As I’ve shared with you in “My Beginnings in Grace,” there was no money in my growing-up household. My parents rented a small farm, so there was a lot of work and not a lot of income.
Like with most children, I thought Christmas was absolutely magical. Now that I’ve had time to reflect on that magic, I’m amazed by it. And I’ve learned from it.
Let’s be honest. Most children are giddy with anticipation over what will be under the tree on Christmas morning, and I suspect therein lays the magic for many. But there was no money for gifts when I was a girl. Many Christmas mornings I would receive a pair of socks, each sock wrapped separately. And I would be thrilled.
Because there were no gifts, there was no point in my parents’ introducing a Santa Claus. After all, why get my sisters’ and my hopes up about a special delivery of gifts from a jolly sleigh driver? Those gifts just weren’t going to happen. Besides, my dad is a very practical kind of guy, and the whole Santa thing seemed ridiculous to him.
No, our magic wasn’t in the anticipation of presents or wild imaginings about a sleigh traversing the universe. What I’ve learned from myself is that the worldly trappings of the holidays are nonessential. What I treasured about the holidays were tradition, family time, and the celebration of a miraculous birth.
I remember baking cookies with my mom, the smell of corn pudding in the big roaster, lights on houses, reciting Scripture in the children’s pageant at church, and, most of all, music – those glorious old praise songs proclaiming the birth of a Savior so dear to my family. Yep, I was one blessed little girl.
When our firstborn was three, my husband and I pondered the Santa thing. Was doing Santa essential to creating magic in her holiday? My own experience told me no. The bigger issue for me was my desire to be above reproach in terms of honesty with our children. I had told Alison that she would never hear an untruth from me, that my words could be trusted. Could I honestly look at her little face and tell her that a jolly guy from the North Pole would deliver presents to our home and say it as if I believed it? No, I couldn’t. I never wanted her to question our words, most importantly the truths we had told her about our Lord Jesus. If one Christmas icon had been fabricated, what about the other? What’s real?
We’re not Santa Claus haters, not at all. In fact, we love fantasy. We decided to explain to Alison that most families love to pretend that a jolly guy wearing a red suit who lives at the North Pole rides in a sleigh driven by reindeer and delivers presents to boys and girls all over the world. We told her that it was a fun, make-believe thing to do and that we could even make cookies to leave for him on Christmas Eve.
“Would you like our family to do this?” I asked her.
With a roll of her eyes, she answered, “That’s ridiculous.”
“She clearly has her Grandpa’s genes,” I thought. And that was that.
Our gown daughters still love Christmas. They love the family time, the silly family traditions; they love the worship; they love the Truth of it. In recent years our Christmases have been very lean in terms of gift giving. That hasn’t mattered one bit. We’ve not lost an ounce of magic. They know what’s real, and what’s real can’t be purchased.
If I can offer any advice to stressed-out young parents who are trying to create magic for their children, it’s this: relax. What they really want is time with you. Slow down, put away the plastic, and make the most of family time.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come! Have a blessed, magical Christmas!!!!!!
Joy in Jesus,
Jacquee