Grandma Henke

When our children were young we started a special gift tradition that became my personal favorite. It brought a special peace to our family and gave each person the opportunity to express their love for each other.    The night we opened these gifts always included tears of joy and big hugs all around.

As soon as we had our Christmas tree up we would hang our stockings, and also a special white stocking that was for Jesus.   Our gift to each other was to write each family member a letter telling them what you appreciated about them.    Writing the letters took a great deal of thought and planning and hearts were opened in a unique way as we all wrote down why we loved other members of the family.   We also wrote a letter to Jesus that was also to express thanks and tell him what we wanted to give back to him in the coming year.   All of the letters were sealed in envelopes and placed in the stockings during the month of December.   As the letters were put into the white stocking each person would take out the letter they’d written the year before.

On Christmas Eve, after our turkey dinner, we turned off all of the lights except the candles and Christmas tree lights and sat in the living room and sang Christmas carols and then each one who wanted to took that chance to express their beliefs and feelings about anything they wanted to.  The only rule was that everything had to be positive.    We then got our stockings down and quietly read our personal messages from each other.    It was a quiet, peaceful, happy time for our family.   

I wish we still kept that tradition even across the miles that separate  us.  Not traditional letters telling about ourselves, but letters to each family expressing love and thanks … reminding others of their talents and goodness … the things they admire about each person.    I’m throwing out the challenge now, kids and grand kids.   Sit down as a family and write a family letter to each other family that they can open on Christmas Eve … and write personal letters to each member of your own family.    It will make us all feel like we are together.