Christmas and Holidays

Best Mother’s Day Gift

Backstory

We adult children set out each year to find a special Mother’s Day gift for the woman who gave us life. As your mom aged, you’ve probably kept up with her interests and increased needs. But you may have missed the best tip about what Mother’s Day Gift most pleases senior moms. Read about it here.

Best Mother’s Day Gift

Mother’s Day is the biggest greeting card holiday of the year. Adult children throughout the land spend precious time considering what card and gift to give to the woman who gave them life.

Purchases will include nightgowns and sweaters and jewelry. Restaurants will be full of moms being celebrated by their families. Florists’ and card merchants’ cash registers will sing.

But as your mom ages, the Mother’s Day gift she may need from you, more than anything else, is the gift of your time. During the quiet time together, she can recall all the moments that gave you both joy as you were growing up. You can tell her how proud you are of the kind of mother she was. She can tell you what pride your choices in life have given her.

Figure out how you can give your mom the gift of your time. Plan a weekend away, just the two of you. Give her tickets to a play, with you as her companion.

Take her to a concert or a bingo, or a wrestling match. Whatever she likes to …whether it’s one of YOUR favorite pastimes or not.

Give her a gift certificate to a gym – and then go with her to exercise.

The THINGS you buy are appreciated, but the real value is the memories you give. It applies on Mother’s Day – and all year round.

P.S. We could not let Mother’s Day go by without saying hello. Enjoy your favorite Consider This stories anytime at https://considerthisradioshow.com.

[Show #291]

The Christmas Pageant

Backstory

This Christmas story is absolutely true. Daughters Cheryl and Lisa and son Michael acted out the skit. We have the photos that captured it. All Cheri’s ideas were based on the Christmas teachings that had touched her heart. Their actions touched ours. Listen in or read the text, please.

Christmas Pageant

It was our first Christmas in our first real house. The children were 7, 4, and 3 – quite a handful, and so full of the Christmas spirit.

The oldest had learned in school about giving gifts from the heart. She wisely brought home the message that gifts need not be the biggest or the most expensive, to show love. She wanted to give her mom and dad a Christmas gift from the heart. She convinced her little sister and brother to put on a Christmas pageant for us, as our gift.

As the oldest, she played the key role of the virgin Mary, dressed in one of my frilly white nightgowns. Her sister, complete with aluminum foil halo, was an angel holding a wooden spoon, no doubt representing something angelic. Their toddler brother was a shepherd dressed in brown towel tied at the waist with a jump rope. A doll wrapped in white towels represented the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes.

They were so little; and yet they understood the true significance of the day and played it out so lovingly for their dad and me.

All grown up now, they have taught the true meaning of Christmas to their children as well. We all still sing Happy Birthday Jesus on Christmas Day, celebrating Him as the reason for the season.

What a joy are memories of significant Christmases past that still bring smiles to our lips and tears to our eyes.

[Show #467]

Scent of Christmas

Backstory

I love walking into a home when there’s a delightful whiff of cooking and baking coming from the kitchen. It tells me that someone is treating me special and I am welcome here. It doesn’t work if you’re serving cookies from the box on the shelf. But when they are freshly baked, and the scent of anise, chocolate, and pralines is still in the air, wow what a treat!

Scent of Christmas

Christmas has a field day with your olfactory receptors. The scents of the holidays are everywhere, and your nose knows! These are special fragrances and aromas that don’t exist, at any other time of year.

What are your favorites? The scent of pine trees and pine wreaths makes it feel like the forest has been brought into your house. I love it.

The smell of fresh-baked cookies . . . or even better, cookies as they ARE baking.

In my family, treasured recipes have been passed down for generations. Some of them are just too involved to undertake. Others would be too expensive.

My mom made something called Christmas rocks. They were baked around Thanksgiving and allowed to ferment until Christmas. They contained four different kinds of liquor and more nuts, raisins, and currants than could fit my budget today.

But I can still remember the pungent and enticing aroma when Mom opened that tin of Christmas rocks after its gestation period. Whew!

The roasted turkey is high on the list of holiday essences and may even be trumped by the smell of special recipe stuffings made with cornbread or oysters or minced chicken livers mixed with the other ingredients. Oh, and wonderful winter root vegetables.

So, long before you get to eat the holiday goodies, enjoy just smelling them and all the memories they recount.

P.S.

You know what other winter scent I love? The smell of cold. When you go outside after the first heavy snowfall and no one is out cleaning up yet. That crisp, clear air is wonderful and smells delightful. Gone too fast, but there for a moment of pleasure.

[Show #548]

Christmas Spirit

Backstory

Here we go again. We find ourselves right on the front edge of the holiday season. Time to be festive, jolly, and filled with the spirit of giving. Although celebrations and traditions have changed over time, the spirit of Christmas lives on. This story was written when I considered what turns on my Christmas spirit.

