My kids and I sit together on the couch and take turns
reading aloud the verses of "A Visit from St. Nicholas" every single
Christmas Eve. Next, we sing all of the Christmas carols we know, a cappella.
Then, we leave on a plate, for Santa, six (one for each member of our family)
home-baked and lovingly-and-exquisitely-decorated sugar cookies. Finally, we set out
a glass of milk—and don't let's forget the carrot for Rudolph!
Then we pretend.
We are not Santa, but we are little children, sound asleep
in our beds and dreaming of sugar plums.
Together as one, we munch out on the cookies, drink up the
milk, crunch up and swallow the carrot, and fill up the six stockings—to overflowing—with
fresh fruits and candies and a Pez dispenser and a little, wrapped, special
present (probably a Duncan yo-yo or a pack of Bicycle playing cards). We
top off each stocking with a banana and a candy cane. We make sure you can see
the banana and the candy cane sticking out of the top of the stocking.
We lay out the treasures—the filled stockings and our
anticipations—in a neat little row on the couch where we had just been sitting.
It is right next to the freshly-cut Christmas tree we had together selected as
"perfect." Now aglow with shiny ribbons and hand-crafted ornaments
and colorful blinking lights and topped with our multi-colored
"Christmas-lights"-lighted star, it was purchased from Walmart. That's just
so in case it ever breaks, we can easily find a similar replacement. We've had
to do that twice.
These treasures, stockings and anticipations both, will be
"discovered" by us when we wake up in a few hours on Christmas
morning.
Priceless.
Just thinking about "A Visit from St. Nicholas" is
a trip deep into the mind's eye, where I find wonders steeped in tradition. I
take this journey into all the warmth and glory and celebration which is
family.
Ours is a "pop-up" book, which adds to the fun,
and the fact that it is now, after so many years, in danger of being close to
falling apart, only adds to our appreciation that life, full of joys, is
fleeting, and memories are precious and not to be taken for granted.
