Just two years and one day apart in age, my older brother, Josh, and I were set up for a rivalry-filled childhood full of arguments, tattling, and plenty of competition for attention. Typical sibling stuff. The holidays, however, brought us close together. As a child, Josh was enamored with the holidays, all of them. As the older brother, he wanted me to feel the same excitement he did over the upcoming holiday; he would make me sit in his bedroom for hours while he went through his stash of 4th of July fireworks (yes, he had a stash of fireworks in his room). At Halloween, we would dig through his treasure trove of Halloween costumes, scary masks, and make plans for the front yard haunted house (whole other story). In the weeks before Christmas, we would decorate his bedroom, drag up a tiny Christmas tree, and adorn it with twinkle lights and ornaments he had swiped from my mother’s collection. When the room was just the way he wanted it, we’d turn off the overhead light, tuck ourselves into our He-Man and Barbie sleeping bags, and talk for hours about our Santa wish lists, the Christmas morning plan, and revisit over and over whether or not he should put the Christmas tree in some other location in his room.
Every Christmas Eve night, our older sisters, Krista and Amber, would come home from college and we would all make pallets on the floor of the bedroom, turn off the overhead light to tell stories, crack jokes, and drift off to sleep waiting for Santa (yes, we believe in Santa). In the middle of the night, one of us (usually Josh), would wake up and loudly whisper, “Santa came, come and see! Get up! SANTA CAME!” And all four of us would sleepily, but happily, walk into the living room where we would find neatly displayed piles of toys, blankets, framed posters, and stuffed stockings waiting for each of us.
Josh and I grew up, went off to college, Amber got married, and Krista started medical school, but every Christmas Eve night we still gathered together in my brother’s bedroom, building pallets and settling into our sleeping bags by the tiny Christmas tree light, waiting for Santa to come.
When I became a mother, we stopped our cherished sibling Christmas Eve night tradition, but my girls have carried it on, tucking themselves into their sleeping bags next to their tiny Christmas tree light, waiting for Santa to come.
Although we have grown older and our lives have changed, Christmas always brings us home to be together. What a gift that is in our lives.
Candice Hillenbrand, Director of Mission Engagement
