This gift couldn’t wait for Christmas

I had a pretty good guess what was in the package long before my friend opened it.

It arrived in early December. I knew the sender did not intend for my friend to wait until Christmas to open it.

Some gifts are bigger than Christmas.

And so it was for this friend who came to stay with us after leaving her partner of more than 20 years, walking out with only her clothes.

Acting on my hunch, I went and grabbed a column I wrote well over 10 years ago.

It’s the story of the Christmas china miracle.

Maybe you read it way back when, Dear Reader.

How this one friend lost everything in her divorce: her home, her boat, her 401K, all the furniture in her house.

None of it bothered her like losing her Spode Christmas china.

Friend has never been that into stuff, but oh the joy she got when she set her table for Christmas dinner.

It has always been her most favorite meal of the year.

Why did her ex-husband need or want the Christmas china? We will let ghosts of Christmas future work out among themselves.

All we girlfriends knew was that our friend was devastated.

She was still pissed a month later, sharing the story and her pain when we all gathered for my birthday lunch at the end of January.

But then, the Christmas china miracle!

The mother of one of the friends sitting around that table called her a few weeks later.

“I’m in a second-hand store in this little Tennessee town.” she drawled. “They have the most beautiful set of Spode Christmas china. They want just $150 for the entire collection. Do you want it?”

That friend was all set with her own Christmas china collection. Still, she told her mother to grab it.

That’s how our newly divorced friend came to get the most beautiful set of Christmas china she had ever seen. It was better than the one she lost in the divorce.

It was the first sign that things were going to be okay after all.

Though it was April, Friend took that Christmas china and immediately set her table.

She used those dishes for the rest of the year, each meal bringing her joy.

And that’s how Christmas china became our friend group’s symbol of new beginnings.

Of what’s possible after huge losses.

Fast forward to our home last month with this other friend who was staying with us after leaving her partner.

I read her the old column as she unwrapped the gift.

Sure enough, there was the most perfect Christmas china tea cup and saucer.

Some gifts are bigger than Christmas.

The gift of hope.

This is the gift of sending your way, Dear Reader.

You, who have had a heck of 2022.

A year of painful loss. This is my Christmas china to you.

New things.

New memories.

New possibilities are on the way.

New things bigger than Christmas.