Christmas Presents

What shall I buy for Christmas ?

What I remember of Christmas mornings as a child is the tree, or more to the point, all the presents under the tree.  My family was not wealthy, but we had enough, and my mother (perhaps owing to her own difficult and deprived childhood) made sure we had more than enough to open on Christmas morning.  Even pencils, erasers and other school staples were individually wrapped in cheerful Christmas paper for opening to the Christmas service and carols broadcast over a crackling radio.

The best Christmas present I ever received came in a box with crumpled and scratched angel wrapping taped hastily over the top.  We always saved the biggest (in our minds best) for last but there was no waiting on this particular one.  A dog.  A Shelter Special.  Black and white and fluffy and perfect in every way.  Even when she went blind seven years later she continued to bring joy and companionship and taught us compassion and lessons in life and death.  These endured (and still do so) long after the toy dolls lost limbs, games got boring, and pencils and erasers were replaced by others in bright shiny packages under the tree the next year.

I ‘Christmas shop’ throughout the year, forget what I have, or that I even have anything, and get more.  Each year there is a veritable bounty beneath the boughs.  Each year my husband says it’s too much.  Each year I say – it’s not as much as last year!  We open everything one parcel at a time, ritualistically.  The excitement is in the opening and surprise.  When evening comes and everything is eventually carried upstairs there are things that are never looked at again.  Tangible, sometimes costly trinkets buried under more tangible, untouched and costly trinkets.

A few years ago my neighbor’s three children came down the stairs on Christmas morning to find three, just three, rather large boxes under the tree.  Suitcases !  They left for a family trip to Ireland that night and had a family bonding, mind-enhancing. cultural experience which added new dimensions and memories to themselves as individuals and as a family.

I’m not sure my, admittedly younger, boys would willingly see the genius in that gift, unless it was surrounded by other boxes with lightsabers and assorted Star Wars paraphernalia!

Where there is love there is life.  What is that cheerfully Christmas wrapped box under the tree other than an expression of love?  Now I want us to move in the direction of a gift of living.  Experience is the ultimate education and purposeful pleasure seeking has a more lasting impact that momentary surprise at a toy which will likely only move from playroom box to donation box.

Few people have the means to parcel their family off to Europe for Christmas but this year my husband may find himself hurtling around Atlanta Motor Speedway in a Nascar (www.nascarracingexperience.com).  My boys will enjoy the possibilities that come from an Annual Pass to somewhere fun.

It will be the smallest wrapped gift of all.  They probably won’t even find it beneath all whatever else I think I bought during the year.

Nothing beats an “Experience” as a gift !