I love Christmas. I mean I really love Christmas. I am a Christmas fanatic. There isn’t anything about Christmas I don’t enjoy. My celebration is over the top and is filled with joy. For me, it’s about making up for lost time and making new memories to replace old ones that were not as happy.
I was raised in a Christian home. We celebrated Christmas. We talked about the Savior’s birth and what it meant to us. We decorated a tree. We had a nice dinner. We had plenty of presents. The season had a darker side, as well. It was that darkness that haunted me for years and made Christmas a very sad time. As I grew older I began to recognize that while I couldn’t change the past, I could certainly change the future. It began by taking Christmas back.
I began by devouring the scriptures regarding the birth of Jesus Christ. I was overwhelmed by that precious gift. I began to understand what His coming truly meant for me, personally. I realized that the bad things of my past could be left behind me. The choices others had made hurt, but they didn’t have the power to take away my joy. That is when I decided I would make my own Christmas memories and they would be the ones that would count.
That first year, I began by decorating up a storm. I put Christmas trees in every room of my house. I do mean EVERY room. My dad, visiting one December day, came out of my bathroom shaking his head. My “Christmas Nut”, as it has been deemed, had begun. Lights, garland, trees, wreaths, snowmen, Santas, nativity scenes, gingerbread men and a growing village filled my house. Christmas music blared. Cinnamon and spices hung in the air. When it was over, I realized how much I had truly enjoyed the season for the first time. There was no residual sadness. No anxiety. There was just happiness.
Since that time, my Christmas Nut has grown and developed. Decorating begins on Halloween with the first tree going up on the front porch. I rarely get trick or treat visitors where I live, but I love the confused faces when I open that door and see them looking through the windows at the reindeer and the lights on the tree. My gift shopping is done in the summer and early fall so that when the nitty gritty of the season is upon us, I am not fighting crowds and standing in line. Instead I am baking, doing crafts and just basking in the spirit of the season.
I feel so blessed. While my old memories may not be the happiest, I have been given the opportunity to make new memories. These memories are the ones I cherish now.