Dear Santa: I Just Want My Family to Have a Great Christmas for 2020
Dear Santa, All want this year is a simple gift. I just want my family to have a great Christmas. And then there was a brief mention of a pet fish, but that first part was a zinger for me. To see my seven year old wish for something so deep, so sincere and so selfless, was incredibly beautiful. In full disclosure, she’s usually the one with a wishlist made up of the latest and greatest toys. So what happened?
It’s interesting to me that she would ask for that because we have always had a great Christmas. We have always been blessed to have food on the table, some gifts to open under the tree and a warm home for Christmas with our family in it. We’ve always had family visits and parties to attend all month long and our kids are spoiled like many throughout the season.
Yet her Christmas wish seems so relevant to me because I think at this point in time, the whole world is just waiting for Christmas day; the whole world is just hoping for a great Christmas. We’ve been living in such hard, difficult times as we try to navigate all of the headlines, curve balls and hardships that 2020 has brought us. It only makes sense that we would cling to the hope of that cold, Christmas morning to help our souls feel normal and to bring peace amongst the chaos.
Christmas brings about a new light within the gray, cold days. There’s extra joy in our hearts, extra chocolate in our bellies and warmth all around us. It’s the neighborly cookie dish drop offs and the jolly music playing in the stores. It’s the “God Bless you and Merry Christmas” wishes to strangers and it’s the charity that many go above and beyond to assist others with during this time of the year, that makes the world go round in so many ways. And it’s the packed churches on a dark evening where many gather to worship the one true king. I love that the season comes at the end of the year because it’s like the whole year moves up and down through trials and tribulations, and then it finishes with the most wonderful time of the year. The whole year clings onto the hope of a baby being born in a manger, each and every year.
It’s only natural for us to yearn for these seasonal normalcies now more than ever. It’s understandable that we are craving a packed church on Christmas Eve and a house full of laughter and children stomping as they trample down the hallways. It’s only natural that this year, more than any other year, our wish list is simple. Our wish list doesn’t include fancy name brands or expensive jewels because we’ve realized that those things just don’t matter. Our wishlist doesn’t really include fancy trips because many places aren’t even open right now and many of us have started to appreciate “home” more than ever before. Our wishlist is just simple.
Our wishlist is simple: to have a great Christmas. Our wish is to gather with those that we couldn’t see for so long. To bake the cookies that we waited all year for, but this year we are baking them with more joy than ever. To snuggle up with our loved ones to watch our favorite holiday movie, all while being thankful that they are still here to snuggle up with. Our wish is to help those that are still jobless or hurting during these odd times, and to bring joy to those that we feel divided against. Our wish is to bring peace in a hurting world; peace that a great Christmas can bring about.
We wish to have a great Christmas because we know that there’s no other time to celebrate than this. A time where a baby was born in a manger, a baby born for us, to show the world God’s love for us all. In so many ways that baby’s story and arrival was just as chaotic as the world around us right now. Yet he came and he changed the world; and I believe that with a little Christmas spirit, he can come and change the world again. Perhaps we just need that special, cozy day to reflect on our peace maker’s birth to make the world just stop. To make time pause; to make headlines disappear; to make families come together; to make strangers unite; and to bring peace and joy. The Christmas season is simply like no other and all for good reason.
It’s not every day that a baby being born would change the course of the whole world. Can it happen again?
So yes, we just want a simple, great Christmas this year. And while most young children aren’t capable of understanding all that has taken place this year, perhaps even they know that a baby born in a manger is really all we ever needed. Maybe my daughter knew exactly what she was asking for this year.
I believe that Christmas Day is just what the world needs right now.