I don't remember one big gift specifically I wanted for Christmas as a kid but I remember me and my sister asking every year for a trampoline and my dad always saying no. We would run to the big window and stare out into the backyard sure it would be there (it never was.) He would then tell us he never understood why we always looked because he had told us every year we weren't getting one. I don't know why we looked every year. He was always adamant it wasn't happening. Maybe we thought he'd cave in the spirit of Christmas.
Looking out the window year after year was HOPE.
The best thing about Christmas as a kid was going to bed with no presents under the tree and waking up to a family room filled with wrapped presents. There was five of us kids so it didn't take much to fill up the family room. How exciting it was going to bed knowing you'd wake up to all of the magic of Christmas!
Believing something good was going to happen without actually seeing it was FAITH.
Out of all the gifts and wrapped presents, I still don't remember a favorite gift I got as a kid. I remember getting a phone on the Christmas right before I turned sixteen. Besides that, I can't think of one that was so life changing I'll never forget it. And that's not because we didn't get great gifts. It's just that when I think of Christmas as a child I think of my parents taking us downtown a week or two before Christmas to shop at Tower City and of course visit with Mr. Jingeling and see Bruce the Talking Spruce, followed by ice skating and then staying in a hotel room all crammed together. I think of Christmas Eve with my cousins, the beautiful songs sung at mass, the first time I was finally old enough to stay up to go to midnight mass, waking up early with excitement, my dad video recording, Christmas music playing as we opened our gifts, and a huge breakfast my mom made. I think of the togetherness. I think of family. I think of how hard it had to be for my parents to shop for five kids, wrap, make trips to my dad's office in the middle of the night to get the gifts, and then not get credit for any of it. They made it magical.
Being with family, making magic for your kids and remembering the true meaning of the season is LOVE.
Faith. Hope. Love.
The three greatest gifts that can't be wrapped.
They also seem to be the ones you need the most the older you get and the harder to cling to.
Because the thing is, the older we get, the things we want can't be bought at a store. They can't be wrapped. And those things are the things that are tougher to believe you'll receive.
It's easier to hope for a trampoline then it is to hope that someone you love won't make a decision that will destroy their life.
It's easier to have faith that Santa will bring presents every Christmas then it is to have faith that in all situations we must trust in God. Even the bad ones. We have to have faith that there's a reason. That God's plan is something we may not understand and faith that God is working even when we can't see it.
It's easier to love people when you are little. When you haven't been exposed to the cruelty and evil of the world. It's harder to love people when they've hurt you. Or they've hurt ones you love. It's hard when you see what people can be capable of.
The things we want for Christmas when we are older require faith, hope, and love. Because most of the things we want we don't have control over. We can't make everyone happy. We can't make the world at peace. We can't mend broken hearts. We can't make people get help unless they truly want to get help. We can't go back and make a situation right. We can't make sure that truth always prevails. We can't stop things that are out of our control.
So we must rely on the gifts we were given. The three gifts that we learned at a very young age without even realizing it—faith, hope, and love.
And even with our grown up wants for Christmas, may we always still carry that little bit of child like hope somewhere deep in our hearts that Santa will finally cave and bring us the trampoline.