“Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.” – Corrie Ten Boom
My memories of Christmas all run together – like one big happy dream. The family gathers for good food on the table, with gifts to share, then everyone leaves full of The Good Spirit hoping to make the moment last for another year.
Yet others have memories that are not as happy as mine. Maybe there’s an empty chair at the table where a loved one no longer sits. Maybe there aren’t as many gifts under the tree or as much food on the table this year. This is not the holiday image they want to carry in their memories for the next twelve months.
We want to dream how next year will be better, but there’s no way to know if the dream will come true.
I pray for a gift of hope so everyone has a season that brings rich memories of overflowing tables, laughter, and the need for an even larger tree next year.
If that is your wish, how can you help it come true in your family, and for your neighbors? Do you know anyone staring at an empty chair or with fewer gifts under the tree. How could you change this holiday memory for them?
Merry Christmas, and if those aren’t the right words in your home, please translate to fit a spirit of Peace and Love.
As always, the conversation starts here.
“In the ordinary choices of every day we begin to change the direction of our lives.” – Eknath Easwaran
I grew up poor (but didn’t know it back then). Spray, NC was a textile mill town. Almost all my relatives worked in the mills and lived in mill houses with no running water. Google “outhouse” (smile). One year, the mill workers were on strike. Tough times were even tougher. BUT I clearly remember families being invited to the union hall (AFL-CIO) where every child got a brown paper bag FULL of candy, fruit, mixed nuts , and non-gender=specific toys…and every adult got a bag with non-perishable foodstuffs. I had never seen so much bounty! And so much generosity! We… Read more »
Loyd –
Merry Christmas. Thank you for your story. It’s a good reminder to be grateful and remember how there will always be others less fortunate.
I worry that some today receive too much under the tree without understanding the joy of, “candy, fruit, and mixed nuts.”
Be well my friend and celebrate having Brenda back home.
– Bruce
Every Dec. 24, my family traveled to western PA for a Christmas Eve party with my grandma, 6 aunts and uncles, and 17 cousins. We ate delicious food (lots of Swedish goodies), exchanged gifts, sang carols, and stared at the big tree with those mesmerizing bubble lights. The only bad part was getting up the next morning to travel three hours back home so I could open my presents. My grandma, parents, aunts and uncles are all gone now, but those warm holiday memories will always be with me.
Hi Margie –
Yes, I know those memories remain and that you enjoy sharing them with your grandchildren today.
Thanks for being part of the conversation.
Merry Christmas.
– Bruce
An adjustment of cultures – I grew up on a farm in PA. On Christmas eve we went to bed with a bare Christmas tree, no presents under the tree and in another room a big 4×8 sheet of bare plywood. When we came down the stairs on Christmas morning there was the amazement of a decorated tree, many packages under the tree and a fully operating village and train set on that sheet of plywood. The glass of milk was empty and the cookies were gone! Magic One year we had a white Christmas, my grandfather and grandmother arrived… Read more »
Bruce, the adjustment in cultures that I forgot to mention was that when I arrived in Charlotte many years later it was some adjustment to go buy a tree right after Thanksgiving, put it up and then take it down the day after Christmas. Ours always went up Christmas eve and came down after New Years.
Richard –
The glass always had a few swallows remaining and crumbs around from Santa’s mess in my childhood home.
Yes, there could be volumes written on having the tree ready weeks early or letting it remain after. Every culture is different. Maybe one is about anticipation and the other about marveling and then learning.
Merry Christmas friend.
– Bruce