Christmas Present

This weekend, I got to celebrate Christmas with P and D, two of my oldest and dearest friends. We’ve celebrated Christmas together for almost twenty-five years, through so many different phases of our lives. And the while the nature of the celebrations has changed over the years, the tradition of being together, of celebrating the holiday and the gift of our friendship remains constant.

At this year’s celebration, my friend D introduced some of the Polish traditions that she learned from her dear Grandmother who passed away this year. Before the meal, we practiced one of the most revered Polish customs, the Breaking of the Oplatek. The Oplatek is a wafer, and before the meal, each person offers the wafer to another, along with a blessing for peace, for health, for happiness.

Breaking the Oplatek with someone is symbol of forgiveness and reminder of the importance of Christmas, God and family.

I loved how D brought part of her Grandmother’s traditions to our celebration of Christmas, and it struck me how that is really what Christmas is all about. It’s honoring all the Christmases that came before. It’s about brining the goodness, the lessons, and the love that grew out of those celebrations to the present day.

So today, as I hang ornaments on the tree with my daughter, I am feeling the presence of all those Christmases with me. The last Christmas I had with my father and the first Christmas I had with my daughter. The Christmas spent alone and the first Christmas I celebrated with my husband. The Christmas of plenty and the Christmas where we made all our gifts. Christmases of heartbreaking sadness and Christmases of utter joy.

And when I think about it, honoring traditions is what Christmas is all about. It’s a time to regain hope by retelling and celebrating the stories that are the foundation of my religion. So it feels right to celebrate my stories alongside the stories of my faith, and to find joy and wonder in the retelling of those stories, too.