The Christmas I Learned an Important Lesson

Dear readers, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas. Mine isn’t really over yet, as we celebrate a second day of Christmas in the Netherlands. Christmas isn’t really my thing, and it’s so, so stressful to me. I’m trying to make the best of it, though! My family and I exchanged presents today, as we do every year and in the proces, I learned an important lesson. I was about to go to bed and my workspace is still a wreck from gift wrapping earlier, but I decided to sit down next to my tiny Christmas tree and share this story with you.

I started writing this really long post about the exchanging of presents with my family today, but then it sounded really spoiled and bratty, so I deleted it and started over. I will share the lesson I learned today at the end, I just want to tell you another story first. I sincerely apologise if I sound ungrateful. I’m very privileged to be able to celebrate Christmas the way I do, and I’m genuinely very happy with my gift.

The Present!

Spoiler alert: I’m about to share the gift I got for Christmas. I got a new charm for my Pandora bracelet – and not just any random charm! It’s a cute little charm from the Disney X Pandora collection. I got a silver hanging charm with Anna from Frozen (2) with yellow, orange, red and purple Zirkonia gemstones. On the back, it’s engraved with “Fearless by Nature“. It’s. absolutely. beautiful. (And I hate to simply link to gifts, but I can’t take a clear picture and I really want to show you; so here it is).

I got a really expensive gift today. I’m not exactly sure what the budget for gifts is in my family this year, but I know it’s above what it usually is. I got it from both my mom and my grandparents. And not just for Christmas, but for finishing my first (and only) year of college with all 60 of my credits as well. I was over the moon when I got it. The funny thing is, at first I thought it was just a fairy, and I was like ‘Oh my gosh! How cute that they remember I used to be obsessed with fairies!’ But I wasn’t exactly sure it was a fairy and I’m pretty blind and I didn’t want to ask. As I was playing with it a little bit, like I always so, I discovered the engraving on the back and found it so inspiring! I was just really happy with my new charm. Once home, I asked my mom “so, it IS a fairy, right?” But before she could even answer, I shouted “OH MY GOD, MOM, IT’S ANNA FROM FROZEN?!” And she confirmed! My blind eyes just hadn’t seen it before. It made an already wonderful gift even more incredible.

Finding the Perfect Gift

My mom and grandma kept asking me what I wanted for Christmas, but I had no idea. And I knew that if I told them something I wanted, I would get that exact thing and it would be so surprise whatsoever. And I always want my presents to be a surprise. Then eventually, my mom told me she had an idea, and became incredibly secretive. I suggested she’d share the idea with my grandma, and they literally send me outside, into my grandparents’ backyard, so they could discuss it. They made plans to go buy it and everything! She came back from the trip and when I asked her if It was successful, she said it wasn’t, but would work it out. Turns out my mom went to our local town, and discovered Pandora was no longer sold by any jewellers besides Pandora itself. She then looked it up online (My mom! Who can’t even place an order from Amazon without me! Or use Google properly!) and she either had to go to Rotterdam or Breda for a Pandora store. She called the Breda store if they had the Olaf charm (they were originally going for that one) and then drove out there, which is like a 90 minute drive, for a freaking. Pandora. Charm. From Frozen. Because my mom knows how utterly obsessed I am with Frozen at the moment and how much I like my Pandora bracelet. Also, please know how impossible it is to keep anything a secret from me! My family is super close and I’m quite nosey. But they went and got the present while I was at work. My mom even still drove me and my coworker to work and picked us up that day! It’s crazy to think about and puts the biggest smile on my face.

Lesson Learned

For the longest time, Christmas hasn’t been about the presents for me. When I was younger, sure, presents were the most important thing! But I value my family and spending quality time with them over any gift, any day. I’d been shouting “you don’t need to give me anything!” for weeks. And yet, it felt a bit upsetting to give my family their gifts and watch everyone unwrap like three, four, five things. It made me feel as if I was forgotten. And I absolutely despise myself for saying this, as I got the most expensive gift of all! Kinda just want to hit myself in the head right now…

I learned a long time ago that Christmas and gifts and all that aren’t about the materialistic things, or the value in terms of money. I was reminded of that today, and it became more clear to me as well. My mom and grandma went nearly halfway through the country to buy me the perfect Christmas gift. One she knew I’d love. She went to all that trouble. And guys, this charm means the world to me. I love Frozen, especially Frozen 2. I find it so incredibly inspiring, the music is amazing, it’s something I can bond over with my mom and the engraving (‘Fearless by Nature‘) is PERFECT. My family hadn’t noticed the engraving before, so that wasn’t intentional but still means so, so much to me. I’ve had this charm on my bracelet for less than 12 hours, and it already has so much emotional value to me.

I hope you had the most wonderful time this Christmas, filled with love and joy and the people you love. And the presents, of course. We can never forget about the presents… As long as we also remember they’re not the most important thing. 😉