As a kid I was always ready and excited for the holidays, Christmas especially. My mom would buy us new pajamas, bake cookies and have milk on the table for Santa to come.

My brother and I would always try to peek and look at our presents so my mom came up with a clever idea and used numbers instead of our names. We never knew which numbers were ours until Christmas day.

Christmas was super exciting because we had so many toys, new clothes, electronics and my mom would smile the entire day knowing that she succeeded in buying us the things we asked for.

As a kid I never realized why she was so excited, because we weren’t able to buy her gifts. But as a single mother of two, she did her job well and that made her proud.

As I get older and grow into an adult, Christmas isn’t as exciting as it used to be. There’s no more Santa Claus, which is very heart breaking. I believed the Santa Claus story up until the sixth grade.

I never had a clue that my mom did all the work, and that’s why she had so much excitement in her heart on Christmas.

Christmas doesn’t excite me like it used to anymore because for one the older I get the less presents I receive. Also, these days my parents get me what they think I need and not what I want, which is very annoying. However, I am more than grateful because there are people in their 20s who don’t get anything, some even younger.

The fun part about celebrating Christmas to me is the bright lights, and the eggnog on Christmas morning.

If you ask me what Christmas means to me, I’d say a time for family to gather together and show their appreciation to one another by purchasing gifts.

Outside of the gifts, I’d also say Christmas is certainly a time to show love, not just in material form but physically. It is a great holiday to bond with family and friends.

This Christmas I plan to enjoy my family’s company and watch their expressions as they open gifts from me.

I also hope that everyone reading enjoys their Christmas and happily engage with family and friends!