Present Traditions
After a holiday hiatus, Puddle Diving is back.
Did you ever struggle sleeping or ask your parents at least three or four times “can we get up yet” before it was even 6:00 AM on Christmas morning? I think that was me every year from about age 5 to 16! For that matter, I still get a little antsy Christmas Eve and trying to sleep overnight. Opening presents with family has always been an eagerly anticipated highlight of the holidays for me.
Two ideas that opening presents on Christmas has taught me:
1. Neither giving without receiving nor receiving without giving are as fulling as both.
2. We all have different traditions and ways of celebrating.
I love both giving and receiving presents. When we are opening gifts, I eagerly anticipate what I might unwrap. And, each round, I hope someone is opening a gift from me. I get almost as (selfishly) disappointed when people run out of gifts to open from me as when I run out of gifts to open. It is a principle of The Go-Giver that “The key to effective giving is to stay open to receiving.” Growing up, I would have written that in reverse. Now, I see the wisdom and truth in that particular wording. I see it in myself and the importance for others. Denying others the joy of giving makes a situation worse for all. I used to sulk over a gift that wasn’t just what I wanted or if I happened to already have it (maybe even just received it from someone else that Christmas). I didn’t realize how that could also deflate the giver and deny them the excitement of the gift.
Earlier, in talking about giving gifts, I mentioned “each round”. That is part of the traditions my family celebrates on Christmas that I look forward to – opening gifts one at a time around in order from youngest to oldest. The reality is opening presents in a specific order for everyone to see is a tradition that I hold as important, but many families don’t have any order or simply open as they get a gift. Kids can change traditions. Or, as in my family with the death of my grandparents the last couple years, the traditions are inevitably adapting. It creates stress in the moment facing the change when we hold traditions as important in our minds, and they don’t work out as we expect.
Christmas gifts – nothing but joy right? Of course not. We are emotional humans. We find ways to make something that elicits as many positive expectations as presents and find a problem. What other areas of your life are you derailing when they should be joy filled?