanks for the wonderful reminder…sniff…
Natalie, holidays are hard especially after you’ve lost someone. I’ll never see poinsettias the same way again after a funeral in December. Try making new traditions and see if that doesn’t leave good memories.
You are right, Nancy. It’s the memories and simple pleasures that make each Christmas special. Your advice about making new traditions is also good. The absence of a loved one is often keenly felt at Christmas. I always say it should be no more so then than any other day – the pain doesn’t change because of the day. So, as you do on any other day, gather your good and happy memories and make them your focus … and have yourself a merry, little Christmas.
Patricia, you are so right.
I enjoy the process of the holiday. Baking, decorating and wrapping gifts but I hear you on the gifts out of obligation. I keep a few small wrapped gifts in the front closet just in case, but I don’t feel giving out of obligation is the true spirit of Christmas. There’s an older man who sells newspaper subscriptions in front of the grocery store. I stop and talk with him often. I don’t know his name, but I noticed he wears two old suit jackets to stay warm. I bought him a warm coat and gave it to him the other day. He hugged me and got all choked up, which made me teary. I had to compose myself before I went into the store. A new holiday memory for me and the best gift ever.
Oh, Jennifer, what a great memory! My eyes are misty, thank you.
What a great post and Jennifer, how sweet you are! The best holiday memories for me are the small moments throughout the season. A smile here, a hug there, those are what make Christmas for me. My childhood was spent shuffling from my mom’s house to my dad’s house on Christmas Day, so when I had my daughter, I told everyone that we stay home and if they want to see us, they can travel to us. Surprisingly, they don’t. That’s okay, my kids like it just the four of us. We always go to my husband’s parent’s house on Christmas Eve, but Christmas Day it’s just us in our jammies. We love it!
Tameri, I think you’ve made the right choice. When we had kids, we chose the same thing. I think it worked out well and created some awesome memories.
What a beautiful story, Nancy. Being with poeple who love you and who you love is what this season is meant to be.
I can hear the silence and waves as your family sits in the cockpit and reads. Silent Night on a boat is a Holy Night!
Dannie, you said it and I know you can feel it having been there, done that.
Wow, that actually sounds quite magical. I can remember a Christmas even when, as a teenager, my little group of close friends and I gathered around the tree at someone’s house and gave each other presents we had made ourselves. That had been the deal, that we would only give out handmade presents. It was such a love-filled, gentle Christmas eve, nothing I’d normally associate with teens and holidays! That was a long, long time ago, and I still have many of those gifts. A ceramic, hand-painted box in which I keep my treasures. A four-leaf clover my friend Ingrid found for me in a field. A tie-died silk scarf. A poem by a friend who later became an author: each verse was dedicated to one member of our little group, comparing us to gems and stars. It sounds corny and it was. But the care and love and lasting friendships made that Christmas special, and so very memorable.
Naomi, First, welcome aboard Fawkes. Second that memory is just beautiful. I love how we can treasure the little stuff.