The Love family's Christmas misadventures

By: Rachel Love

Posted: 12/5/08

When I was still young enough to believe in Santa Claus (Santa equals presents), my sisters and I often got everything on our lists. Presents meant so much to us, and my mom had a knack for making Christmas more than magical. We got matching pajamas on Christmas Eve, sugary cereal on Christmas morning, pretty dresses for our neighbors' Christmas party and played with our presents for hours upon hours in a mess of wrapping paper that my mom didn't make us clean up until the next day.

But for any adult, it should be obvious that the true meaning of Christmas is spending quality time with family and loved ones. Expecting gifts is a faux pas, and instead, playing endless board games and making Christmas cookies becomes the real present.

One year, close to the time my sister told me (quite unceremoniously) that Santa did not exist, Christmas in our house started to get more "mature." What does that mean? Well, for my family it meant waiting until Christmas eve to get a tree, knocking on the side of a "tree lot" trailer an hour before midnight mass (that's at 11 p.m., if you're bad at math) and being told by a bleary-eyed Boy Scout leader that we could "just take it." We took our five-foot tall, slightly brown Christmas tree home and decorated it with the most recent batch of homemade ornaments, and you know what? It didn't feel any different than any other year. Our free Christmas tree was just as good as the $70 one we bought the year before, and doggonit if we weren't going to leave it up until February just to prove it.

Even if you're one of the many underprivileged in our community, small tokens of appreciation from your friends and family are often commonplace. It's a way for people to show that they love, appreciate and know you. However, with four children, some gift wishes can fall through the cracks. We learned at a young age not to count or compare gifts, as we knew that my parents, and even Santa loved us all equally. But one fateful Christmas saw my second oldest sister, Lisa, fall through the cracks in a serious way.

Lisa, about 12 years old at the time, waited anxiously for Christmas morning like the rest of us. She snuck down at 5 a.m. to get her stocking full of tangerines and hard candies, and then waited for the youngest (me) to start handing out the brightly colored packages under the tree. Then she waited some more. It soon became apparent that Lisa had only one present, a CD. It was UB 40, a one-hit wonder band only known for their song "Red Red Wine." My sister didn't even like them. My mom, feeling supremely horrible for forgetting about her second-born, took her shopping during the after-Christmas sales, but the fact remains that Christmas that year was not a very fun affair for my sister Lisa.

This gets me to thinking about the countless 12-year-olds in this state, and our nation, who will go without presents this Christmas. It's not something we selfish college students often think about, but donating even the smallest thing, like a box of crayons, to a local toy drive around the holidays can have amazing results. As much as I joke (especially in this recession), the most meaningful gifts you can give are very small. Volunteer at "meals on wheels" during your month off, or at a local soup kitchen. Go to Toys R' Us and spend five dollars to make a kid happy. It doesn't take very much. In this day and age, it will take about five seconds to find a local toy drive or soup kitchen in your area. Do it.

Rachel Love

diversions@dailybarometer.com