Yesterday I ran into a good friend at a shoe store. She was preparing for Christmas, had just moved into a new home and was calm as could be. I was excited to see her so we sat down on a couch in the middle of the shoe store and began chatting. We laughed about a little and then we talked about Christmas chaos and exhaustion. She didn’t have any. How? I wondered. Over the next moments we talked about Christmas magic.
Yesterday I ran into a good friend at a shoe store. She was preparing for Christmas, had just moved into a new home and was calm as could be. I was excited to see her so we sat down on a couch in the middle of the shoe store and began chatting. We laughed about a little and then we talked about Christmas chaos and exhaustion. She didn’t have any. How? I wondered. Over the next moments we talked about Christmas magic.
She told me that a close family member taught her a lesson. This woman went all out for Christmas- every room in her home had Christmas decorations, the Advent candles were lit, holiday food was made. She tried desperately to create an experience of Christmas magic for her loved ones. One Christmas eve, she was working so hard at making everything lovely for her family that she forgot to light the Christ Candle. Without warning, she screamed, realizing what she had done. The magic was ruined.
Each of us yearns for a Christmas experience that supercedes all others. This is what we mean by Christmas magic. We struggle to find a bit of peace, or joy or whatever gladness will come our way. And we want our loved ones to have these too. We mothers, work especially hard at creating Christmas experiences for our children because we want them to have something very special. Then we collapse.