1 of 20 (in the Top 20 of 2020)
Celebrating is a significant aspect of community living. And when it comes to our perspectives on celebration, our community runs the gamut. For some of us, celebrating can seem trivial and pragmatism is preferred. For others, certain celebrations can be traumatic, or theologically problematic, and therefore celebrating may require that long held traditions be altered. For others, namely our children, celebrating is undoubtedly, absolutely, categorically, fundamentally essential.
For us there is no option to ignore Christmas, there is only an opportunity to handle it responsibly. 2020 was our first December 25th in a shared home on a shared income. We have no church or extended family coming to visit and so the parameters of our seasonal festivities required attentiveness.
We decided to work through a study on Advent called the Jesse Tree. Our “tree” was about 12 inches tall, artificial, and covered in homemade ornaments hung one day at a time. We took out Christmas themed books and we told our children that Santa was mythological. We explained that each child could expect one gift from their parents and one from a family member “secret santa”. We celebrated the “12 Days of Christmas” by taking each afternoon to write a card to each of the 12 members of our community and we fashioned a “Christmas Mailbox” out of an old cardboard box. We planned a holiday menu, we sang carols by firelight, we watched Christmas movies, we hand-made paper decorations, and we took a walk to see the lights in our neighborhood on Christmas Eve.
But on Christmas morning it was our children who caught US by surprise. Instead of demanding that we open our gifts to each other at 6am on Christmas morning, they insisted we start the day as we had through all of Advent, reading scripture and meditating on the first gift given on the very first Christmas. They spoiled us with their cheerful, generous hearts, with their sweet messages, and with their gratitude for the one gift that had been chosen for them. That morning we reaped a harvest of blessings from our little ones and any reluctance we may have had to celebrate with them seemed inconsequential. Ultimately, our first shared Christmas was remarkably charming – the stuff that time-honored Christmas tales are made of.
Salty & Bright 