The Gifts of Christmas

So as many of you may know by now, I love Christmas. I mean I Loveeeeee Christmas. I set up the tree before Thanksgiving, the outside of my home is decorated with all sorts of lights, we watch Christmas movies for a month straight and start the Christmas music in November (okay maybe October some years). We read out advent books filled with scripture about the birth of Jesus. I even kind of love the thought of being 70 and wearing a Christmas sweater every day of December.

My family and I truly LOVE all things Christmas. But we too sometimes stumble into the pit falls of “Christmas wishes”… And by this, I mean the oh so famous Christmas gift list.

This year it appears that the “Holiday gift of the year” is the hatchimal. In fact I just read an article about how parents are going to great lengths to try and get one for their child and if they were not successful some parents are actually writing apology notes from Santa, basically stating these hatchimals won’t be ready by Christmas and they will get one in January. So basically an IOU… From Santa. Now when first reading this I couldn’t help but to laugh because of a) how ridiculous it was and b) I had two of these in my online cart only a few weeks ago! But upon questioning my kids a little further if this was really something they wanted they all decided no! So I took them out… Gotta be honest I kind of wish I had kept one 😜 But the reality is, we can’t let presents be the end all be all on Christmas morning.

My kids may not have wanted a hatchimal but my one son (the one who thought he was an elf.. Yeah him) is obsessed with snowmen (shocker) and he desperately wants a huge stuffed snowman. Now this may not seem like a big deal, because hey.. its almost winter and Christmas.. How hard can a large stuffed snowman be to find… Well let me tell you, it’s stinkin hard! Unless you want to pay $100 for one, which is never gonna happen in this household (especially for a stuffed animal.. I mean how many stuffed animals does one household need? Momma’s I know you can all relate to this… Can I get an Amen?!)

The thought of actually participating in adding to this collection kind of makes me feel crazy… And then I am not just adding to their already too big collection but I am killing myself while doing it because they are so dang hard to find! I finally found one last night on Kohls.com (can I just say I love Kohls)… But after I pushed submit on the order my husband says…

“That snowman didn’t have legs did it?”

“umm why yes, yes he did have legs.. It’s frosty… Frosty has legs, why?” I responded.

And then my husband, without sensing my panic and still watching football, says “oh he specifically said he didn’t want a snowman with legs”….

😳

And folks.. I’ll be honest I totally started to freak out… “What do you mean it can’t have legs?! Do you know how long this took for me to find?! And I got to use my kohls cash!! I am not returning this thing. He’s gonna like this snowman. No, he’s gonna LOVE this snowman!” And I shut my computer and went to bed.

Fast forward to 10 minutes later while laying in bed, and all I could think is… I have to return that snowman.

But as I sat reading that article today about the hatchimal and the Santa IOUs I couldn’t help but to feel a little convicted because I was essentially doing the same thing. Why in the world did I let something so silly get me so upset? Honestly, I am still not entirely sure. But my guess is… it’s because we, as parents, hate to disappoint our kids. If we can make them happy we feel like we are doing a good job as a parent, and if their little hearts are happy all the time, then they will grow into amazing adults one day, that will thrive in life and do great things….

Okay maybe that’s a bit of a stretch from the happiness achieved from a snowman or a hatchimal, but you get the point. We ultimately want our children happy. And that’s wonderful.

But what I had to remind myself today, and many other days of the year, is our children’s happiness is not going to be measured with gifts, or parties, or money, or any other material thing for that matter. Our children’s happiness is based on what we instill in their hearts, not in their play rooms. Odds are on Christmas morning one of my kids will be disappointed by one of their gifts (even if they try to hide it, I will know.. a mom always does). But what I will have to remind myself in that moment is, it’s okay. They will be okay. Disappointment is part of life and something we all learn from. It’s not always easy, but we work though it. This is just a tiny little blip on their radar and we will all most likely forget about it by the next day.

What I will also have to remind myself of is all the love, smiles and laughter that brought us to Christmas Day, and every other day of the year for that matter.

Christmas morning is only but a few short hours but the Christmas season is weeks worth of joy and happiness, and that’s why it’s so many people’s favorite time of the year. But more importantly the reason we even all celebrate Christmas is because of the birth of Jesus. And no gift is greater than the gift of Jesus in your heart. You will not experience a joy or happiness like the joy and happiness from the Lord our God.

That’s what I want my children’s hearts to be filled with each day, and that’s what I want them to remember as we celebrate Christmas each year. I want them to know it’s not about that big old snowman that will likely be found shoved in a closet somewhere (probably because it has legs).. But I want them to remember each day that no gift I ever give them will be as precious as the gift Jesus gave us.

The gift of Life.
The gift of Forgiveness.
The gift of Unending Love.
The gift of Grace.
The gift of Joy.
The gift of Peace.
The gift of Hope.

I pray that this Christmas season you open each one of those gifts in your heart, and so does your children and that you are blessed with gifts that will last far beyond this life time. ❤️