Remembering our Shoestring Christmases - from Family Christmas Online^TM

My pondering this year led to Christmases past and the ones I remember most. We were poor growing up but Mama always made Christmas wonderful. There were as many gifts under the tree as she could manage. And I don’t mean she maxed out the credit card she didn’t even own. If she bought us a pair of socks, that was two packages. Gloves were two more packages. If it could be divided into multiple presents, it was. Part of the fun was knowing there was another sock or mitten under the tree!

One Christmas I remembered best, I mentioned to Mama a couple of years before she died. There was a doll, of course. For Mama, it wasn’t Christmas unless we had a doll. But it was the coloring book with crayons taped to the cover that stuck in my memory and gave me the most delight that year. Mama’s eyes were wide when I told her. “Oh! I felt so awful that Christmas. We had so little money I couldn’t afford crayons for you, your sister and cousins. I bought a pack of eight and divided them and told you that you would have to share. I was so ashamed.” “Mama, all I remember was how special it felt to have the crayons taped to the coloring book. I don’t even remember the rest. Or even the doll I got.”

We have had a few lean years around here but nothing compared to what my parents dealt with year after year. The girls have always had gifts under the tree and if they didn’t rival what their friends had, they honestly never noticed or cared. If they were ever disappointed, we never knew. If we had known, we would have reminded them how very blessed we are to have what we have.

One Christmas, I told Paul we wouldn’t be buying each other even small things. It just wasn’t wise concerning how tiny our income was at that time. Contract work for him was at an all time low and that Christmas, it wasn’t dribbling in at all.

But it was our best Christmas together. There’s always lots of downed wood here on our two acres and with Paul home all the time, we kept a constant fire in our fireplace. Sipping a hot drink, reading a book, and listening to Christmas music made it one of my favorite Christmas seasons.

Nuts were really expensive that year and I had wanted a few for baking. I found a great deal one week on in hull walnuts so I bought a couple of pounds. On a ridiculously warm December afternoon, Paul and I sat on the back porch and cracked them together and talked. One of my most favorite memories of the two of us.

Although our prayer and hope for you is that you will always have more than enough to share, your family may see a "lean year" or two. Or more. Because that is life here on this earth.

Remember it truly is the being together as a family that makes the greatest memories. So much is available if you are aware of what’s around you. New decorations every year are a luxury that our parents would have never considered a must. Everyone has Christmas decorations that can be either a great memory or be freshened up with a little paint or ribbon. My favorites can be picked up outside. Pinecones, twigs, greenery and holly if you live near us. We love to share!

Every community offers free Christmas concerts and the newspaper is full of free events for your family to enjoy. Outdoor activities like sledding and fort building cost nothing except for the hot chocolate it is fun to drink after.

Cookie baking with your children will be their favorite Christmas memory of all (just ask our daughters!). And there’s a great recipe on the website for a very low cost cut out sugar cookie recipe.

If as parents, we don’t put the emphasis on what’s under the tree but on the Christ that came to be one of us, our children will look to that as the ultimate gift. In the lean years and in the prosperous years, Christ remains the same.

I promise you as a parent of adult children, that it isn’t the material Christmas gifts that our children receive that they will remember. What they will remember is a loving family, celebrating together, giving as a family together and seeing Christ as the greatest gift of all.

May God bless you and help you to be a blessing this holiday season.

- Shelia Race

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