Christmas
I love Christmas. I always have. The mystery and the magic of it intrigues me.
It’s almost midnight and I am the only one still awake. The kids’ whispering stopped awhile ago and is now replaced with steady breathing and soft snores. Music to a mother’s ears. I sit and watch the blinking of the Christmas lights and the gifts from Santa that I carefully placed near the fireplace only moments ago.
I remember when I was a little girl, my grandparents would spend the night on Christmas Eve and my Nanny would always sleep in my room with me. I could hear the jingle bells from Santa’s sleigh ring over our rooftop and I would try to get a glimpse of him out my window. She would gently pull me back to bed and remind me that if I saw Santa, he wouldn’t be able to come down and deliver presents. I would lay with the covers up to my chin, eyes wide while picturing Santa in my living room placing pretty wrapped packages around the tree for me and my sister.
Years later my mom told me that my dad would climb a ladder with a string of jingle bells and ring them while on our roof. So in many ways, my Nanny was right – if I saw “Santa” Christmas wouldn’t quite happen the way I wanted it to. I now think of my dad crawling up onto our roof in the middle of the night in his pajamas to ring jingle bells and I laugh. How much he loved us. And I now sit here as a parent, tip-toeing around to lay presents where my kids will happily find them in the morning. The magic so precious, so wonderful, and the memories so full and lasting. I can only pray that one day my children will also be sitting up around midnight, playing “Santa” and passing on the joy and magic I still cherish.
What a precious memory you have of your dad making Christmas special for you. I love knowing that the traditions we share with our children will bring them joy now and years from now when they are building their own family traditions.
This post brought to mind similar memories of Christmas. I love it same as you, Lara. Thank you for sharing this and even though it is past Dec. 25th, my tree is still up. I shut off all the other lights while drinking my before bedtime tea each evening. Growing up in a large ethnic community, our family tradition was to keep our tree up until Jan 7th,Greek Orthodox Christmas. Which just happens to coincide with my Daddy’s birthday. So I will hold to that one in memory of my childhood and a precious Daddy who made my Christmas’s special too!