Day 11: Christmas Magic

You may be wondering what I mean by Christmas Magic. It’s that excited feeling you get. That extra glow you see in your tree, lights, and people you love. If you still don’t understand google it and look at the images. As we get older it gets harder and harder to have that feeling that extraordinary experience. I remember when it started to fade for me. Corey and I were newly married and travelling home for Christmas. On Christmas Eve my mom had to work. She handed me the stockings and goodies that go inside them and said “You’re in charge this year”. I guess a little of me still wanted to believe. I still liked to wake up Christmas morning and see the stockings full and the presents under the tree. Now I was in charge and there was no guessing how those things appeared on Christmas. It’s not that I believed in Santa or didn’t know where they came from, I guess I just liked how they just happened to be there the next morning. Since I’ve started my own family I’ve become Santa. I’ve had to come up with creative ways for me to keep that Christmas Magic alive. For example, writing this blog and reliving the memories has helped me capture some of this magic.

One year not so long ago I decided it was time.( if you’re reading this with young eyes/ears around you might want to stop) Time to tell my oldest the truth about Santa.  He was about 11 years old and kept asking all sorts of questions and saying things I didn’t want him to say in front of his little brother and sister. I took him aside and I told him how there was no Santa but there is the spirit of Santa. The spirit of santa is really the spirit of giving. I told him that we keep that spirit alive by serving and giving to others. I told him that he now has that responsibility to keep the spirit alive. Since, he has been super great at doing special things for his siblings in honor of that spirit. I wrestled with the feeling that I might be ruining that Christmas magic for my son by telling him about Santa but now I think it only strengthened him. He has asked if he could do the stockings. I said no! He’ll have plenty of years before he has to do that. This way he still gets to wake up on Christmas day and wonder a little.

I still struggle from year to year to have that excitement about Christmas I once had. I realize it doesn’t come that easily but it is achievable. We can find it in our memories. We can find it in our children. We can find it in serving one another. I think it is so worth the effort. Don’t you?