How to Feel Very Rich This Christmas
Submitted by webadmin on December 15, 2009 - 9:45pm
I remember my Dad telling me of his excitement on Christmas morning when he found a stocking filled with an orange, some candy and a pencil. Things were tough for his mother because daddy's father died when he was 10 years old, forcing his mother to accept welfare to feed her eleven children. But there was plenty of love in the house even though my Dad and his brother used to fight over the blanket in the winter. One night in their bed in the attic room, the fighting for the blanket became so fierce that the blanket was forced to split right down the middle.
As a kid, my family had good years and years that were tight, but we always received more on Christmas than a pencil. My husband and I have had good years and years that were tight, but we have followed a pretty typical middle class American tradition of giving your kids the most you can possibly afford at Christmas time.
One Christmas we bought our son what we thought was a very clever gift: a motorized army tank controlled by a remote control. As we were opening gifts on Christmas morning, my husband, using the remote, maneuvered the tank from the bedroom, around the couch and into the center of the living room. We were proud.
A few months ago, I mentioned how fun that tank was and I got a straight shot of reality when my son couldn't remember anything about a motorized army tank.
The moral of the story? Expensive gifts are not as important as we think.
This is a stressful holiday time and many living rooms may be short on monetary gifts. If a new Nintendo Wii is not under the tree on Christmas morning, children may be unhappy unless you have taken this extraordinary opportunity to gather your family around you in love and reassess family values.
Efforts to provide amazing monetary gifts leads to an attitude that happiness comes from material things when in fact, just the opposite is true. Happiness is born in things that are free: loving relationships, kindness, service, unselfishness, and humor.
I remember a particular time when our family had little to laugh about. To counteract the troubled, preoccupied minds, that night at the dinner table I pulled out the Calvin and Hobbes comic book and read my favorite Calvin antics. We couldn't repress the laughter and soon we all felt better.
If you want to feel rich this Christmas, count the things you have that money can't buy. Your family members will remember the feeling of being cared for and appreciate the many things you do to make their life a little bit easier. These gifts of your heart and soul are free and will fill your home with love even if you are looking under the couch cushions for lost change.
