Celebrating family life | family prayer | Christmas Season | memories
Looking back at childhood Christmases, Elena LaVictoire focuses not on what she lacked, but on the love of her family.
I recently found an old photo of my family Christmas tree from around 1969. There was a modest amount of presents under the tree and a felt Santa Claus figure hanging in the doorway. I have absolutely no idea what I got for Christmas that year, and I couldn’t tell you what was in all those packages. Yet the picture gave me a good case of nostalgia for my childhood Christmases. I texted a copy of the photo to my sister (something that would’ve been hard even to explain back in 1969), and she felt it, too.
We weren’t feeling all the feelings because the tree was so gorgeous. In fact, it looked kind of skinny and sparse. It was one of the first artificial trees available at the time. I think my grandma may have ordered it from a catalog. The ornaments looked frayed, and the most standout thing about them was a colorful construction-paper chain that one of us must have constructed for the occasion. Seeing the mid-20th-century décor that I remembered so fondly was interesting. That faux wood paneling Grandma installed looked kind of silly to my eyes now. But that wasn’t the source of my fondness for the photo.
The truth is, we were not well off. My mom was separated from my dad, living with her two daughters in her parents’ home; my uncle with learning disabilities was living with us, and my grandparents were making ends meet with their Social Security checks. But I didn’t realize any of that back then. To my younger self, this was my family, and we loved each other. None of the stuff, the presents, or the Christmas food remains in my memory. I just remember loving Christmas, my family, and their love for me.
A Little House example
This year, I am reading the Little House books with my granddaughter and her homeschool classmates. We stopped for the semester after the Christmas chapter in The Long Winter. I started this project because I wanted to share the wonder of the pioneer childhood Laura Ingalls Wilder shared with the world in her semi-autobiographical children’s books. However, the Little House books hit me differently as an adult woman and mother. This one is particularly harsh. Living in the brand-new town of DeSmet, South Dakota, in the winter of 1880-1881 was the worst. With train lines down and relentless snowstorms and blizzards, the family was in real danger of starvation or exposure.
Yet Pa manages to come home with two cans of oysters and joyfully announces that they will have oyster soup for Christmas! If you can get past the idea of 19th-century commercial canning and oysters making their way to the landlocked prairie, then you must cope with Ma’s response when told that the cow is practically dry.
“I’ll thin it out with water,” said Ma. “We’ll have oyster soup for Christmas dinner!”
Yum?!
Despite their dire circumstances and questionable Christmas cuisine, Laura recounts her baby sister saying, “Oh, what a lovely Christmas!”
Focus on the people, not the stuff
As busy moms, we tend to forget what is important for our children as we spend time doing things that might not really be remembered or buying things we don’t have the money for. Christmas might seem like one more thing to get through with all the other things we do as moms. I’ve even written about this before.
As we get closer to Christmas, let’s remember that God gives us the gift of Himself, over and over again, especially in the incarnation of Jesus. In getting closer to God, we imitate Him by giving more and more of ourselves in time and love to those around us. Everything else is extra.
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Copyright 2024 Elena La Victoire
Images: (top, bottom) Canva; (center) created in Canva using photo from Elena La Victoire, all rights reserved.