Christmas is my favorite holiday. It’s a time of celebration and enjoying family time together.
There was a time when my birthday was my favorite holiday. I enjoyed celebrating my birthday with presents and that amazing birthday cake wife Martha — The Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage — always made.
That is, when I reached 50 years on my birthday, it ended. Every day on my birthday, Martha would say, “Today you’re one year older.” Then she’d laugh.
I enjoy just about every aspect of Christmas. It’s great to have our family together around the Christmas tree and sharing Christmas presents.
I don’t have any problem with gathering together and eating a marvelous dinner. The issue I have concerns the gifts. When it comes to presents, I’m not gifted.
Unlike Martha, I really don’t know how the shop. I don’t know what gifts to buy for anybody in the family. Sometimes I give cash.
Martha starts her Christmas shopping right after July 4. All summer long, she’ll be shopping for and storing those Christmas presents in her craft room. But she can figure out every gift every individual in our family deserves.
I can’t sit down and name all of the family members, let alone know what they’d like for Christmas. I’m not even sure what I got for Christmas last year.
Martha and I celebrate our 55th Christmas this year. She can sit around the Christmas tree and recall every gift we’ve ever received or given.
One of the greatest disappointments in these gifts is I don’t know who wants what.
Another problem I have is I can’t think of anything I’d want anybody in my family to buy me. They always bring me things that surprise me, and I appreciate it. But if I had to make a list of what I wanted, it would be blank even today.
My other big problem with Christmas gifts are those for Martha. I’d never know what she’d like from me. After all, she has me, so what else does she need?
If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be able to celebrate Christmas as I do today.
In her craft room, she has a special place, I don’t know where it is, where she stores all of her gifts for the coming year. She knows what she has and who it’s for. I sometimes wonder whether Santa might be part of her family heritage.
So I’m looking forward to a wonderful Christmas. It’s amazing to me to see the gifts people give each other. I can only assume that they get that trait from Martha.
Celebrating Christmas around the tree is a wonderful time to be with family. Thinking along this line, a scripture came to mind.
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
— 1 Corinthians 10: 31
Christmas is a great time to gather and give God the glory for all He’s done for us during the year and looking forward to the New Year.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. His email is [email protected].
