The Christmas season has always been a magical one for me. Between the snow, the candlelit church services, the Christmas music, and all of the festive lights it is easily my favorite time of year. However, I know that is not the case for many families.
I feel like the holiday season was much simpler in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. I remember growing up my mom and grandparents saying it was even simpler during their younger years. The focus was less on the materialistic items that were appearing under the tree, but on remembering the birth of Jesus, family dinners followed up by Christmas caroling and handing out the dozens of cookies and other sweet treats that you and your loved ones baked. Some of my favorite Christmas memories as a young girl involve gathering at my grandmother’s house where each grandchild had a hand-knitted stocking with a piece of German chocolate in them. We reflected on the year and shared in warm conversation over a beautiful spread of traditional Christmas food.
Once I moved to New York, the family get togethers unfortunately came to a halt. My immediate family continued going to a Christmas Eve church service every year and we started a new tradition of participating in a local Christmas Tree Angel donation. A few businesses would place a Christmas tree in their office space with paper angels on them that had the ages and genders of families or individuals with items that they needed or would like to have for Christmas. I found so much joy shopping for a present for other girls my age because I wanted the day to be special for them.
The commercialization of Christmas is getting completely out of hand. Black Friday “deals” are slowly starting to creep up earlier and earlier. It saddens me to see stores being open on Thanksgiving when their employees should be home with their friends and families. I don’t think there’s anything so important or necessary that requires department stores to be open for 72 hours straight. Christmas was never intended to be a time of fighting over televisions and swiping credit cards.
As a parent, I’ve been making it a priority to teach my daughter about the reason for Christmas. My husband and I are raising her in the church and we openly talk about the birth of Jesus. We do celebrate with a Christmas tree and Santa Claus is a popular guy in our house. However, Santa Claus is only responsible for the chocolates and trinkets in Lillian’s stocking. We do not go overboard with gifts and she’s aware that they are from her parents or grandparents. It saddens me to know that there are children who believe that Santa forgot about them. I understand that not every family can afford the new toy or electronic device so I want to raise my daughter to be grateful and aware of the reality of the world we live in. I really do think Christmas can be celebrated mindfully and intentionally as long as you prioritize it. It can be super easy to get caught up in the early displays of Christmas and holiday decor and sales advertisements.
This year we are living in Okinawa, Japan and will be participating in a local charity called Help Oki. It’s similar to the Christmas Tree Angels that I participated with while growing up and I’m excited to share in this with Lillian. We are also baking holiday goodies to give to the military members that are currently living here without family and opening our home for a home cooked meal. However you all spend the holiday season, I hope you are filled with love and joy.
Olivia Taylor
Thank you for having a multipolar view on Christmas, I enjoyed reading your blog. It was kind of you to switch your Christmas to the Tree Angel Donation. In a country where inflation has taken precedence over well-being and health, we need more of this. I have always felt better giving than receiving.
Yes, I agree that the commercialization of Christmas has gotten out of hand as well. I can empathize with this because I know what it’s like to receive nothing this time of year. I know the mixed feelings that children have seeing other children have the fantasy of Christmas while they receive nothing, which leads to them questioning their worth as a being.