Count the Christmases you’ve spent so far. I cannot remember most of them, but I have vivid recollections of some of them!
Here’s a worthwhile challenge that’ll not only jog your brain cells but will also exercise your capacity to remember.
Write down your first Christmas memory. Go as far back as you can remember. Don’t use long sentences. Just phrases. Enough to capture the memory. Write down the names of the people who were with you! Anyone who was there and what they were doing, no matter how irrelevant or inane.
Write down how you felt: Excited? Jumping for joy? Sleepless while waiting for Santa? Alone? Lonely? Or life of the party?
Just, just keep going. Don’t get bogged down by grammar or words or how good (or bad) it felt. You’re not writing an essay… you’re not psychoanalyzing yourself either –you’re just writing down those Christmas memories!
Here are some examples:
“Small Christmas tree. Chilly. All windows open. Christmas tree about three feet tall, in one corner of sala. Gifts under table where tree is. I look at the gifts first thing in the morning, last thing at night. There’s one from Tito Teddy. From the States. So excited looking at the gifts. Tita Cora is scolding the maids in the kitchen. Shrill voice. So annoying. She said the fruitcake someone sent us is too small. Cheap fruitcake. Tita Cora is an old maid. I can smell inihaw na pork or chicken from the patio. Yummy! I’m five years old.”
“Shoeboxes covered in red Japanese paper. For the Three Kings. They’ll come in the night like Santa. It’s January 5. Cousin Harry and I decorated the shoeboxes with Auntie Mila.
Our parents aren’t around. Not one of them. I wonder where they are?
Harry and I woke up early to check the shoeboxes!!! So excited. Can’t find them. We panic.
But… someone calls us from the garden. The Three Kings left the shoeboxes outside!!! On our knees now, the grass, pebbles are hurting my knees. But who cares?!!
Harry and I are looking down at the shoeboxes. So excited. Wow. It’s filled with little toys and candies… we are sooo happy. Our aunts and uncles are laughing around us. They’re so happy too. I bet they filled these shoeboxes themselves. Our parents are still nowhere in sight. But I know that our grandma is somewhere inside our house. We were maybe seven years old.”
One of my own Christmas memories:
After dinner, Christmas Eve. Sitting around the big Christmas tree in our lower floor. It’s the big tree we brought home from Minnesota.
Lights twinkling all around – the tree, window ledges, the capiz dividers. All of us sitting around the tree.
We’re reading the Christmas story – from Luke 2. One verse each, we go around, until we finish reading about the birth of Jesus.
Then, the high point of the evening – before opening our gifts. We open a small treasure chest. We pick out one folded note at a time. The one who picks it reads it out loud. Clapping, squeals of joy, amazement after each note is read. “Kuyaaaaaaa! Ikaw pala yon????!!!!” Or “Daddy! I knew it was you! Thank youuuu!!!”
More peals of laughter and squeals of delight after each note is read.
Why? What was written in the folded pieces of paper?!! Well, the good deeds that we did in secret for each other – from December 1 to the 24th!!! We’d write down what we did for whom, each day, and drop the notes in a treasure chest beneath our Christmas tree. To be opened on Christmas Eve!
The notes, for example, said:
Hi Kuya!!! I was the one who made you a special sandwich today for your baon, December 5!!! Love, CarlaOr: Astrid, I fixed your closet today! Hope you liked it. It’s December 11. Love, Katrina
Or: Dete Katre, I put a chocolate bar in your backpack today! Love, Astrid
Or: Dad, I fixed the books in your bookshelves today. Your son, Marito
Or: I didn’t answer back today even if I was so mad at mom. December 15. This is for Jesus. Love, Carla
Things like that. I don’t exactly remember what we wrote. But we’d do good things secretly for each other, several times a day, from December 1 all the way till Christmas Eve. These kindnesses, these good deeds that we did for each other, were our gifts to Jesus – to show Him our gratitude. Because he died on the cross to pay for our sins, and gave us all a chance to go to heaven – if we surrender our lives to Him.
God gave me this wonderful idea of celebrating Christmas. I cannot claim any credit for it.
It was a marvelous way to make Christmas personal, meaningful, and memorable for our family. Our girls were in their teens then, their Kuya must’ve been 21. My husband and I were in our early 40s.
I hope you’ll do it, too.
So grab a nice notebook and start writing. Ask your children this Christmas what they remember about their Christmases past! Start by giving them a sample of one unforgettable Christmas memory you have.
Who knows – this might make your Christmas celebration a lot more meaningful! Instead of just random small talk.
Remember, most of all, to thank Jesus for coming down here to save us – and for giving us the chance to go to heaven if we invite Him to live in our hearts, in our lives, forever.
