13 Dec 2025
Christmas is my favorite holiday. A time of celebration and enjoying family time together.
It wasn’t always my favorite holiday. There was a time when my birthday was my favorite holiday of the year. I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with presents and that amazing birthday cake that The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage always made.
That is, when I reached 50 years on my birthday, it came to an end. No more celebrating getting one year older. Every day on my birthday, The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage would say, “Today you are one year older.” And then she would laugh.
That was the last birthday I had, and I don’t remember it anymore, or at least that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Now Christmas is my favorite holiday, and I enjoy just about every aspect of it. It’s great to have my family together around the Christmas tree and sharing Christmas presents. That’s a really fun time of the year.
I must confess that I do have a problem with the Christmas holiday.
I don’t have any problem with gathering together and eating a marvelous Christmas dinner. The issue I have concerns the gifts. When it comes to something like gifts, I am absolutely not gifted.
Unlike The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, I really don’t know how to shop. I don’t know what gifts to buy for anybody in my family. Sometimes I give cash.
The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage starts her Christmas shopping right after the 4th of July. All summer long, she will be shopping for and storing those Christmas gifts in her craft room. Of course, I never go into her craft room because I would get lost and not know my way out. But she can figure out every gift every individual in our family deserves.
I can’t sit down and name all of the family members, let alone know what they would like for Christmas.
When I was a kid, my parents would take me downtown to visit Santa Claus. I would sit on Santa Claus’s lap and tell him what I really wanted for Christmas. Little did I know that my parents were right next to Santa, listening to all my Christmas wish lists?
It was amazing on Christmas Day to find out that Santa had come through with my Christmas gifts. It took me a long time to realize that Santa had nothing to do with my Christmas gifts, but they all came from my parents. My parents knew me better than I knew myself.
That said, looking back on my life of Christmas gifts, I do not believe I could name my favorite. I’m not even sure what I got for Christmas last year.
The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage and I celebrate our 55th Christmas this year. She can sit around the Christmas tree and recall every gift we have ever received or given and to whom.
That makes Christmas a great challenge for me. The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage has no problem with Christmas gift shopping. I must confess that most of the time I let her do the shopping for me, I have to pay for it.
One of the greatest disappointments in Christmas gifts is that I don’t know who wants what.
Another problem I have with Christmas gifts is that I don’t know what I want. I can’t think of anything that I would want anybody in my family to buy me for Christmas. They always come around and bring me things that surprise me, and I appreciate it. But if I had to make a list of what I wanted for Christmas, that list would be blank even today.
My other big problem with Christmas gifts is for The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. I would never know what Christmas gift she would like from me. What does she need for Christmas? After all, she has me, so what else does she need?
If I’m going to do Christmas right, I’ll need to ask The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage what I should get for each of the family members. When I asked her that question, she didn’t need to think about it and came up with a long list of what I could get for each of my family members.
Oh boy, if I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be able to celebrate Christmas as I do today.
In her craft room, she has a special place, I don’t know where it is, where she stores all of her Christmas gifts for the coming year. She knows what she has and who it's for. I sometimes wonder whether Santa Claus might be part of their family heritage.
I’m looking forward to a wonderful Christmas. It is amazing to me to see the gifts people give each other. I can only assume that they get that trait from The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage.
Celebrating Christmas around the Christmas tree is a wonderful time to be with family.
Thinking along this line, a scripture came to mind. “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Christmas is a great time to gather and give God the glory for all He has done for us. A time to remember all God has done for us during the year and looking forward to the New Year.
Enable GingerCannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection
or reload the browserDisable Ginger?How to use GingerRephraseRephrase with Ginger (Ctrl+Alt+E)Edit in Ginger
Enable GingerCannot connect to Ginger Check your internet connection
or reload the browserDisable Ginger?How to use GingerRephraseRephrase with Ginger (Ctrl+Alt+E)Edit in Ginger
|
