I have sooooo many memories of childhood Christmases.. I remember waking up early to find my brother had already gotten up and opened his presents, and taped them back together. I remember going to bed early, then coming out and finding my mom and sister and the kitchen table full of "stuff" and being told that Santa had come and that he forgot to wrap the presents. Our neighbor Colleen Ashton was there as well, I was convinced that she must have some special "in" with Santa so from that time forward I would always be extra NICE around her at Christmastime.
As an adult we seem to find the ability to recall all those special times when we were children, but what about now? Are there ever times when the hustle and bustle of Christmas gets lost and the childlike "spirit of Christmas" is found?
For me it happened a few years ago. ...
My children and I were by the government's terminology "in transition" . Others refer to it as homeless. The home we lived in was lost to foreclosure, I was in the middle of a divorce and we were forced to find housing with my mom. Even though I was working at the time, I did not know how I could support my children by myself, and I had no idea what we could do about Christmas. The social worker at the school where I was employed, happen to have many extra donated toys and gifts. I was over the activities committee at church, and had the santa suit in my possession. For some strange reason, I asked my sons if they would dress up as Santa Claus, and an elf. In retrospect, it was a truly strange request. We had NEVER done anything like that previously. Joey was a senior in high school and was in the middle of his wrestling season. That meant that he was a VERY FIT 150 pounds. Charlie was a Freshman and already taller than his brother. They really weren't your typical Santa and Elf. However, they agreed to try it and so, we went around to the homes of families in our church who had children and might not be having a Christmas. We were greeted happily everywhere we went. Most of the moms were asking if they could put this handsome Santa and Elf on their Christmas list. The final house we went to was probably the most overwhelming. We tried and tried to call ahead, but there was no answer. We got to the door and our friends 10 year old daughter answered. The look of shock on her face was priceless. All of a sudden she started to cry and ran to tell her mother. That was certainly not the answer we anticipated. We went in and Santa gave the children their gifts. The mother came out with tears in her eyes, and started to tell us, that her older daughter had been very upset this year. They normally spent Christmas with family from Mexico, but this year would not be able to do so. Her daughter had just told her that this was the worst Christmas she could ever imagine. There were no presents under the tree and she absolutely knew there was no such thing as Santa. At that moment the doorbell rang, and there stood Santa, with gifts for her and her siblings. We finally understood why she was so shocked !!
We have had other Christmas experiences since that time, however, we all agree that no other Christmas experience will probably ever top that one. The feelings that we had of service and love for our fellowman, helped us to leave behind our own feelings of depression and helplessness and to find within ourselves the valor to move on and be better. We might have been categorically defined as homeless, but we knew that we didn't need to have a house to be able to experience the love of being a family.
