It's the silly season and it's also Christmas.
My son is online asking me what I would like for Christmas. All I want is my family together, good times blended with good food and I'll be happy. It will be good food if my son Drue cooks.
That is easy he says, but I can't wrap it and put it under the tree he comments.
Each year since my oldest was born, the kids pick a label from the charity tree in our local shopping centre and get a gift for that person before they start to buy anything for their family or friends. I like the idea of giving someone in need a smile for Christmas. Someone you will never see their face when they open the gift you gave, I hope each year it puts a smile on their face.
This year I picked a label that said 'Mum, Dad, Boy 5 & Girl 7'. What does one give to a family that lives locally that are really doing it tough? In all practicality food hamper might go down well, clothing perhaps?
I decided on entertainment. I know from experience when the world around you is shattered the ability to step away from it even if its for only a couple of hours can be uplift any one's resolve.
I remember a year of not being able to take my children to the movies, when all their friends raved about the latest movie they saw. It was a choice of being able to eat for the week or go see a movie? which really meant there was no choice. Though the kids never complained, my heart sank at our situation, if a parent couldn't even afford to take their kids to the local cinema on cheap Tuesday night, even once in the year, it must be desperate.
With some great kids movies coming up for the school holidays I bought a family pass and put it in the envelope. It looked pathetic, this thin thing. Zip suggested a movie munch box, because a movie without the munchies is like rain on your holiday. So we bought 4 lots of sweets & chocolates, placed them along with the tickets into a large gift box. I felt better now.
Last year, walking along on one of my evening walks, overheard a young couple in their front yard lamenting about the cost of plants. Their new acquired first home was hitting the budget more than they expected. The garden would just have to wait a long, long time. The young woman seemed to be on the verge of tears. I have at home so many seedlings and cuttings that I usually give away to our local charity garden, I am sure they could miss a few for once. A week before Xmas, Drue and I delivered at just past midnight, just like Santa, except donning dark clothes instead, driving up their street with no headlights on, we put 3 trays of plants on their front lawn. Each of the 30 fledgling plants had label with the name and whether it was for sun or shade.
A year has gone by, all the plants were planted and the garden is looking great. I didn't cost me anything to make someone so happy.
In what was our 'Year of Living Perilously Close to Nothing' we had the best Christmas ever. Zip made me a CD rack. I only had 5 cd's but she made the rack to hold 10. A small plank of wood found in the shed, some nails for the dividers, and paints from my studio to embellish it, I still use it today, now that I have 10 CD's. Drue made a booklet of hand drawn vouchers aptly named "Son on Call", which gave me tickets to trade in for various things such as mowing the lawn, hanging out the washing, tea in bed, making dinner etc. Each voucher had quirky drawings and funny sayings. It was a gift that lasted most of the year.
It seemed to me we were trying to prove to each other that the lack of money cant stop happiness from appearing. There was no bickering, sooking about the gift received, but not really wanted, no fighting at the shops for parking, no time lost on impossible queues, no historical skeletons came out of the closet. We enjoyed what each of us creatively and ingeniously came up with.
We had everything poverty couldn't buy; happiness.
Do kids really need to have that very expensive present?.
Does your love and devotion to them only amount to the value of the price tag? if it does, then the true meaning of Christmas is lost, Christmas should never be conditional.
I know one condition that will be added to Drue's annual "Son on Call" voucher book. The movie date ticket will have the rule "No Chick Flick's". Last year I embarrassed him with handing in the 'Movie Date with my Mum" voucher for him to take me to see the Twilight movie Eclipse. He sank so low in the seat with his hoodie pulled as far over his face as possible, terrified of being recognised. He might have been annoyed at my choice of movie, though he still upheld his promise to take me anyway, but his snoring was annoying!
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