Why is it that as we get older holidays, like our birthdays, and Christmas seem to be of less significance to us? I remember when I was a kid I used to be so excited to experience the festivities that surrounded the holidays, but now as a teenager, I tend to focus less on the holidays themselves and more on the welfare of those around me. I found that as I’ve grown older it feels better to give than to receive. Seeing the faces of my family members and friends light up because of the gifts I’ve given them is so much more rewarding than receiving my own gifts.

This epiphany has led me to reminisce on past Christmas memories. One, in particular, engraved in my brain as a “core memory,” is the memory of my dad putting a TV he had gotten for my sister and me under our Christmas tree. 

It was a late winter night, and my sister, Victoria Pena, and I chose to stay up to see if we could catch Santa in the act. We were around the age of 3 or 4, and we’d been taught that a man of a plump stature with a protruding, yet snowy beard would prance around to every house on Earth, and provide good children with gifts they’d asked for in previous letters. So, you can imagine, to our surprise, how alarming it was to witness our dad quietly making his way about the house with a large box in hand and a grin on his face.

Although it’s nice to give gifts, I’m also very appreciative when I’m given gifts. Now as a junior at CI, I’d honestly much rather have known that my dad was giving me presents all that time than thinking they were from some man that was made popular by a soda company. This is because I never saw Santa coming home from work in the wee hours of the morning, only to walk Victoria and me to school a block away. Santa never brought me the same happiness my dad does, and for that, I wish I was never told about Santa. 

This isn’t a sign to start telling your children and/or younger siblings in your lives that Santa isn’t real, but it’s a sign to appreciate those who’ve provided you with an amazing Christmas under the guise of Santa himself. So many parents strive to give their children a whimsical Christmas and in the end, those children end up appreciating the strenuous efforts of Santa instead of their parents themselves. 

So, during this holiday season, acknowledge your guardian’s efforts and how much you value them, and give them a holiday to remember.