I was thinking about Christmas recently. My parents always made Christmas a special time of year. We celebrated by going to Mass. We decorated our house. We had special traditions. There was a special baby Jesus that we had that went with a special ceramic tree and we always put little plastic animals all around Him. We had some wooden ornaments and some that looked like candy. One year my mom decided she wanted an all white Christmas tree decorated with red flowers. She always seemed to really care about the holiday.
Then, when I got married, I continued on. My husband and I created our own traditions. The one that is the most special is that each year we get an ornament with the date on it and add it to our collection. It forms a story of our Christmases together. It is really wonderful.
This year I noticed that after I got married, my parents stopped celebrating Christmas. They didn’t put up a tree. They didn’t exchange gifts. They really didn’t do anything at all. After my father died, it was the same. The only way that my mother “celebrated” Christmas was to watch mass on TV and give me and my brother money as gifts.
It makes me wonder if she ever really understood what Christmas was about. When I look back on it now, it feels like Christmas was about giving me gifts so that she could prove what a great mother she was. The ironic part is that now that I am older, I don’t really care about getting gifts. I like giving gifts and I really enjoy that part, but it isn’t my favorite part. My favorite part of Christmas is being able to stand up in front of the Christmas tree and see the life that I have made with my husband. I love being able to see that beautiful tree and know that my house is a house full of love, God, and tradition. I don’t know what the future will be for me, but I hope that I never grow too weary or too old to celebrate the gifts that God has given me.
My faith saved me. May God’s peace reside in all of our hearts.
