“Someone lost a boot!” As the story begins, my dad starts laughing. Every year he loves to retell the tale of the December we got a 16-foot tree to stuff in our house. One of us wound up crying boot-less through a snowstorm, the giant evergreen had to be tied to the front and back of our station wagon, and four extra feet had to be sawed off to fit the monster inside.
Every family has a favorite Christmas story, told every year like turning the pages of a well-worn children’s book. The Christmas Eve that a baby arrived in a snowstorm. The toddler who started crying when he realized getting a tree meant cutting down a living pine. The gift that showed up on Christmas morning to everyone’s surprise.
This year I asked readers to share their favorite holiday stories:
“My mom is one of eight kids, so usually there were just one or two ‘extra special’ gifts each Christmas when they were growing up. One year her little sister got a tricycle, and everyone was so excited for Annie and her trike. She was riding it in the living room and ran into the Christmas tree. It toppled over, and though she was OK, the lights caught something on fire, so my grandmother started yelling, ‘Water! Water! I need water!’ Her oldest son brought her a cup of water because he thought she was thirsty. Thankfully, he saw the flames and realized they needed more than a single glass. Fire was successfully extinguished, and a family story was born.”
“One Thanksgiving, unbeknownst to any of the adults in the house, my cousin’s toddler called 911. We were all surprised to see a police officer arrive to check on us. They had to send someone, even though 911 reported ‘laughter and baby noises’ on the phone line. So what did we do? Hand the baby to the police officer and take a picture.”
“For our first Christmas as a married couple in our tiny apartment, we got a small, real tree; this is Miami. l noticed at night that the tree had what looked to be a small acorn. ‘How cute! Look, honey!’ My husband agreed: how cute. We went to bed, and I woke up the next morning — and saw a swarm of THINGS crawling from the ‘acorn.’ I started screaming. My husband (who was in a full suit as he was going to a job interview) grabbed a glass Tupperware and started trying to smash the THINGS. His tie was flying everywhere; I was yelling at him to just go, I’d handle it. After dealing with it, I googled and found it was a praying mantis nest. We tell this story every year when we go buy a tree, and our kids laugh so much. We make them triple-check trees before bringing them home.”
Every year we laugh at the same stories or tear up at the same hymns. In an ever-changing world, we need these lasting touchpoints. But even more than family lore, this season sweeps us into the greatest story ever told: the love of God that came to earth through Jesus, the Incarnation that changed everything and opened our way to salvation.
This is the story we hear every year at Christmas Mass, the birth of a baby born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. We never tire of this tale, because it is part of our origin story: where we came from and where we are going.
At the end of the classic TV special “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” Linus recites the story of the shepherds from the Gospel of Luke. Whenever we watch, my youngest kids delight at telling me: “Watch Linus’ blanket, mama!”
Right as he speaks the angel’s words — “Be not afraid” — Linus drops his security blanket to the floor. No longer does he need his trusty sidekick. Once my kids noticed this detail, they cry out year after year: “He drops the blanket because he’s not afraid!”
This is exactly what the best stories tell us. Who we are, whose we are, and what we are called to be. What a gift that we all share the best story: The hope that will ultimately bring us home.
Laura Kelly Fanucci is an author, speaker and founder of Mothering Spirit, an online gathering place on parenting and spirituality.
