Write your thoughts about your family’s holiday values?
Some people might look at the explosion of presents under our tree and think that we value Christmas for the material things the holiday brings. Each year wrapped boxes extend from one side of the room to the other, all jostling for a coveted place on the tree skirt. Our tree droops with the weight of all the ornaments that have been hung, each one symbolizing a memory or moment past, all of them special and unique. For as long as I can remember cards peppered the tree waiting patiently to be opened on Christmas Day. These weren’t the cards that others sent us, rather the cards we chose especially for each other. In my younger years, I could barely contain my enthusiasm with the gifts I had selected for my parents. I longed to have them open their presents and gaze adoringly at each treat that I had found with them in mind. As an adult, I’m not much better and herein lies the true reason for all those gifts under the tree. It is not the need to get that drives the insanity every year but rather the pure joy that each of us finds in the giving. The presents are a physical manifestation of our delight with each other, of our desire to show one another that they are loved, thought of, cared for, important. Not with mere stuff but with heartfelt gifts and soul-touching words. A Christmastime and all year long we value each other.
