Christmas 1978

The baby was just months old.  It was cold,  bitterly cold.  The old house was built in 20 AD.  That was an exaggeration.  It was old, probably built in the 1950's after the furniture business started booming.  It was not uncommon for manufacturing plants to build cheap housing for the influx of labor or as a selling point to those moving for the job.

The house had no insulation and the windows may as well have been open.  There was plastic stapled around all the windows in an effort to resist the winter winds.  The floors and the walls were uneven like it had been constructed before the invention of the level.    The landlord promised that he would insulate the little red house the following spring.  For now they would simply dress warmly. 

Money was tight.  Penelope had been fired from her job as a receptionist when she told them she was pregnant.  They did not want some big fat woman sitting at the front desk.  Carlos had been going to college and had to quit to find full time employment in order to support his growing family.

He had only been working at this job as a mechanic for a couple of months and the insurance did not go into effect for another thirty days.  His wife's pregnancy would not be covered.  Penelope went to the Welfare Office and because they had both been unemployed and were now underemployed, they qualified for government assistance.  There would be WIC for her and the baby and because it was a small town, the OB doctor that she would have paid for would be her doctor at the free clinic.

Christmas was only three weeks away and there was almost no money for any gifts.  They managed to scrape a few dollars together and would buy his family a small gift each and Penelope's family would get a small gift.

Penelope's family had never had much but had always been generous at the holidays so it pained her to not be able to give the way she desired, but the little gifts would have to do.  Her family received the gifts with grace and thanks.  They knew both her heart and their circumstances.

Carlos' family had always seemed to have enough of everything.  They owned a fine home on the other side of town and Penelope always felt that she was not worthy when she went to visit his mother.  The little gifts were wrapped and given to each one.  You could see the disappointment of each of their faces as they opened their gifts, but they smiled politely and said thank you.

His brother, not so much.  He opened the little gift and handed it back to Carlos and said with disdain, "Is that the best you could do?  You may as well not done anything!"

Penelope and Carlos left suddenly and vowed to each other that this was the last Christmas that this would happen.  It was the last Christmas they gave his brother a gift.  Every Christmas, there was a little something for everyone but his brother.


Christmas is supposed to be a time when gifts are given and received in a selfless spirit.  But should that not be required of every occasion where a gift might be given or received?   Most adults teach their small children the gifts of greed and avarice and wonder why, when they become teenagers, those same children are never satisfied with what they get.


When you celebrate Christmas this year, don't tell your children that a fat man in a red suit is bringing them a truckload of stuff.  Tell them the truth so when you tell them the Truth of Jesus of Nazareth, they will know that you tell the truth and they can believe you.  Otherwise, the Story of Jesus becomes just that - another story.