The Best Christmas Gift of All

By Phil Amormino

I remember the excitement I felt, as a young child, when Christmas was near. Not only was I going to receive a break from what I perceived to be a penal colony, i.e. school, for myself and other small unfortunates – but it was also the time of year when Santa would visit my childhood home and drop off amazing toys and surprise gifts, just for me. And of course, like so many other boys and girls, I had one gift each year that my heart was set on. Two of the gifts I could not live without were a hockey game and a small drum set. Santa did not disappoint. Each year I felt I had received the best Christmas gift ever. It was exciting and wonderful. It was magic. And I believed wholeheartedly in this happy jolly man named Santa Claus.

Years later, when my peers attempted to persuade me that Santa did not exist, I staunchly refused to be party to their unbelief. I just knew that good ole Saint Nick was real and that he was the one who had given me all those wonderful Christmas gifts year after year. But the pressure to conform to disbelief was unrelenting and I, like all the rest, eventually succumbed to the notion that jolly Saint Nick was nothing but a myth. Yet those Christmas gifts had come from someone, but who? Well, as I inevitably discovered, they came from my parents – my mother and father – who worked hard and sacrificed much so my brothers and I might have all the things they never did.

My parents were from Sicily. Like most immigrants, the family came to America to create a better life for themselves and their children. My mother and father attended public school in America up until the eighth grade, and thereafter went to work for their families, starting at the age of thirteen. However, the eighth-grade education they received in America far exceeded the education their parents had received back in the old country. And the desire for a better life did not stop with them. My parents were intent on their four boys getting an even better education than they had gotten and worked hard to make this happen. All four of us have college educations and more. Yet, seeing to it that we were well educated was only part of what they did for us.

My father had a steady job and we always had enough money to buy food, pay the bills, make house payments, and purchase cars. In fact, I remember one time going to a car dealership with dad and watching him take a wad of $100 bills out of his pocket and paying the car dealer over $2,000 in cash. Growing up, I never felt we lacked a thing. Our parents gave us the things we needed and much of what we wanted (and dad made sure I got the correction I needed but never ever wanted). I never fully appreciated what they did for us until the day I too became a parent.

Once my late wife and I had our own children, those same parental instincts of our moms and dads kicked in for us as well. We provided private schooling for our children, supported their desires to play a variety of sports, paid for private art, ballet, and music lessons and we supported their college aspirations as well. We took care of their physical needs too, such as; taking them to doctors and dentists on a regular basis, paying for medical interventions as needed, and giving them care and protection when required, so that they could grow up to be healthy and happy individuals.

During Christmas, we got our children most of the things they wanted and needed. Money was there to buy Barbies, Hot Wheels, Light Brights, Tonka Toys, My Little Ponies, dolls, planes, and trains. Like me, as a small child, my children also believed that Jolly Ole Saint Nick could get them anything their hearts desired. His large bulging bag full of goodies shouted to their little minds, as it did mine as a child, “abundance.” And all this wonderfulness came from the man named Santa Claus. Now my children are grown and they know that all the gifts they received as children came from me and my wife. Nonetheless, they were gifts.

 My parents gave me every good thing they could, and my wife and I gave our children every good thing we could. Isn’t this what any good parent does for their children? So, it should come as no real surprise that our creator God, in whose image we are created, would give us a good gift too – in fact, the very best gift: a gift my parents could not give to me, nor could I give to my children, nor can my children give to their children. It is the best gift that was ever given to anyone.

Christmas is the time of year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus – the exquisite, remarkable, gift from God. And like any gift we humans give to our children, it is not earned but given – it is a gift.

“For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, so that everyone who believes (receives) in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”

– John 3:16

It is the best gift we could ever be given – the gift of eternal life. When Jesus lived on this earth, he said,

“I am the resurrection and the life, he who believesin Me, will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

– John 11:25-26

When we believe in (receive) Jesus, we are given eternal life! Yes, Jesus is a gift, and just like any other gift, all we need to do is (believe) receive it (Him). It’s that simple, and it’s The Best Christmas Gift of All.