Christmas endures most powerfully in families where Christian faith anchored our growing up—though we are hardly immune today to the relentless push of holiday commercialism. But that's Christmas now, too.
The buildup begins with aggressive advertising by late October and never stops until well into the new year. We all find ourselves planning our lives in anticipation of the holy day. In our family, though, it's our son Carlo who sets the rhythm. In countless ways, he shows us what it means to live Christmas together as one household.
First, we have to gather—nearly all of us. Carlo starts organizing this more than a month in advance, making lists and repeating his invitations over and over. No one is excused.
He watches every word, every gesture that touches on the coming feast. His joy spills out in shouts and bounces from his wheelchair.
For Carlo, winter and Christmas are inseparable from the fireplace. We gather around it to plan every detail of the holiday. At the same time, prompted by ads and conversation, he reminds us it's time to decorate the tree—usually well before tradition dictates (December 8), with plans to take it down on Epiphany (January 6). The tree is not an end in itself but a milestone toward something he waits for with breathless joy: the gifts.
Day after day he watches the wrapped packages accumulate beneath the branches, untouched until Christmas morning. When that morning finally comes, the whole family gathers early. Ribbons and paper fly everywhere, half of us still drowsy. Carlo doesn't care how many gifts or what they are. What matters is that all of us together feel the joy of surprise.
In the end we are all satisfied—not because of the gifts, which are often only symbolic, but because of something far more important that Carlo gives to us: "the memory of celebrating Christmas together, in small gestures, all of us at once."
Lucio Colombaro, 2004
When you shop for gifts and holiday items, start at fair-trade shops and artisan cooperatives for people with disabilities. Invite your friends to do the same. Your celebration means more when it helps the vulnerable to celebrate too.
