Christmas Eve Traditions

Christmas Cookie Miracle

When I was a young boy, we had a family tradition of making frosted cookies shaped into Santas, Reindeers, Trees, and Stars the night before Christmas. We would sprinkle them with tiny candies and laughed and enjoyed each other’s company. Music would play in the next room from a large and elegant record player my parents received as a wedding gift. It was always a mixed variety of music such as Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Elvis, and of course – Alvin and the Chipmunks!  

I was always so excited from the thoughts of what presents Santa would bring me the next day, and of course from all the sugar in the hot chocolate we would be sipping on. 

There often was a haze in the air as the flour settled from our random throwing of flour at each other for fun. Or sometimes somebody would have a white handprint stuck on their clothing from somebody else… MOM STOP IT!  

If we were done early enough we would all gather by the warm fireplace, snuggle in a blanket, munch on a couple of our freshly made cookies, and watch “It’s a wonderful life”.  Soon off to bed we went. And try we did, to stay up and listen for Santa to come to our home but would fall fast asleep. 

Now one particular Christmas was very special to me. This year my Grandmother was visiting and helping us make cookies. And with all the fun we were having it ended up later than normal so us kids went to bed while the grown ups cleaned up. I walked into my room and checked up on my pet gerbils as I always did when going to bed. But for some reason things didn’t feel right. My one pet, Mac (named after my favorite show Macguyver) didn’t seem to look too good. I reached inside the cage to pick him up and he was cold to the touch and wouldn’t move.  

I was scared and in tears… Mac was dying. No… No… not on Christmas! I ran into the kitchen holding Mac, “mommy my gerbil isn’t moving…he won’t eat either…please help him”  

My mother and grandmother knew there wasn’t much they could do and tried to comfort me. But, I wasn’t about to let him go. Not like this. I asked, “What can I do mommy? Can we make him better? He’s so cold!”  

And so my mother found a heating pad to warm him and an eye dropper to feed him. They all knew he wouldn’t last the night. 

I sat by Mac’s side that night. I talked to him, fed him water thru the eyedropper, and kept him warm. Then as I was almost falling asleep, I felt his tiny feet move in my hand. He woke and began walking around. I rose up off the floor running into the kitchen to share the great news…  

And so for me Christmas will always be about miracles and life! 

Merry Christmas! 

Dan Brezgel is a business solutions architect and researcher for Multiply-Your-Business.com.. He has researched Business Sales and Success patterns for over 15 years. His area of expertise is in Business Process, Sales, and Online Marketing techniques.