On the Fifth Day of Christmas...

...my true love gave to me, five gooolden rings! -The Twelve Days of Christmas

As that wonderfully acclaimed (or to some, wonderfully annoying) Christmas carol proclaims, the joy of Christmas isn't supposed to end on the 25th of December. Like any good celebration, it should be carried on for at least a week...or even two!

So it has been for us this year; we've now had almost three straight weeks of celebration! Since we were going to visit my family over Christmas, Santa came to our house a week early for a 'pre-Christmas' so the kids could open presents from under their own tree. One week later came Christmas morning in Pennsylvania with the grandparents; then we packed up and drove the two hours from my parents' house to my aunt's home for the extended family Christmas dinner, followed by another frenzy of gift opening. Once we returned home, the kids discovered that Santa had paid yet another visit--this time to deliver gifts from their grandparents in Colorado! By the end of their fourth round of gift-opening, they'd become pros.

Or maybe just spoiled? In the midst of all the materialism, we were struggling to convey the real meaning of Christmas. We'd read the Christmas story plenty of times, but we soon realized that showering them with gifts was definitely sending mixed messages. It hit me hardest when my daughter tore through one present and played with it for a mere moment before setting it aside and loudly declaring, "I want more presents!"

Yikes.


Baby Jesus and Mary sharing their toys!

But the more I observed them, the more I discovered that our kids not only possess the ability to spread Christmas cheer; they actually can grasp the true meaning of Christmas with a little help. At the Christmas Eve service, they watched the children's pageant in awe (though they voiced their concern that the shepherds didn't have any 'sheeps'). Then for a few days straight, they decided to play 'Christmas,' where Marie pretended to be Mary, and Erik was Baby Jesus. We were only allowed to refer to them as such, and they said that Mary was always nice and did everything good and took care of her baby. And you know what? They lived it out. They played nicely together, shared their Little Tikes Nativity set, and didn't even fight over who got to hold the sheep. Both were genuinely well-behaved little angels when adopting the personas of Mary and Jesus. It was magical.

And though all kids are destined to get a case of the 'gimmes' more than once in awhile, I was surprised to find them more willing than most adults to demonstrate true charity. Immediately after Marie's demand for more presents, I explained to her in a sad voice that she was very lucky to get any presents at all, because some kids don't get presents at Christmas since they don't have homes or their parents don't have enough money to buy things for them. Without hesitation--and in an equally sad voice--Marie said, "Ohh...well I want to go give homes and presents to those kids!"

Wow.

If only we could all have such pure intentions to help make the world a better place--not just for one, but for all. So today, on this fifth day of cheer and goodwill towards men, let's continue to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with joy--but maybe give up the five gold rings (or the gluttony of post-Christmas sales) in exchange for a random act of kindness or two before these twelve days of Christmas come to an end!

Here's to spreading real Christmas Cheer!

The best kind of cheer--a laughing baby!