What Christmas Means to Me

 What Christmas Means to Me

Matthew White Christmas 2021

We didn’t have a lot growing up but I wouldn’t trade my memories for all of Elon Musk’s bitcoin.  Every year my brother and sister and I would be given a $20 budget for gifts.  We’d eagerly wait for the Sears Christmas catalog to arrive in the mail.  It was a couple inches thick and full of color pictures of things to buy.  We’d spend hours sifting through the toys section and circle our gifts and write the page number down for our parents. 

Our Christmas stockings were hand-crocheted by my grandma.  They were always heavy and stretched low because they were filled with fruit and walnuts and pecans in the shell.  We’d use a nutcracker to open them to eat.  The stockings would also be seasoned with hard candy and sticks of Wrigley's spearmint gum.  One time there was a footlong one-inch thick candy cane inside.  I only got about halfway through that before it turned soft and chewy.   Christmas to me means being thankful for my childhood and the love we had--no money required. 

 

Walking the Trail of Lights in downtown Austin and then spinning under the light Christmas tree at the end was always fun.  One year I went when Abigail and Makenzie were about 10 and 15 years old.  We went with a friend who had a 5-year-old daughter.  On the way back to the house Makenzie got nauseated from all the lights and started throwing up in the back seat of the car.  Then my friend’s daughter started dry heaving and making loud belching sounds.  I don’t know why but I couldn’t stop laughing!  I laughed until tears rolled down my cheeks.  I felt sorry for them but it just struck me as funny!  I’m literally laughing out loud as I write this memory down.  Christmas to me means remembering and laughing at the good times in the past.

Every year when the kids were young we’d make homemade sugar cookies from a recipe my grandmother used to make cookies when I was growing up.  I had a dozen different Christmas cookie cutters, sprinkles, and a wooden rolling pin.  We’d blow up the kitchen!  We’d spread flour on the counter and roll out the batter by hand.  It took forever to clean up the kitchen.  Now the kids are grown up we haven’t done that in a long time but a few days ago Makenzie asked for Great Grandma White’s sugar cookie recipe. That warmed my heart and brought me to tears.   I’ll be taking Abigail and going to her place for Christmas eve and we’ll be blowing up her kitchen now!  There will be laughing, and hugs, and conversations to knit our hearts together.  One day she’ll make Great, Great Grandma’s sugar cookies with her children.  Christmas to me means having family traditions that have been passed down for generations.

After my divorce, Abigail and Makenzie were just children, I spent many Christmas mornings waking up to an empty house.  They would be with their mother.  Those quiet mornings would remind me there are many people who have a hard time fighting loneliness and sadness during the Christmas season.  Maybe they lost a loved one or had no family to come home to.  It made me treasure my times and find a person or neighbor and be their family at that time. This year I’ve got a neighbor a few houses down who lives with his elderly mother. Last year his son moved away to Oklahoma and won’t be able to come home for Christmas.   He likes to make things so I bought him a model spaceship and will take them homemade cookies and a ham.  Christmas means to me remembering the lonely and finding someone or a family and giving them the gift of love.  

The first Christmas was anything but special from an earthly perspective.  Mary was nine months pregnant when the decree was sent for them to travel to Joseph’s birthplace for a census.  Nazareth was about 70 miles from Bethlehem.  Can you imagine riding on a donkey for 2-3 days nine months pregnant and then going into labor with no familiar place to give birth?  Jesus was delivered in a farm stable--likely a cave.  The King of Kings was born into the sights and smells and all the germs that come with common farm animals!  Wow!  That’s how He chose to come into this earth. Just that tells me a lot about God.  He’s not too big to come to earth with nothing. He wanted the world to know he can relate to all of us.  Christmas to me means remembering God came to man with nothing of earthly value so man could have all the riches in Christ Jesus.