And So The Magic Of Christmas Continues
One more day to finish off my To-Do list. Tomorrow, the Magic of Christmas Continues.
When my daughter was very young we visited a friend at Christmas time and when we stepped into her home, we stepped into a magical place. She had transformed her home into a magical Christmas wonderland that so awed us that I was inspired to learn from her example. From then on each Christmas, I made it a project to turn the Christmas Season into a Special Time and our home into a Special Place. The day after Thanksgiving we began the Christmas Season by hunting for our Christmas tree out at Half Moon Bay, with pumpkin muffins and hot chocolate in tow. We decorated the house, inside and out. We baked while we listened to old Radio recordings of The Cinnamon Bear. We would pack up the kids and our baked cookies and Gingerbread and go caroling to the Seniors and Shut-ins. When the kids were too young to read, I'd read them Christmas books adding a new one to the collection each year. As each child got to where they could read, they would take turns reading the books to each other. They each had a Christmas Bear that only visited them at Christmas time. We went to the Living Christmas Tree performance at Church in San Mateo and then watched as our own kids performed the Nativity story and sing like little angles in the Children's choir. The Story of Christmas and baby Jesus was acted out at home with their own nativity scene over and over again. I hid their own special little ornament somewhere around the house while they were at school for them to find when they came home. I’d load the kids into the van and go driving around neighborhoods at night looking for the homes with the most beautiful Christmas lights. San Jose had Christmas in the Park that was always fun to share with friends. Home made Christmas presents were given to grandparents, who still cherish them to this day.
The kids are grown up now and a few years ago I made the mistake of thinking they had outgrown the Christmas thing. They were shocked. It seems that even though they have significant others in their lives right now, Christmas is not the same everywhere and they still hold on to the Magic of Christmas as they remember it. All our lives are so busy now, and these are difficult times for all of us, but they still want to hold onto a part of it, at least for now until they have children of their own. So this year (and every other year for a while at least) we hunted for a Christmas Tree out at Half Moon Bay for each of us. The kids helped decorate our home inside and out. With each ornament they put on the tree there was a story, a laugh or a tear. I gave them ornaments from their childhood to take home and put on their own trees. They found their Christmas Bears, the Christmas book collection and the songbooks. They set up Secret Santa for all the Christmas stockings and filled the day with so much it brought tears to my eyes. It made for a very long day full of stories of Christmases past. I think back on that day when I visited my friend and how much it affected our lives. Family traditions are so important that you don't even know you are making one until it's almost lost.
Tomorrow morning, Christmas Eve, the kids are all coming over to bake cookies and breads and spend the day reading Christmas Stories out loud to us all. They have been practicing their singing with their significant others in preparation for singing carols around the piano. They are all spending the night so we can all wake up together on Christmas morning. Christmas is still such a Magical Time.
Christmas Eve is almost here. I had better go find The Cinnamon Bear.
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