Our SmartCanucks Christmas countdown tradition is back, except this time the stories and ideas are contributed by our wonderful Smart Canucks members! Everyday, a different person will contribute to the countdown post. I got many brilliant contributions, some are funny, others touching and a few are sad. I truly enjoyed reading all these heart-warming stories and I hope you do too.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts on the stories and contributions to motivate the writers 🙂

Written by Sara Lilley:

Hello,

Here is a sort-of Christmas story I wrote. This is non-fiction (although I wrote it like it was fiction.) It’s about Christmas revelations and growing up during the first Christmas dinner that I hosted. 

      In the rush of the moment she lost the tiniest part of her inner child. Such a small, mostly meaningless, moment took something irreplaceable. It’s hard to spot if you aren’t paying attention.

      The little girl stood, jittery and delighted in a red and green party dress.

      “I wanna sit beside you.”

      In her head she thought the little girl should sit beside her mother. It was the pout on her face and precocious attitude that made her realize this evening was going to become something she’d have to let go of if it were to go smoothly. Sometimes it’s easier to let chaos handle the situation. She was nervous about hosting her first Christmas dinner but shouldn’t have been, her family and her friends were generous and forgiving. 

      She handed out the gorgeously wrapped gifts and set her own behind her. Though she did check the bags, glance at the names on the card, she didn’t open it. She set it aside and helped the little girl with her task. Soon there was Cinderella’s face staring up at her, wooden blocks coloured in the brightest primary colours, a tossed aside kitchen set, a blinking doll named Sasha (even though it was a boy) . . . and a pile of still neatly wrapped and forgotten gifts at her back. 

      When she opened her first present, she found a little purse in her hand and she didn’t fake her enthusiasm. It was cute and it was trendy and it was just what she didn’t know she wanted. Yes, it was all those things. She hurriedly pulled out the tissue from inside. A penny spilled into her lap.

      “Oh! A lucky penny!” she said as a thank you. For her, receiving gifts was hard, though she tried to be gracious.

      “Of course,” said the gift giver knowingly.

      The moment was rushed as dinner still had to be made and the wrapping paper needed to be plucked off the floor from between the toys and treasures. Her mother and aunt rescued all the coloured tissue papers, smoothing it and folding it up again to be used later. She could smell the turkey and while she was refreshing everyone’s drinks she was also mentally counting how many minutes before she needed to mash the potatoes. The little girl was under foot, building a Christmas tree out of blocks and singing carols to herself. 

      It was later, after chaos was replaced by the soothing tones of her guiltiest pleasure of a holiday movie, that she discovered she had set the penny down amongst a hundred other pennies on her dresser. She’d lost it. She worried and felt guilty though it was worthless. She’d wanted to stuff it in a shoe box or better yet, keep it in the purse, for years at a time. Just until the magic wore off and it was safe to let go. It occurred to her to just arbitrarily pick another penny . . . but it wasn’t the same. These silly traditions that she’d kept so long for herself was fading and she knew, with certainty, that she was growing up. She’d lost it.