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The best memories of this holiday season have been with Gene and our kids. We have always celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas, so it was definitely a season of light and fun, with God and Jesus at the center.
We began reading books on December 1st, beginning with, “24 days before Christmas” by Madeline L'Engle. We read the children, “The Story of St. Nicholas” every year because we wanted them to know where the legend sprang from. But we did NOT do any elves on shelves to manipulate their behavior (that is what Godly discipline is for, to correct behavior, not just manipulate it.), and we did not credit “Santa” with their blessings on Christmas day.
They had the cookies and hot cocoa with their dad on Christmas eve, while he read them the “Christmas Story” out of Luke. We had a tree, with God honoring ornaments, Nativity scenes on many surfaces, and books on top of books! Some of our favorites, besides the ones already mentioned, being “One Wintry Night” by Ruth Bell Graham, “The Christmas Tapestry” by Patricia Pollaco, and “A Confused Hanukkah: An Original Story of Chelms by Jon Koons...(Featuring Herschel Hanukkah, in a Blue and White Santa Suit! Lol), to name the top few. But there were many more.
One Christmas, we were particularly struggling to get the children presents for Christmas morning, but we had saved about $100.00 for the five of them. (I was pregnant with number six, who turned out to be Eli, my navy guy. But he wasn't due until January.)
One Sunday as we were getting ready for Church, we were watching James Robeson and his wife, on a missions trip in Uganda. They were making a plea for funds to feed the hungry children there. With tears in their eyes, my three oldest, Jonathan who was 10, Christin who was 8, and Rachel who was 6, came to us and asked us to please take the money for their gifts and send it to those children!
After, giving it a few days, we asked again, and they persisted. So we had them write the letter to the Robesons, thanking them for what they did, and for sharing it with us! We told them what our children were giving up to make this offering. When I told my neighbor, who was like a grandmother to these guys, she was so overwhelmed by it she went to her church, and it turned out to be the best Christmas (materially speaking) that the kids had ever experienced! It was a good lesson, we told them, in how we can't out-give GOD! Plus, the Robesons were so touched they sent them an autographed book of that mission, to thank them.
But also, as the children got old enough to participate, we began going to the homeless shelter, at 4:30 A.M., on Christmas Morning, to cook breakfast for the homeless people. Our reasoning was, since it is Jesus' birthday we need to give HIM a gift! So this is a way to make Him happy. The kids loved it.
The added bonus was that they were SO grateful to come back to our little Habitat for Humanity Home, with our simple traditional snacks, and modest gifts (sort of pitiful compared to most of their friends and cousins). But, the deal was that we just didn't want to make Christmas about that. We really wanted to crush the “greedy-gimmies” of the commercialized mess, and make it to be about the Birth of our LORD and Savior. Let me tell you, it worked! It never failed to produce a grateful contentment in all of them.
I miss those days. But it is getting more and more exciting now as the grand-children are coming along. Our tradition is to meet here, mid-morning on Christmas day, with our traditional snack items and Hot Mulled Cider. The snack items have been upgraded to include gluten-free crackers, and my famous “no-bake oat cookies”, in a variety of flavors, in place of the fruit cake that we used to have. Plus our usual assortment of cheeses, beef summer sausage and special mustard.
We give gifts to the littles, and exchange meaningful but inexpensive gifts among the adults. Our most recent tradition, in the last few years, is that Gene and I gift them each with a copy of one of the treasured books from their childhood! Which I shop for all year long, to avoid the ridiculous increase right before Christmas. Many of these books are out of print, so I have to find used library versions. But each is greeted with exclamations of delight and pleasure. So our Advent Tradition of reading quality Christmas material from December 1st to Christmas Day can continue.
Sigh . . . Wow. Didn't mean to go so long . . . but it HAS been a long journey!
Chag Sameach! Happy Holidays! Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas!!!
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