Rediscovering Christmas – Letting Go Of The “Perfect Christmas”

Nov 30, 2016 | Rediscovering Christmas | 10 Comments

The perfect Christmas.

Is there such a thing?

I used to think so. And I used to believe it was up to me to create one for our family. How I ever came to that belief, I don’t know.

Maybe I compared our Christmas to others’ Christmases and ours always fell short. There weren’t as many gifts under our tree, my cookies weren’t as pretty, and my house was never as elaborately decorated.

Maybe I thought the more I did, the more perfect it would be. So, I would strive and strive and end up exhausted.

And, maybe I had unrealistic expectations of what Christmas was and should be. (I know I did.)

Christmases as a child were simple, yet they were always filled with wonder and awe. Mom and Dad didn’t have a ton of money, but they made Christmas special each year. The memories of those by-gone holidays bless me. I wonder why I thought as an adult Christmas needed to be any different?

The Christmases I remember the most are the ones that were far from perfect.

I remember in 2nd Grade coming home from school the week of Christmas with Chicken Pox. I passed it on to my brothers and we were all sick on Christmas. That wasn’t such a perfect Christmas, but yet I remember it well still today.

I also remember one year my brother and I found our Christmas gifts that were hid in our basement. Christmas morning wasn’t the same with us already knowing what we were receiving. That certainly wasn’t a perfect Christmas either, thanks to our curious, selfish selves, but it’s one I haven’t forgotten.

And, I recall just a few years ago when I dumped over our Christmas tree. The sound of it crashing to the floor is a sound I had never heard before, nor have I heard since. It was awful. I buried my face in my hands and cried. I had ruined Christmas, or so I thought. We picked up the tree, set it back in its stand, threw away the broken ornaments, and no one but us four knew any different. Somehow that memorable event continues to get mentioned each year, but now with laughter and smiles.

Friend, how about you? What are some of the most memorable Christmases you’ve had? When you think back, which Christmas has a funny or crazy experience attached to it that you still remember vividly today?

Was your most memorable Christmas the one that wasn’t the perfect Christmas?

I’m going out on a limb to guess it might be. I invite you to share below, or at least answer it for yourself privately.

Maybe it’s time to look at all of this a little differently. Maybe in reality, the perfect Christmas is the one in which we remember the most years later… in all its imperfectness.

Let’s look at Christmas with fresh eyes this season. Let’s embrace the imperfect, and rejoice in the simple. May we smile at what appears to “ruin” Christmas, and stop comparing and striving and doing more than we need to do. May this realization this season guide us a little closer in rediscovering Christmas.