I love Christmas and the rest of the holiday season. Some may even say I am a little obsessed. As soon as November hit, I set up my Christmas tree, hung my stockings and placed my Black Santa figurine on display.
My family has rich annual traditions that we stick to very closely. Every year, my dad buys a real Christmas tree the day before Christmas and leaves it up until February. We assign our “gift giver” of the year, the person who passes the gifts out to everyone—because in my family every gift is opened one at a time to give our full attention to the gift receiver. And probably our most important yearly act is reading the passage in the Bible recounting the birth of Jesus before we open presents so that we can better reflect on what we are thankful for during this time of celebration.
Thankfulness and gratitude are some virtues I hold dear to my heart. Understanding where you’re fortunate and using that to help others is the most important part of the holidays, in my opinion.
I grew up in a giving home. I watched my mother regularly “adopt-a-family” during Christmas, making sure that when she bought my sister’s new LEGO set, she bought the exact same one for a child she didn’t know. I watched my father visit my grandma in the nursing home, making sure to also visit other residents who had no one to visit them at all.
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This past Thanksgiving, my father, sister and I drove around the streets of Bridgeport and New Haven, Conn., in the rain, passing out plates to whomever happened to be on the street and in need of a hot meal.
I watched my parents provide meals, money, hygiene products, whatever they had to homeless folks on the street without question, always treating them with dignity and respect.
My parents taught me to give what you would like to receive—to give your best, and to give without hesitation.
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