The Gift of Christmas

Christmas means different things for different people. For me, Christmas has always been the excitement surrounding the celebration of Christmas itself. It began with the lighting of the first advent candle and culminated with the celebration of midnight mass on Christmas morning. I have always bought into it all: the lights, the decorations, the songs, the gifts, the family, the celebration....

In 1962, my mother made a ceramic manger set for her father, my Grandpa Allen. Every year at Thanksgiving, Grandpa and the boys put the actual manger up, but not the nativity set itself. That came during advent. Having never been to Amsterdam for Christmas, I never saw the manger with the pieces, but always heard stories about how everybody enjoyed seeing it (my Grandparents lived on a state highway). My Grandfather died the year Aimee and I got married and soon it was a burden for my Grandmother to put it up. Mom and Dad boxed it up and in the course of 2 or 3 trips brought it to Columbia. During Thanksgiving week in 1996, my Dad and I built a new manger and I continued the tradition of displaying the manger and nativity set. Aimee, Sophie and I have put the set up every year for 12 Christmases now. Just as my mother lost her father, I did too and now the manger means more to me as it was the last project that my Father and I worked on.

For me, the manger is my eternal Christmas gift. The manger itself is a gift from my father as he came to Columbia with a plan and a mission to build a manger with me. I'll never forget the first trip to Lowe's just to check things out. As we walked the isles he pointed at what we would need to build the manger, but told me to leave it and that we'd come back later as I tried to put things in the cart. (We made 10 trips in two days to Lowe's). The nativity set is a gift from my mother as she knows the joy I have in Christmas and she chose me over 3 other children to give it to. It was Mom and I that did a lot of the Christmas decorating at home; she knew my joy of celebrating Christmas. And now it's a gift for my Family as we all share the joy of putting out the one decoration that best represents Christmas.

The only time I spent Christmas in Amsterdam was after my Grandfather had died. There was a small article in the newspaper about my Grandmother, and it talked about the manger and how folks missed it. It is a great honor to display the only item passed down from my foreign-born Grandparents. It represents the gift of my family, whom I dearly love.