Ponder the Path

Christmas Has Been here

“You wouldn’t know Christmas had been here.”

At first, that sounded great.  I had picked the Saturday right after Christmas to take down Christmas.  That was a little early, but it would mean that New Year’s Day would be free and it meant that when we started up our homeschool again, we wouldn’t have to think about scheduling the time to take down all the Christmas decorations.

As soon as the words left my mouth I felt sad — not a sparkle of tinsel left on the floor.  Shouldn’t someone know that Christmas had been here?

Christmas to me is such a joyful time, and full of so many traditions.  Most of those traditions, I didn’t know were traditions when I started them.  On my oldest daughter’s first Christmas, I bought a Hallmark ornament.  It was a tradition in the making.  Every Christmas Eve the unmarried children open the ornament of the year.  Sometimes, they are just pretty, but most often it is meant to reflect something of the year for them.

One Christmas, I heard about a Jesse tree.  I bought a book and a little tree for hanging the ornaments.  Right after the kids went to bed, I quickly sewed and embroidered a little felt ornament.  The next day we would read the related Bible story and hang it on the tree.  It was meant to last from December 1 to December 25.  That was a tradition born — that tree has been going strong for 23 Christmases.

A family invited us to drive an hour away to watch a Mennonite church put on a full performance of Handel’s Messiah.  We haven’t made it every year, but most years we are in the pew ready to be awed.  Some of us love this performance more than others, but it is a memory for all.

Another year we heard of a small Bible College two hours away that put on a free Christmas play every year.  We went once and were amazed at the Godly message and the musical talent.  The plays are different every year, but again we have made this trip more times than I can remember.

I never sat down and said, this is going to be our tradition.  We did something and it just stuck — year after year.  Now, I hear how some of my married children recite the story behind every ornament before they hang it on their family tree.  I don’t read the Jesse Tree stories from the Bible anymore, I hold up the ornament and they tell me as they hang it.  In November, the kids start asking which week the performances are on, so they can start planning and making sure that they are off work. This year, I called a son and asked him and his wife to take me to the Bible College play, I didn’t feel up to all the driving.  They were excited to do so — it was tradition after all!

All these activities that have hung on long enough to be traditions are meant to point us to great memories from the year or, most importantly to Jesus.  So I guess, someone knows that Christmas has been here, it is wrapped up in my children’s hearts.

Debbie Googeg

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