I have had a child of mine wake up in this house on Christmas morning every single Christmas since 1997. This is the first year that I will not.
What does Christmas morning look like in an empty nest anyway? Do we still have Christmas magic when we have to drive to visit it? It seems I am about to find out.
GirlWonder visited recently, and we flipped through the Christmas scrapbooks. Among the many photos, I am so blessed to have carefully kept their Christmas “wish lists” to Santa all those years. I always asked Santa to return them after reading and he dutifully obliged. Reading what our children wanted at those early Christmas holidays takes me right back.
Gifts
In one letter, our sweet girl at about age 6 wrote, “Please bring me a green bow for my green Care Bear because I don’t know where that bow went.” Santa was the bringer of gifts or replacer of lost things, I suppose. I hope he delivered.
BoyWonder asked for a “bug thing.” I recall it melted plastic into bug shapes and required some basic skill and oversight. I should have seen his predilection for engineering even then.
Each Christmas, sometime in the afternoon, I would pile their presents and have each child pose in their Christmas pajamas in front of the pile of gifts and toys. Such a sweet memory now. Seeing those blessings in abundance, I wonder what gifts my children remember as “best?”
The year they received a Wii video gaming system was full of shouts of joy. I also remember the excitement of Pokemon cards, board games and Care Bears, oh so many Care Bears — one, apparently, missing a green bow.
When asked, they remember what they GAVE us. The Santa Shop at school was the source of wonderful gifts. A tiny snowman ornament for daddy. A “World’s Best Mom” coin purse for me. I still cherish that one. Sorry for all the other moms who didn’t win that prestigious award. I’m sure you tried your best.
When I was a child I wanted for nothing. I had two ponies at one point for goodness sake. I will never effectively be able to shop any “poor pitiful me” tales of Christmas woe.
I remember that I received the Sunshine Family — a very hippie fashion doll group. The mom wore a prairie dress and the dad had an afro. I loved them so much. I wonder what happened to them? I’m sure I grew up, and they were handed down. They’re well into middle age now. I hope they’re still out there somewhere living their best crunchy little doll lives.
My Gran made me homemade dolls one year, and I loved them dearly. They were just perfect. A boy doll and a girl doll. As a young “mother” as a child, I always wanted a boy doll, and they were hard to come by. Perhaps I had an inkling that I would one day have one son and one daughter. A boy doll AND a girl doll just seemed right somehow.
As for gifts I always wanted but never received, there is one. This marks the 50th anniversary of my NOT receiving the chuck wagon with galloping horses as seen in the Chuck Wagon dog food commercial. Nevermind that it didn’t actually exist. Santa was supposed to be magic, so I KNEW he could make it happen. I still want a chuck wagon and tiny live horses, honestly. That thing was CUTE.
Happy
I like to think our children have warm and happy memories of childhood Christmases. That is, after all, the point of all that magic making we do.
Between the shopping, the wrapping, the cooking, the cleaning, the school events, the shipping and handling and still trying to make magical memories… parents are basically running on caffeine, sprinkles and pure determination.
This will be the first year since 1996 that Mr. Wonderful and I wake up in a quiet house on Christmas morning. As newly minted homeowners, GirlWonder and her Handsome husband have taken on hosting tasks of Christmas Day. It’s been odd, but also somewhat exciting, to pass the hosting duties to them.
I think a key factor is letting go and letting the new hosts lead. We can’t dictate what that looks like. It’s exciting to have some new traditions. Our son-in-law comes from a “pickle hiding” tradition family. It’s got something to do with hiding and finding the pickle ornaments? I’m not sure yet how it works, but I’m looking forward to it very much.
New home, new hosts and new traditions coming together. This is how the “magic” of Christmas grows. We love the traditions and the tried and true — but I feel like the real gifts are readily embracing growth and change, too.
