The Christmas Experience

When you write a special Christmas message for a decade or more, you wonder what can you say this Christmas.  This was my thinking until I had this idea on how to make my Christmas memorable. Let me explain and hopefully you can do the same.

Why an experience?

As we celebrated Christmas a few years ago, I asked the family to go around the table and recall gifts from their childhood that they could remember getting (from Santa).  To my surprise, we couldn’t remember as many gifts as we thought we could.  Instead, each person shared a memory they held onto and may have included a gift.  It was the experience that they remembered most, not the actual gift. Go figure.

I’ll share one.  My brother, who is older, figured out “this Christmas thing” before I did.  One Christmas I knew I saw Santa and in fear I pulled my head back under the covers.  My brother later told me it was our dad who just happened to be wearing his old red jogging suit.  Leave it to my brother to ruin Christmas for his younger brother. If you know him, he’s a straight-shooter.  The point is this; I remember what I saw and the experience to this day.

When younger others make the experience for us.
Here’s another, I remember the special gum-drop tree our grandmother would make for us each year.  There was no way I’d ever eat one of these gum-drops stuck to the branches of the homemade tree, but the experience has lasted throughout my lifetime and well after hers.

One more, I recall my grand-aunt Kaye (Aunt Peewee) she’d give us a Christmas package each year and in the wrapping we’d find a pack of tube-socks.  At the time, we didn’t want tube-socks for Christmas, but because she gave them to us we wore them at some point during the year. While the gift was strange to us then, it’s the experience that we cherish and remember many years later..  

As we age, it becomes less of an experience because the lack of others’ intervention.
You see as we become adults, we have to take on more and more responsibility to making Christmas experiences.  The gift-giving is but a small and many times insignificant part of Christmas.

Here are a few ways we make an experience of Christmas:

• A Girls Sleepover.  Tamia planned a Christmas sleepover for a few of her twelve-year-old girlfriends.  Pamela had gifts wrapped for them to open when they arrived. They enjoyed each other’s company.  As a finale they selected names and went shopping so that they could exchange semi-secret gifts.
• Move Christmas.  Because we have a blend of family members, we move Christmas up one day.  We celebrate early so that everyone will get to celebrate with the other sides of their families on Christmas day.  We do Christmas twice!
• My tea cakes.  Only one time a year will I prepare my famous tea cakes.  I actually hate that they love them. Not. It’s a part of Christmas now along with my breakfast ambrosia.  
• Family Communion.  We plan for an intimate family gathering.   During this time we have a special reading of the real Christmas story along with a candlelit communion time.
• Christmas Service.  We all attend the special Highlands Christmas service together as a family.  The group continues to grow as we now have friends who are joining for this special Christmas experience.  

Today is Friday!  (The Friday before Christmas)

It’s these actions that make Christmas special.  Stop worrying about having the right gifts, but have the right experience.  Making experiences or memories, as my brother would say, is the goal to having a great Christmas.  You still have time to prepare for making Christmas an experience.

Share this with all your friends…that will make for an experience.  From my family to yours, Merry Christmas!

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