Jingle Bells and all those Smells!                               Home Page                        

Downtown Knoxville & Everything West                                                           Print this page

Merry Christmas! The phrase alone can stir deep emotions. Add the sights and sounds

of Christmas, and suddenly this nostalgic sleigh ride takes us back to the Christmas

traditions that often span generations.

What is your favorite Christmas memory? For me being raised in a family with five

children, Christmas was always a bustling time. We worked mightily on just the right

lists for Santa, and often could not sleep as we anticipated his big arrival. Such

excitement outweighed the concerns of the other eleven months of the year. The

Christmas spirit did not give way to worry, it was a time for hope, the kind of hope that

didn’t need to make sense. Somehow in a big family with a single mom raising five kids,

Christmas always lived up to our expectations. Each year was better than the last.

Once I became a mom, I began to struggle with how to present Christmas to my

children. Is Santa sacrilegious? Is there such thing as too many gifts? Should we be

focusing more on the meaning of Christmas, and less on all of the activity? Such

questions caused me great concern as I wrestled to establish our own family traditions.

Comparing my childhood Christmases to those celebrated with my family today, not

much has changed in the way we celebrate. Christmas was huge then; still is. We

believe in Santa and we still love to give and receive gifts. We still shop, we cook, and we

still celebrate like no other time of year. The more the merrier around the table, and we

get up at the crack of dawn.

No longer do I struggle with the Santa issue, because Christmas is about being able to

believe the unbelievable. This is the time that tests our ability to believe in something

too good to be true. Can we focus on gifts too much? Sure, but at the core it’s about

the heart doing the giving, while reaching out to others with love and generosity.

New traditions have emerged, mostly surrounding our faith. We’ll attend services that

celebrate the birth of Christ. In our home we will read the Christmas story on

Christmas Eve, and we will have a Happy Birthday Jesus cake. We will give thanks for

our blessings and share with others. We will relish the little moments of finding just the

right gift for that special someone, and we will strive to enjoy the season and not give

way to frustration and impatience.

Christmas is about celebration. It is about family, friends, and in our home it’s about

faith and the traditions we will remember 5, 10, or 20 years from now.

What will you remember most? What will you pass down? Gifts are things soon

forgotten, but memories last a lifetime, and hopefully a joyful Christmas spirit worthy of

being passed down year after year. So this Christmas may your “Jingle Bells and all

those smells” create lasting memories of happy hearts and smiling faces. Enjoy the

most wonderful time of the year, and make that your most prized tradition.