The difference between Christmas now and Christmas of yore when my two children were
younger could be measured by the choices of presents they hope to get. But, although their
ideas of which toys they must have have varied from year to year (to the extent
that television commercials aimed at children vary from year to year), that's not how I
measure the changes in Christmas.
It's true that there was a time I could say to the kids, "Okay, so you want every
Teen-age Mutant Ugly Turtle (or whatever the latest over-manufactured toy collection was),
every Turtle enemy, and every vehicle and action set that you don't already have, but
remember this. If you don't get what you ask for, it's because Santa Claus wants to give
you something he knows you'll like better."
And they actually fell for it.
Before that, there was the time I could buy their toys while they went shopping with
me. In that toddler obliviousness of theirs, they didn't notice that after they excitedly
slapped their drool-covered hands all over a toy that attracted their attention, it ended
up in the shopping cart and later under the Christmas tree -- but only if Mom agreed with
their choices, based on price and educational value, of course.
One year I made the mistake of suggesting to the kids that they rip through the Sunday
ads and cut out the pictures of things they wanted. I imagined this as a quiet activity to
keep them busy while I finished some work on my computer. I told them they could glue the
pictures onto a piece of paper to mail to the North Pole.
They asked for a ream of continuous-feed computer paper.
The educational value of Christmas gifts is only of benefit to the parents as they
silently tabulate which mistakes to avoid the following year.
However, the real difference between Christmases is measured by how the children
decorate the Christmas tree. I remember well the tree that fell over because the kids hung
all the ornaments on one branch. It was odd how, after I distributed the ornaments more
evenly, they slowly gravitated back to that one branch -- except for those that were hung
more than three feet off the ground.
This year is the first year I don't have to explain the rationale behind decorating the
whole tree. My youngest is telling me how to do it. I can sit back and let the
children decorate the highest branches. I can even let them hang up the glass ornaments
that have been stored in the attic since it dawned on me that crawling babies like to eat
ornaments.
This is an important year for my children. They are now helping to make Christmas
happen. They are realizing that Christmas is not, at its heart, something that happens to
them. It is not a collection of clipped toy ads that, by the power of wishing and
pleading, become wrapped presents on Christmas morning to satisfy their greed.
Rather, they are coming to understand that Christmas is something that people do with
decorations and cards and shopping carts to spread the joy of the very first Christmas.
It's a special celebration. And without a celebration of God becoming man, wouldn't it be
a lot harder to spread the joy of Christ to the rest of the world?