Christmas Spirit

What gets you in the Christmas spirit? What’s the trigger that pushes you over the edge and gets you humming carols and shopping at craft fairs, visiting local businesses, looking for just the right gifts, and updating addresses for old friends in preparation for sending Christmas cards?

But you know, it makes me wonder what commercial establishments are thinking when they drag out the holiday decorations before Halloween. Do they think that will put me in a buying mood? Who put that marketing idea in their heads?

By Thanksgiving, I am ready for the holidays. I’m psyched about the spirit of giving. But trying to inspire me in October? You won’t get my ho-ho-hos for that!

When I do get the spirit, though, I feel jolly right through the new year. I still love the parades, the Santas, the cheer, the parties, the cookies and traditions, and even the politically correct pretense that we don’t celebrate Christmas in this country.

I love the spirit of Christmas. Peace on earth, goodwill toward men; the essence of giving that permeates the holiday season, whatever you are celebrating at this time of year.

Yep, I think I’m ready. Bring it on!

P.S.

Don’t let the commercialization of Christmas get you down. Create your own little version of how you want to celebrate the holidays and follow the plan. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to prove you get it. But you could spread a lot of love. It’s delicious, it’s festive, and it’s free.

[Show #390]

Ornaments and Memories

Backstory

For decades, ornaments have been accumulated for the family Christmas tree. Today, they are out of sync with modern holiday culture. See what happens to the boxes of ornaments displayed in garage or estate sales. Glitzy, homemade, delicate glass or practical plastic, these ornaments once meant a lot to someone. But they’re usually left behind by the bargain hunters. They find themselves un-owned, unprotected, and unwanted. After fifty years of dealing with my own collection of ornaments, it was my time to face their future.

Ornaments and Memories

Do you remember the Christmas tree decorations of yore? The delicate colored and painted glass ornaments, those made out of clay or paper by school children, the special anniversary ornaments commemorating a new baby or a wedding or some other special event. For years, I decorated our Christmas tree with these ornaments, remembering the story each ornament held.

Today, the style of tree decorating is different. We may choose a certain color scheme that all the ornaments must match. Or the giant seven-foot tree may be reduced to a tabletop size in a downsized home.

I was in that position. So, one year, I packed the special ornaments into an orange crate that had a separate cubbyhole for each one. I took the crate to the holiday family gathering and put it on the table after dinner. We all got to share the memories conjured up by those old ornaments and touching was definitely allowed.

This year, the orange crate will disappear. I’m going to give the ornaments away. Each child and grandchild will get at least one, and some will be set aside for future great-grandchildren. It’s my way of keeping the memories going. Whether the orange crate tradition lives on through the next generations, or goes the way of the choo-choo train under the Christmas tree, at least I’ve done my part for this year’s Merry Christmas.

P.S.

It was gratifying to see how well received my bundles of ornaments were. Recipients recognized many, welcomed others, and gushed over the really special pieces I had highlighted. Whether or not they actually get hung on a tree has yet to be seen. But at least for now, they are in loving hands and seem to have a bright future.

[Show #516]

Christmas Past Revisited

Backstory

We are storytellers. When our family gets together, there always has to be time for folks to tell their stories. Christmas tales are particularly popular. So many warm and happy events – and those that evoke laughter all around.

Thinking of how much we enjoy them, I thought I’d tell you about them.

Christmas Past Revisited

One of my favorite rites of Christmas is when the family gets together and remembers Christmases past. We hear from each person; whether you’ve had 8 Christmases to date or 80. There is a willing audience to hear you tell about it.

Some eyes glaze over; others brim with tears as we remember loved ones with whom we used to share holiday meals and traditions and gifts and love. You can practically feel the spirit of those who used to share our lives and are here no more. How precious to bring them back to life in our memories and have them share a few holiday moments with us.

The younger family members will hear of how things used to be. The older members will probably recall family traditions or foods. We may be able to congratulate those who still carry out the traditions or lament that they exist no more.

In addition to telling our favorite Christmas stories, each person gets to tell what they are thankful for. The expected treasures are mentioned – love of the family, health, and making it through another year without a major tragedy. But what is often heartwarming is to hear how grateful people are for something small done for them that really mattered: a suggestion that helped solve a problem; a contact that resulted in beneficial networking, news about people who needed help so that we could provide it.

It’s all part of the family Christmas-telling tradition.

P.S.

As our family of locals shrinks and there are fewer oldsters and more little children, the storytelling changes a bit. As we go around the table, we may hear more about a new video game, the latest posts on Instagram, or delight over Taylor Swift’s latest lost love. These stories need to be cherished and valued as much as those about walking to and from school two miles, uphill each way. Throw in some microwave recipes, and you modernize Christmas storytelling.

[Show #511]