Several of my children had the same wonderful first grade teacher, Mrs. Coleman. Each December she would put a sign outside her door that read: "The best gift you can give your children is your time."
*****
Television
commercials and toy catalogs bombard us with advice on great things to buy that
will make this year the best Christmas ever.
In many years of mothering, I only once heard a child use the
expression, "This is the best Christmas ever." As I tucked my little
brown-haired boy into bed on a Christmas night quite a few years ago, his eyes
sparkled and he sighed as he said, "This is the best Christmas
ever." When I asked him what had
made it so wonderful, he answered, "Because this year I finally got a
hamster." You're not going to see
that in a commercial.
*****
When I asked
my college age daughter about her favorite Christmas memories, she gave me this
list: Grandma's homemade suckers,
Grandpa's pink peppermint candies, hot rolls and kids running in circles around
Grandma's house, the family Nativity program with baby Jesus in the doll bed,
Christmas morning casserole and hot cinnamon rolls, lots of cousins, and two
Christmas Eve dinners, one at each Grandmother's house. There wasn't a single toy included in her
list of memories, but there was lots of food.
Maybe we can amend Mrs. Coleman's list to include sharing good food as
well as time as being good gifts for children.
*****
There was a
time at our house when the children wanted to get up on Christmas morning much
earlier than the parents wanted to get up.
Much, much earlier. So we
instituted a 7 a.m. rule. Children
weren't to come and get parents up on Christmas morning until at least
seven. Jennie reports that she remembers
several years being so excited that she and her brother woke up very early and
they sat and read Calvin and Hobbes comic books together until seven finally
came.
One year they got up early and sat in the living room reading so long that they fell asleep again on the floor. Suddenly Jennie awoke, screaming that the burglars were coming in and she ran and jumped in bed with mom and dad. We got up to investigate and found the noise was the morning newspaper that had thumped against the front door as it was delivered. It was almost time to get up anyway.
One year they got up early and sat in the living room reading so long that they fell asleep again on the floor. Suddenly Jennie awoke, screaming that the burglars were coming in and she ran and jumped in bed with mom and dad. We got up to investigate and found the noise was the morning newspaper that had thumped against the front door as it was delivered. It was almost time to get up anyway.
*****
Giving and
getting are both important parts of life.
This is a wonderful, stressful, delightful, demanding time of year. Talk to your children about both aspects of
the holiday. Help them plan some little
gifts to give. It is a wonderful feeling
to give something that is opened with delight by the receiver. Let your children feel that part of
Christmas, too.
The stores
are coaxing us. Radio announcers cajole
us. Television tries to lure us. “Make this the best Christmas ever,” they all
say. What they mean is “Buy my stuff. “ Parents of young children should know that in
twenty years, those expensive toys that they stood in line all morning to buy
may not even be remembered. It’s the
things families do together that make lasting memories. My
advice: buy a hamster, help your
children make cookies to give the neighbors, and let the kids run circles at
Grandma’s house.
