A Christmas Story

“So this is Christmas, and what have we done? Another year over, a new one just begun.”

So go the lyrics of a holiday classic brought to us by the infamous John Lennon. It’s a magical time of year where we sort of celebrate the birth of “our lord and savior Jesus Christ,” but really it’s a time to just try and act in a manner that may represent what the story of that person is meant to instill in us. To do unto others and all that Jazz.

I personally am not all that religious of a guy, (I know, big shocker to our consistent readers) but I am a man of faith so to speak. I believe in people and their ability to do good, and this time of year is a great time to really show that spirit. Given all of the crazy terrible things going on around the world, I think we could use a little more of the good and a rest from the wicked. We all could use some of that holiday magic where we forgive the wrong that others have done unto us and we use this holiday to show the ones we love how much they mean to us. The idea isn’t about presents, but presence. Being there and showing we care for each other by actually spending some quality time together. The presents we give to each other may be nice but the main point is to prove we know each other, that we’ve been paying attention and that the things we receive may not be as important as the meaning behind them.

As we grow older our wish lists dwindle as we get jobs and purchase the necessities for ourselves throughout the year, but to give the magic of Christmas to a child is something special. I was recently talking about Santa with some of the kids on my bus and one of the 7^th grade girls told me that she knew that Santa wasn’t real during our discussion of when we open presents for Christmas. I then proceeded to tell her about the time that Santa made a trip to our house, right about the time we started to question his existence as well…

Our tradition is to gather the family at the house on Christmas Eve where we have our Christmas tree which has had a growing number of presents throughout the week underneath it (all from each other), than we would go out looking at Christmas lights while one of our parents would stay behind to assist Santa in putting out all the presents that came from him. When we would come back Santa would have been there and we would be amazed at all of the presents that he had left behind!

Some kids love the surprise, and some seek out their presents before opening them. They shake the ones under the tree and wait for an opportune time to search through all of the possible hiding places in the house where Santa/Mom & Dad may have hidden other presents. You hear stories, and maybe even partook in carefully unwrapping presents to discover what they are before Christmas and then carefully rewrapping them in order to not be discovered. My brother may have been one of these individuals…

When I was just about that age where I was starting to question if Santa was real or not, my brother and I were home alone one day and he came to me and said, “Want to see something?”

I being the younger, dumber brother I quickly said, “Sure!”

He then led me into my parent’s bedroom where he opened up their closet to reveal a plethora of items which we had asked for throughout the year, all waiting to be wrapped, and all of which were more than likely coming from Santa. He also showed me a toy drum set which I had requested from Santa which was being hidden in our garage…at which point our parents returned and found us.

They were furious that we would go snooping around like that and told us that all of the presents were being returned to the store, they even went as far as to load everything back up in the car while we sat there watching, tears filling my face and drenching my shirt. Christmas was ruined.

I now knew that there was no Santa and that I would no longer be getting all of the great toys that I had just moments before discovered. I cried and cried, blamed my brother for everything, told my parents that I hadn’t wanted to go snooping, and as could be predicted completely threw my brother under the bus.

But they were holding firm. There would be no presents except the few we already had under the tree, which in our eyes (after seeing the haul we were going to get) was practically nothing.

Despite knowing that we would not be getting all of those awesome presents, my brother and I were now in make up mode and were on our absolute best behavior for the remainder of the Christmas season. We knew we had messed up and Christmas being our mom’s favorite time of year, we felt like we had almost cheated her out of something as well (It being better to give rather than receive was far beyond our rationale at that age). So we were good, probably better than we had been all year, not because we felt like we could still redeem ourselves enough to save our Christmas, but because we felt bad about what we had done.

So Christmas Eve came and we piled in the car with my dad and two sisters and my mom stayed home to finish the Christmas meal and hang out just in case Santa arrived (which we knew wouldn’t happen because we had been bad, and also because we now knew that there was no Santa, just mom and dad).

We were gone for quite a while checking out all of the beautiful lights our community had put up on their houses to help put them in the Christmas mood, or to make the season special for their families or neighbors, or just because they loved the season. We drove all over the place and for the first time for a long time we weren’t complaining about trying to get back because we knew that there weren’t going to be any of the crazy things we had asked for for Christmas, there was just going to be a few small presents as well as some quality family time. Maybe we would eat and put together a puzzle, or play a hard core game of Yahtzee…and that was going to be enough. We wanted to make the day special for our parents because we knew we had ruined their Christmas and because we were beginning to finally see all of the amazing things they do to make our lives better…I mean, who comes up with a magical person who delivers presents just to make their kids believe that there is magic in this world of ours?

We finished our drive and parked our car in the driveway, not rushing to be the first one in the house as normal, but just slowly walking in talking about what was our favorite display and excited about getting to tell our mom about all of the beautiful lights.

As we entered the house and looked up from our landing, we were shocked to see a large man with a big white beard dressed all in red and white standing at the top of our stairs! Santa hadn’t just been to our house, but he was still there!

We were like the little kids who happen upon Santa away from his typical haunts (the mall photo opt, or ringing the bell for the Salvation Army), we were in awe and very timid. We also figured we were about to get a lecture about how bad we had been that year…which was pretty much what happened.

But he being Santa, and seeing everything in all, he also talked to us about how he had been really impressed with our turn around and wanted us to keep being the good boys he knew we could be. He said that our parents had asked him to talk to us specifically because they thought that we were beginning to believe that he didn’t exist and thought that it would be a shame if we stopped seeing the magic of the season.

As you would imagine we praised everything he was saying, told him we would be the good little boys he knew we could be, promised to not go snooping around in places we shouldn’t be and probably a ton of other things which we inevitably failed to hold to.

Santa wished us all a very Merry Christmas, told us he had parked his sleigh on our back deck and that maybe next year we could see it and pet the reindeer and away he went. I still remember hearing the hooves of the reindeer on our deck as he took off to his next stop.

We then went out to the Christmas tree which was now surrounded by presents, including all of the things we had seen our parents load up to return to the store, Santa had really come through in the end!

So I told this story to the little 7^th grade girl on my bus and although she had been very sure that Santa did not exist I could see now that she was starting to question it a bit. I have never been known to lie to the kids on my bus, so why would I be lying to her now?

Christmas is a magical time of year, not necessarily because of all the things that we receive but because of all that we can give and because hopefully we are able to share it with loved ones. It doesn’t matter what you have under the tree, but who’s there to share the season with you.

As I look back at our Christmas seasons past I think of how hard our parents worked to instill the magic of Christmas upon us all. No matter the circumstances our parents made it a special occasion for us and because of the kind of people they are and were, they had friends that would help out along the way.

When I think of Christmas and its meaning now, I think of the Christmas where we were flat broke and we weren’t going to be able to have any presents at all, but my mom’s best friend Lil Bridgeford, went out and bought us all gifts because she knew how important the holiday was to our mom.

I think about all of the sacrifices my parents made for us, how my mom absolutely loved Christmas, the lights, the decorations, the exchanging of gifts and just getting to spend the holiday with the people she loved and I know that I was very lucky to get to spend my first 22 Christmas seasons with someone like her who always made sure we believed in the magic of Christmas and the goodness of people.

I think at some point my parents told us who played Santa that day for them and how they had made it seem like the sleigh was taking off from our deck, but for the life of me I can’t remember that part of the story. Maybe I just choose not to, maybe to this day I still believe in the magic of Christmas, and maybe you should too.

 

Merry Christmas from all of us at Banana Daiquiris and Life Lessons!