From my earliest memories, Christmas morning has always been magical. We would go to bed on Christmas eve with nothing under the tree. Christmas morning we would wake up to so many gifts in our living room, they would not all fit under the tree. We had to wait for everyone to arrive Christmas morning before we could even go check out the tree. There would be gifts for cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, mom, dad, and yes, all of us kids too. It didn’t matter that we all only had a few gifts a piece, there were gifts for so many people, by the time all the gifts showed up for all the people, it looked like a Christmas miracle.
As we raised our kids, we tried to keep that tradition. “Santa” would come to our house, and we invited our family that lived in the area to come for the Christmas morning festivities.
One Christmas, we decided instead of having Christmas at our house, we would scrape all our money together, and have an ‘Adventure Christmas’. We would visit my husband’s sister who lived in England. We flew out Christmas day, and spent 6 days with her and her family. We enjoyed ‘Boxing Day’, December 26 with his sister’s friends and extended family. We discovered amazing places like Leeds Castle, London Bridge, Windsor Castle, Westminster Abbey, rode on a double decker bus, and saw all the sights that tourist like to see. As we met new people, saw all the sights, our adventure across ‘The Pond’ exceeded all our expectation, yet, there seemed to be something missing. It just didn’t feel like Christmas. You see, I had made a poor decision. I decided not to decorate the house, not to get a tree. We didn’t get together that year to have our traditional Christmas breakfast, or share our traditional Christmas dinner, or spend the afternoon laughing and playing games with extended family, as was the tradition. That year, it just didn’t feel like Christmas. It wasn’t the fact that there weren’t all those gifts under the tree, or even the fact that there wasn’t a Christmas tree… that year as we spent Christmas day at the airport and flew for thirteen hours, we missed the traditional meals, the time with family, the laughter and the traditional games. We had a great time in England, yet that year we learned how much we all enjoyed all the little traditions. That year was from then on referred to as our own personal ’Grinchmas’.
‘Therefore, brother, stand firm and hold to the traditions you were taught, either by our message or by our letter.’
2 Thessalonians 2:15
That year it wasn’t the toys, the presents, the clothes, the tree, or the decorations that we missed. What we missed was sharing meals together, the laughter, and the games that we play when we get together. We missed that love of family, the traditions of our favorite breakfast, preparing and eating dinner together, and the laughter we shared as we played our favorite games. We had the best time in England that Christmas break, but as we remember that year that laughingly referred to as ‘Grinchmas’ on the thirteen hour plane ride, we miss the love and traditions we would share on Christmas day.
