Coping With The Holidays (Day 7)
Christmas has always held a special place in my heart. Not because of the gifts or because of all the free time it blesses me with, but because I have always associated the Christmas season with being with family. I remember at a young age, I'm going to say 8 years old, I knew that Christmas was around the corner and I wanted to gift my family with special presents to celebrate. The only problem was that I didn't have any money and I didn't want to ask my parents to take me shopping because I wanted to keep it a surprise. So what did I do? I took objects around the house, found some wrapping paper and did what I could at wrapping these "presents". I then called my mom, dad and sister into the living room and told them that I had surprises for them. They each took turns opening their "gifts". I'm not sure if they remember this incident, but I remember it to be my first ever Christmas memory.
Fast forward to 2002 where Christmas really left a lasting impression in my mind. This was the year my grandparents visited us from Sri Lanka. They had been living with us for about 4 months and this was the first time that I was going to celebrate Christmas with those other than my immediate family. I was never fortunate enough to spend quality time with my grandparents so I desperately tried to take everything in when I could. I still remember attending Christmas mass with them and coming home to eat cake. You'll notice that this tradition holds true even to this day because of the impact that it had left on me at that age. I don't think there were any gifts exchanged but at that time, it was just the idea of bonding and spending quality time with each other that made it special.
It turned out that that would be the last Christmas I spent with my grandparents. In fact, I did not see them after that as they left Canada shortly thereafter. However, it is the spirit of Christmas '02 that kept my love for Christmas alive. In the fast paced world we live in, it's easy to forget the importance of spending time with our loved ones. There's a reason why we enjoy Christmas. Find out what your Christmas value is and see if you can practice that for the new year. For me, Christmas means quality family time. However, that doesn't mean I should wait a whole year to practice it. If I enjoy it on December 25th, I will enjoy it on other days of the year as well.
What does Christmas mean to you? How can you instill that value throughout the whole year?