Reading Christmas stories as an Advent ritual
Photo courtesy of Unsplash.com
By Allison Askins
A favorite box of mine came out of hibernation this past weekend, a post-Thanksgiving ritual I have practiced for years. Some people put up their Christmas tree. I get out the box of Christmas books, a plastic bin filled with the stories of my childhood Christmases, and those of my own children as well.
The box is the heaviest to come out of the shed where we keep these treasures when it’s not their season, but its content never fails to lighten my heart.
Angel Pig, Olive, Red-Headed Robbie, Christmas Bear, Edith, Little Bear and Art Atchinson Aimesworth are as much a part of Christmas in my life as putting out our creche, hanging ornaments on the tree, baking St. Nicholas Day cookies or attending church at midnight on Christmas Eve.
Angel Pig and the entire assortment of lovely characters created by writers such as William Joyce, Bill Luttrell, Dare Wright and Joan Walsh Anglund remind me every single year why I dare to celebrate a season that has become so horribly over-commercialized and misappropriated.
Angel and her hilarious family of pigs tell a delightful story of scouring the house in search of lost change in couch cushions because they’ve maxed out their credit cards and need to get ready for Christmas. Dear Red-headed Robbie finds a way to manage his stutter so he can tell his Christmas story at his school’s holiday production.
Because of Little Bear’s love for Edith, a precious doll – who resembles almost exactly my own childhood doll -- learns that any gift she makes is perfect even if it is a knitted scarf six feet too long. And Art Atchinson Aimesworth discovers what a truly wonderful brother he is when he rescues his little sister Esther from the Dark Elves just in time for Christmas in their hometown of Abilene, Texas.
This year, I have mailed the childhood copy of “Angel Pig” to our 23-year-old daughter in Austin, and “Santa Calls” and the adventures of Art Atchinson Aimesworth to our 28-year-old son in Detroit.
Our children both made major moves out of South Carolina this year, and I decided they needed a tiny taste of Christmases past in their new adult lives.
The books were favorites of theirs when they were growing up in Columbia (and at St. Martin’s). We read a Christmas story at bedtime each night of Advent, the liturgical season that began this past Sunday and marks off the next three weeks until Christmas.
As the kids aged, we read the stories less frequently, but continued to bring them out of their storage box every year. What they probably don’t know is that I still read them and with each story, I am reminded of every Christmas of their young lives as well as my own many moons ago.
By sending Angel and Art to them this year, I’m hoping those memories will surface for them, too, in their new homes so far away from their first.
What Christmas books mark your holiday? Are you sharing them as a family this holiday season?
Allison Askins is a St. Martin’s staff member. She loves children’s Christmas books.
