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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Mandy Wichert. It’s Christmas!! I’m thrilled to be celebrating the birth of my savior and I’m thrilled to be sharing this day with you in some small way, and I believe if you aren’t learning you aren’t living. Merry Christmas everyone! I know most of you (if not all of you) are probably not going to be listening to this episode when it airs, as it’s a the Christmas day episode, but I hope you are celebrating today with those you love and those who love you and that your day is filled with peace and joy!
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What I Learned Yesterday:
When I was young, my sister and I would get so excited about Christmas. We would think about it for weeks on end and look forward to its arrival as we counted down the final days leading up to Christmas day. We would tear through the house at the crack of dawn Christmas morning; my parents were lucky to convince us to hold off until 6:00am. We would usually burst into our living room to examine the tree and gifts, hunting for our names on the tags and the traces of soot and ash boot prints that Santa left for us. We’d also examine the cookies and carrots we left out the night before to make sure that Santa had his fill and that the reindeer were full and happy as well. Once we had checked these boxes, my younger sister and I would dash back into my parents bedroom, to pounce on them as they rested bleary eyed and exhausted from a long night of wrapping and taking care of the aforementioned evidence of Santa’s visit to our home.
My parents always had gifts that were from them and those that were exclusively from Santa. The gifts from Santa were always uniquely wrapped, and were usually the gifts that we most wanted. They were wrapped beautifully with special paper and little notes handwritten to us. There was also usually a thank you note next to the cookies, milk and carrots we left out for Santa and his hard-working reindeer. I was mystified by the magic of Christmas and although I understood that the reason we were celebrating Christmas was to celebrate Jesus’ birth, this magical notion of Christmas was so much fun to enjoy. It made almost anything seem possible. By the time I was old enough to figure out the truth about Santa, I was not at all disappointed. I eased into this new knowledge gradually and was even invited to participate in helping create the magic for my little sister, which I loved! These were carefully crafted traditions that my family created for us and we enjoyed them immensely.
One tradition that my parents didn’t create, but that my sister and I also enjoyed immensely, was our annual Christmas sleuth. My parents planned a night of childcare every year, usually sometime in the week leading up to Christmas. Often they would have a Christmas party to attend or just need to get some frantic last-minute shopping done. They both worked full-time and Internet shopping was not possible yet, so they had to do things the old-fashioned way and actually head into the store at a reasonable hour, before they all shut down for the evening. I can’t fathom what that was like! Just kidding, but I must say, I’m thankful for Amazon and extended holiday hours.
While my parents were out for the evening, my sister and I would casually wonder off while our babysitter was pre-occupied and search every nook and cranny to see if we could discover our gifts hidden around the house. My parents were pretty sneaky, and found the best places to hide gifts. One year, we discovered a large cache in our parent’s closet, hidden behind my mother’s shoes and clothing. Another year we found them up high in the closet and had to pull them down to peek. And another year, we couldn’t find them anywhere, then when pulling out a coat from the coat closet, I brushed against plastic. When I peered into the bag, I found a new gaming system. It was probably a Nintendo or Sega. I was thrilled. I had totally not expected it and thought I’d found our “Santa” gift. I smugly told my sister about my discovery, and she came to investigate with me.
We both love surprises, and somehow even with our snooping, my parents always managed to surprise us somehow. That year was no different. After pouncing on my parents, they came to the living room, prepared their cups of coffee and took their seats on the orange velour sectional in our living room. We pulled little snacks and goodies from our stockings that were stuffed with fun things from Santa and smiled at each other knowingly as we neared the opening of the larger gifts. After the stockings, we opened our Santa gifts. My box was breadbox sized, and as I prepared to tear into the paper, I was already preparing my reaction for opening the video game system. I wanted to look surprised and excited. As I tore open the box, I was shocked! Inside was a Caboodle, sort of a large plastic cargo box for makeup and accessories. It was filled with all kinds of lip glosses, nail polishes and hair clips. My sister opened a box similar in size and found a Cabbage Patch doll. We were quickly finished unwrapping our gifts and even after my parents opened their gifts the Nintendo was nowhere to be found. My sister and I were so confused. We were also a little disappointed. I don’t think we were as disappointed about not getting the Nintendo that year, as we were about having found the Nintendo and then having it not show up under the tree. We were a little concerned too that our parents had forgotten about it.
We enjoyed our gifts and were very surprised. We played with them all day and as the day turned into evening, we were really beginning to wonder what had happened. We speculated that maybe Mom and Dad had found us out, and taken it back after discovering that we had found it. We were feeling guilty, but also very curious. So, I remember hesitantly asking my mom about it over hot chocolate the next evening. I said, “Mom, are you sure you didn’t maybe forget a gift?” She replied that she hadn’t and I kept insisting. Finally my sister chimed in that we had found a gift. After dragging my mother over to the coat closet and pointing incredulously at the empty spot where the toy had been hidden away only a few days before, my mother burst into laughter. She called my dad in to join our discussion. It was a little embarrassing that we had been caught “peeking” at our gifts, and really, we weren’t just peeking we were tearing the house apart trying to find them, then replacing everything back to “normal” so as not to be discovered. The Nintendo, it turns out, had been a gift from my dad’s boss to his son. My father had been tasked with bringing it home to “hide” it, and also to keep it safely, as their son had been discovered searching the house for his gifts in the past and his parents wanted it to be a surprise. Well, I don’t know if he was surprised, but we sure were! My parents got even more stealthy with their gift hiding after that, once they realized the magnitude of our new pre-Christmas game. Some years, this treasure hunt was almost as much fun as getting the gifts on Christmas morning.
I was reminded of this evening as I entered my bathroom to find my son’s clothing scattered around my floor. He had showered in my shower while I was out finishing our last-minute Christmas shopping. I entered our closet where I had haphazardly, and obviously, stacked a couple of gifts for the kids. One of his gifts that I had carefully covered were ever-so-slightly exposed, and so I now know…it has begun.
What Did I Learn?
Traditions are fun to create and pass down. The traditions and memories we create and pass down are what mark the holidays as special in our hearts and minds. Traditions are the magic sprinkled into a normal day. Although we don’t really celebrate Santa in our home as much these days, I am so thankful for the time and attention that my parents took handcrafting the notes, nibbling cookies, wrapping gifts distinctively and crafting ash tracks on our fireplace. I also appreciated the care they took in hiding our gifts so that we could not find them.
Although I enjoyed searching for my gifts so much, what I enjoyed even more were the small surprises that awaited me Christmas morning. I would like the same thing for my own kids and hope that they can resist the urge to sneak peeks at their gifts. I also learned that cheating the system didn’t benefit me. By seeking out my gifts in advance, I was removing the authentic joy of the surprise from my Christmas morning. And, as my parents unintentionally taught me, I could always expect the unexpected. Perhaps the gift I had anxiously searched out and kept secret would actually be a red herring – a gift for someone else, and perhaps the best thing to do was to be patient and be surprised – for real! I hope that your Christmas is filled with magic and anticipation this year. I also hope that your bowl and hearts are full. Merry Christmas!!
I’m Mandy Wichert, and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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