Anticipating The Night Before Christmas

There’s a moment on Christmas Eve that stands out as my favorite of the entire holiday season. It occurs at the very end of all the hustle and bustle, when the typical onslaught of holiday parties, shopping, and general busyness has finally reached a close. It comes after getting everyone dressed up for church and trying to force my children to take just one good picture in their nicest holiday clothes. It’s after the chaos of dinner and the insanity of bedtime on the most exciting night of the year. And it’s at the tail end of my present wrapping extravaganza, where I dig out all of the presents hiding in my closet and wrap them in one miserable go, always overestimating or underestimating the amount of paper needed for each gift. Of course, I kick myself for not being more prepared, but it inevitably happens every year that not a single present gets wrapped until after bedtime on Christmas Eve. And while I would much prefer gift bags galore, I know the excitement of unwrapping presents, and I won’t deprive my children of that– it just gets extra sloppy toward the end.

This year, the busyness leading up to the moment looks a bit different. I haven’t received a single Christmas party invitation, but e-learning and more Zoom calls than I want to think about have certainly done their share to keep me exhausted this holiday season. And in just over a week, I’ll be stacking boxes under and around my Christmas tree and hanging our stockings with care, in hopes that the 3M command strips will hold up under the strain. After the scraps of wrapping paper are tossed, and the presents have found a home around the tree— the radius has gotten pretty large given the eight people living in our home— I’ll turn off every light in the house except for the Christmas tree. Then I’ll pause and soak in my favorite moment of the season.

The house is silent, that rare thing in my home, and not a creature is stirring except for two tired parents ready for bed. The tree holds ornaments collected over our lifetime— vacations, memories, snapshots of our growing family– and glows warmly in the darkness. It lights up the gifts that I have sloppily but lovingly wrapped and placed around it. Before I head to bed, I savor the anticipation of the night, knowing that soon my kids will wake up and will unwrap each present, experiencing the happiness and excitement that I have spent months working toward. I relish the moment and the anticipation, thankful that I get to make these moments happen as their mother.

Of course, as much as I love this moment, I know that it, and the fun on Christmas morning, are fleeting. The beautiful tableau created under the tree is soon to be dismantled. Shredded paper, random presents, and candies will litter my once clean floor. Those faces lit up with excitement, beaming smiles at me for the gifts I’ve given, will undoubtedly turn to frowns and tears the next time I tell my kids something they don’t want to hear. So while I love giving gifts to my kids, enjoying the anticipation and delighting in the moment that my kids are the recipients of this culmination of my time, money, and effort– I know that this is only temporary.

And that’s why I really love Christmas. Because once we get past the lights, the music, and all of the trappings that are so much fun, we celebrate the greatest gift ever given. The one that doesn’t break, become outdated, or get lost when another fad surpasses it. We celebrate the gift of God with us, the culmination of prophecies, hundreds of years of waiting, and of a promise given by God to a world in need of a Savior. The gift of a Savior who is just as relevant and needed today as he was the day he was born 2000 years ago, given to us by the greatest gift giver the world has ever known. A gift that I’ll continue to grateful for the other 364 days of the year, and one that I’ll anticipate celebrating again this time next year.

“If you, then, being evil [that is, sinful by nature], know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him! Luke 11: 13 (AMP)

Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by his turning [for He is perfect and never changes]. James 1:17 (AMP)