Christmas Doing by Athena

It started out to be the worst Christmas we ever had. Every year we had been able to spend more and more on Christmas. Maybe it is all wrong to think every Christmas has to be better than the year before but we had two young children and we didn't want to disappoint them. I grew up with a mother who made things magical and I wanted to continue the tradition. Christmas being the most magical time of the year and this year there would be no magic.

The whole country was in a recession and everyone was hurting. It was unbelievable. We had heard of the Great Depression, but that was in the past, right? The economy recovered and from then on things just kept getting better. Or so we thought with our few years of adulthood. Sure things were tough in the beginning because we were young and that is how it is in the beginning, a little struggling, but never so bad we had to ask our parents for help. We were adults and adults do not depend on their parents. But this year was so bad, not even the parents could help if we had wanted them to.

Our closest friends with two daughters the same age as our two children were struggling just as much as we were. For years we had gotten together for Christmas and exchanged gifts, but no one had the money for gifts. A Christmas with no gifts was a tragedy we could not bare but what could we do? There was no money. No one had money. This year we needed a Christmas miracle.

Okay, we could not disappoint the children, so I thought, we have to focus on a Christmas doing. That meant singing Christmas songs, making decorations and gifts, and using what we had. Fortunately, I had been doing arts and crafts with the children year-round so we had fabric, yarn, paper, and glue. An egg carton is perfect for making bells, just break it apart and put yarn in the top to hang the bell and use glue and glitter to make it sparkle. You get the idea. A crafter always has something to work with.

We kept the kids so busy they were happier than usual on cold winter days. This is it. This is how Christmas used to be before malls and credit cards. And as Christmas neared we excitedly waited to see how others would react to our gifts carefully made with our own hands.

My friend's daughters presented us with a large box. They were so proud of how hard they had worked on their gift to our family. How do I say? Because this year we made our own Christmas and included the children in the doing, they genuinely seemed happier than ever before, when the children tore open one present after another and when all the gifts were exposed, there was this huge letdown, and maybe even disappointment because everyone didn't get exactly what was wanted.

We all gathered around and opened the large box. There were the cookies representing the 12 days of Christmas. Each one was perfect and the girls told us about how many times they had to try again because they broke so easily in the process of being frosted.

With the same glee in sharing my children gave their gifts, and then we enjoyed sharing food and talking about how good this Christmas was. Everyone had the best Christmas gift of all, the gift of family and friends and pride in what they can do. I think it will remain forever in my favorite memory of Christmas.