This holiday season, I made a goal for our children to understand the giving in Christmas, rather than their usual constant receiving. We chose to do ‘The 12 Days of Christmas.’ This project involves 12 days of leaving gifts on someone’s front porch and running away, undetected. It involved organizing and planning (something we all could do) and running up and down stairs quickly (something my kids could do—you aren’t going to catch me running unless someone is chasing me).
We chose a few families from our church to surprise. The first night, I had trouble finding the houses in the dark. The second night, I dropped my son off at the wrong place. He had to chase my car. “Mom,” he whisper-yelled, “This is the wrong house!”
By day five, we had it down to a science. My youngest daughter begged to drop the gifts off during daylight hours—running in the dark scared her. At one home, after my son had made his delivery, he said, “there was someone sitting on the front porch, and he said thank you. He doesn’t look like the guy from our church.”
“Are you sure?” I asked him.
“Yeah,” he said, “Maybe he is their uncle or something. He just said thanks for the gifts, but I don’t know who he is.”
Puzzled, I asked my husband, “Did they move?” I looked at the online church directory, and their address matched where we had left the gifts each night.
“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure,” said my husband.
I sent a text to another church member, asking if the family had moved. She replied, “yes, they moved this spring.”
Well, that explained it. “Do we switch and take the rest of the gifts to the right address?” asked my husband.
“We’re too far in—we can’t stop now,” I said.
And so, in the true spirit of Christmas, we are delivering nightly gifts to perfect strangers. Strangers in a random house conveniently located on the other side of town. We have definitely found a way to make this holiday memorable.