Do you remember what presents you received last Christmas? I honestly don’t recall most of them. But then I am not sure I could name what I received from one year to the next even as a teenager.
There are a few gifts I do remember well. When I was 12, I asked for and received a chemistry set. It was pretty disappointing. I expected it to contain some gunpowder or at least something else that would explode! The most dangerous substance in it was household baking soda. The next most dangerous was deodorized, very weak, vinegar. The instructions said to combine them and you get bubbles. It was a very simple explanation of why you burp. Meh!
I remember going to church on Christmas Eve as a family. There was a sense of excitement because we got to stay up until midnight when normal bed time was 8pm.
I also think back and recall three epic fails. One was our first and last artificial Christmas tree. It was all silvery aluminum with a rotating light that turned the aluminum red, green, yellow and blue. The second fail was a Christmas Eve house fire in the neighborhood that my dad, a volunteer fireman, was called to help extinguish. The third was when my mother went to the local hospital because her ring finger got caught in the egg beater. It’s truly amazing what you remember from your childhood Christmas experiences.
While my mother was filling our stockings during the day on Christmas Eve, us children would pile into the car with my dad for a trip to the local Five and Ten Cent store – today it would be the Dollar Store, and tomorrow it might be The Sawbuck Shop. (My dad called a ten dollar bill a sawbuck). There we were each given one dollar to purchase Christmas presents for all our siblings. We were back home just after 5pm because everything had closed by then. The long lines of cars getting gas at the local station had disappeared as well. Darkness comes early in Minnesota in the winter. With the darkness came a special silence, especially when there was fresh Christmas snow.
There was one tradition that my grandmother invented (as far as I know) and my mother continued. All the presents underneath the tree had some mysterious system my mother used so she knew which presents were for which child. One year it might be the color of the ribbon and the next it was the second letter of our first names. I don’t think we ever managed to crack her code so every gift was a double surprise! Yes, she could have just used gift tags, but this was much more fun for us kids.
The gift I most remember from my college days came from my grandparents. They were in their seventies and giving away their “fortune”. I received $500 for college tuition four years in a row at a time when a year’s tuition, along with room and board, all cost a whopping $2,000 dollars.
Why am I sharing some of my Christmas memories with you? You were once your grandchildren’s age and, just as you have memories, 50 years from now, your grandchildren may be passing on stories of you leading the family in Christmas carols or in retelling the nativity story.
Perhaps before it is too late, go get some 2025 pennies – no more will be minted – and give 10 shining cents to each of your grandchildren. Then share a short Christmas message that explains to them how, when Jesus was born, like the passing of the penny, the old world passed away and behold all things became new in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17 paraphrased)
Whatever you do, do something to make this a Christmas to be remembered by your grandchildren.
Mike Shaughnessy lives in Maryland