Christmas is coming. On one hand I'm very excited, but on the other hand I struggle to deal with the frenzy that comes with it. What is the true meaning of Christmas? Of course it means different things to different people, but at it's origin Christmas had one pure motive. Christmas was created to celebrate of the birth of Christ. In present day this is often done through giving gifts to each other, since Jesus isn't really around to receive them himself. To me, this act of giving is definitely one of the most important parts of Christmas, but I easily get so caught up in the giving and receiving that I forget the spirit in which we give. I don't think I'm the only one. A lot of people forget reason we give, and so Christmas becomes this emotional high that ultimately ends in depression, as all of the gifts are unwrapped, the food is eaten and decorations disappear. But the joy of giving is not in the items, but that love that they come from. That love should stay with us all year long. At the center of Christmas is the greatest gift of love ever given: Jesus Christ. So the meaning of Christmas brings us to a different question. How do we give gifts that demonstrate our love for others?
I've struggled a lot with choosing gifts over the years: not wanting to buy gifts that appeared impersonal, but not wanting to make gifts that turned out to be useless and impractical. When I was younger I made cards and paper crafts (I even made an origami duck pond for Santa once!), and as I grew older I turned to more substantial items. I went through a potholder crocheting phase for a few years (I think I made everyone in our extended family at least 4 potholders over the course of time), and a pearl beading phase as well. However, I think I set the bar high for myself when I sewed eight personalized aprons from fabric scraps for my extended family. It gave me such joy to see people unwrap their apron: to see the joy on their face over the personalized design, or recognition of the fabric used. To this day my relatives wear their aprons to cook when I visit, and I remember the love that I poured into that project. Since then I've dabbled in more Christmas sewing projects: pillows, blankets, scarves, yet I've not quite done anything as meaningful as those aprons.
This year will be different. I'm going off to college next year, and though I don't want to grow apart from my extended family, I know it will happen. So, I want to give all of them something truly meaningful, something that will give them joy, and something that they can keep forever. To accomplish this I've decided to letters. Not the card stock kind with the typical message that you sign, but a typed, printed, adorned letter about how each relative has impacted my life, making me the person that I am today. I feel like this is the right time for such a letter, as I move on in to world of adulthood and take a fleeting glance at where I came from. I hope that my small act of writing will in some way strengthen my relationships with relatives and hold them strong through my college years. I hope that these letters will truly be a gift out of love, in the spirit of Christmas.
