Everywhere you go you can’t help but hear, “We’re not having a big Christmas this year.” It always seems to be said with a tinge of sadness. So, it got me thinking about my childhood “big” Christmases. And you know, there’s not one big Christmas that truly stands out. Yes, some years I got more expensive stuff…nicer jewelry, more toys or more money for shopping. But that stuff came and went.
My two favorite all time Christmas presents are a plastic holiday sled pin and a miniature pewter Coca-Cola train.
I got the pin in the most unhappy of circumstances when I was 14. My dad’s brother had cancer and 9 months after he was diagnosed his battled ended in December. At the funeral in Colorado, I met my aunt Liz’s, great-aunt Marge who was from Seattle. I’m from Texas. We bonded and aunt Marge made a tough few days easier. That year she sent me the pin and ashes from Mount Saint Helen’s. I love that pin because of who gave it to me not what it cost.
My mother gave me the Coca-Cola miniature train her last Christmas. I collect Coca-Cola kitchen stuff. I get to see it every day and it reminds me of her and that she wanted to get me something I’d love…and I do.
Think about what you love about Christmas. I bet it’s the small traditions. Decorating the tree or in my case, trees. Baking cookies or eating a certain dish every Christmas Eve. Wondering if aunt whoever is going to have a few too many glasses of wine and share a few more details than the kids need to hear. Loading everyone in the car to look at Christmas lights. Getting new Christmas PJ’s every Christmas Eve. Going somewhere every year.
Christmas is really about the memories we create with the people we love. Most gifts are ultimately expendable. You won’t even remember what you got the following year. So does big and expensive really matter? The important gifts at Christmas happen every time you do something that creates a tradition or makes a memories with the people that you love. It really is the small things that stay in our hearts. So my thought, have yourself a small, but memorable Christmas, every year.
Last Year’s Blog: I Believe In Santa Clause
Tags: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Coca Cola, traditions
Our Christmases get bigger and bigger each year, but that is because our kids are growing up and getting married and having children. Our presents are getting smaller, but we are having more fun than ever. I just love that our table is more crowded these days rather than less crowded. We have always invited “strays” into our lives, and they are also marrying and making families. Dinner this year is going to take three tables and two shifts. Thank heavens for all the love in this big beautiful world.
Ah, “BIG” Christmasses of yore. The prevailing thought is that to be “big” you had to have every member of the family rolling in a foot of wrapping paper. I realized the other day that after I turned 12 or so, the thrill of opening a ton of gifts satisfied my thrill palate for a few minutes and then I would realize “mom and dad just about went into hock for these things”. The year we decided to “just buy for the kids” was the best year.
A few years in a row my mom, sisters and I decided to draw one name (we’d each get one of the four of us) and make a gift. To date, those are probably the best things we’ve ever received. My husband and I have decided to make it a big Christmas with a $25 budget/each and a limitless budget on TIME. That gift is the most precious!
I whollly agree that it’s the little traditions that make Christmas so joyful.
Here’s a little activity that my extended family (cousins, aunts & uncles, grandmothers, etc.) did this year: start a chain email within the family where everyone shares the 15 best memories they have of Christmas.
And then, just watch and be amazed at how everyone delights in recalling the most touching, funny, heart-warming little joys. It’s good vitamins for your heart!
With lots of love and laughter.
Mireille Albert
I believe that Christmas is not a time to be into the world as in materialistic things, but into family and friends even strangers as this is time to focus on humanity. I remember as a child, my mother coming to me to tell me that that particular Christmas I was not going to receive all that I asked for. I made her cry with my reply as I told her that it didn’t matter what I received that year as this was a time to celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus. That year I did receive all I asked for and then some, but when we as people stop looking at human kind and care only of that which is materialistic, we set our own selves up for a failure as you put time and energy in things that don’t matter and not the time and energy into Life which is human kind. May we all have a Wonderful, Blessed, Joy-filled and Happy Holidays and to All a GOOD LIFE!
my girlfriend lynn asked santa for a nice guy to date and i appeared in her life. now that we have each other i’m asking santa to help us stay together. there are some problems in each of us that cause concern. there is drinking, distrust and suspect charactor in each of us. i’m asking santa to see us through to becoming lifelong partners