Christmas Perspective

I truly enjoyed Christmas this year. Not only was it the first Christmas where Michael started to understand things, but I gained a new perspective. Many things affected my new outlook on how to do Christmas.

First, there was my brother, in Arizona, whose wife had to unexpectedly go to the hospital during a home birth, and he was unable to find a single ward member, willing to sacrifice some of their Christmas time to help take care of his kids while he took care of his new born baby and wife in the hospital. Luckily my mother was able to fly out to help. But that got me thinking…. Isn’t the reason for Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth and to do so by serving others during this season? Isn’t the scripture “When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.”

Second, I have heard other’s question the role of Santa in their Christmas and how he relates to the gospel teachings. Now Kent and I both being the youngest never had the Santa thing played up for us, and we found out at a relatively young age. So I decided to tell Michael that there is a wonderful man who gets all the children ONE gift on Christmas to celebrate Christ’s birth, and that we all do the same, by giving gifts to others we are doing what Christ has asked of us, serving and showing our loves to those around us. But I don’t think I will really play up Santa all that much. Instead we emphasized daily that Christmas was Christ’s birthday and to celebrate Christ’s birth. So it was funny when family members would ask Michael are you excited about Santa? He really didn’t have an answer. They also asked what he had asked Santa for Christmas, this too he didn’t have an answer. I never told him that he could pick what he wanted. I just told him that Santa would give him one present. When relatives asked Michael what day was coming up, he would say “Birthday!” I’m sure this confused everyone, but this made me happy. Michael was not thinking about getting lots of presents and about what he wanted. He was thinking about Christ’s birthday. Sure there will come a time where he will focus on what he wants, I think that most young kids go through that phase, but if I can hold that off and teach him that it is not about getting but giving from the beginning I think that he will learn the message of Christmas.

With the focus on Christ and service I thought “what did I want my children to remember about the Christmas’s of their childhood?’ Did I want them to remember a frantic mother trying to bake too many things, to make everything so perfect, that she is unhappy, and therefore the kids are unhappy? (I have done this in the past and it was not fun!) Or do I want them to remember a happy mom, who especially during this time, spent time with them, and took the time to teach them what Christmas is about. Now don’t get me wrong, I think taking cookies to neighbors is wonderful, but I have already done that 2 times this year and so it was one I was willing to let slide at Christmas time. I also wanted to do lots of fun activities, like make gingerbread houses, snowflakes, etc. But why do too much when just a little will do? So I limited our Christmas activities. There was a Christmas tree made of Michaels hand prints. We played in the snow and Michael built his first snowman. Michael made a Christmas present for mom, dad, and Emma. And every evening we read a different Christmas book, sang a Christmas song, read a scripture about Christ’s birth, learned about a person in the nativity, and pondered on what we would give Jesus this year for Christmas.

So Christmas day the kids each got three gifts this year; one from Santa, one from mom and dad, and one from their sibling. Christmas morning since there were not a lot of gifts to be opened, we took our time. Each took a turn opening and then we would get the gift out and let the child play with it a few minutes and then move on. I loved it! It made Christmas last a lot longer and it was nice to see each gift loved and played with. To end our gift opening we said a prayer of thanksgiving to our Heavenly Father.

Then a fun simple breakfast of pull apart cinnamon bread, eggs and sausage. The rest of the day was fun with the kids, phone calls to family, and a dinner with Kent’s family. Maybe it was just my perspective and focuses this year, maybe it was because I was not stressed out about everything being perfect, but this Christmas was the best I have had in a while.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! What a blessing to celebrate Christ’s birth and teach the message of giving and serving to my children. Thanks to those who helped me see the meaning of Christmas this year and helped me better focus my Christmas traditions.

Michael's first snowman

Michael's handprint Christmas tree

What hansome guys I have in my life!

Playing after Christmas morning