P. Kelly Smith
Welcome to Freebie Friday on this very merry day! I hope all of you are tucked inside your warm, cozy homes and are surrounded by those that mean the most to you.
I was bragging on Facebook the other night that I was loving the 64*F weather in Texas. I left very chilly temperatures in Utah, so it was so-o-o nice to immediately shed my heavy winter jacket upon landing in the Lone Star State. I enjoyed a whole day of spring-like weather and then last night a cold front blew in and we actually have snow…on Christmas Day!
Even though my Christmas cards have yet to go out, I’d like to share a beautiful story with you today. I used to include it with my holiday cards because I simply love its message of it’s better to give than receive. When our designer Holly showed this wreath picture in her A Few of My Favorite {Holiday} Things blog post, it instantly reminded me of this story, and I knew that I wanted to share it with all of our readers.
Photo courtesy of Country Living
The Christmas Orange
I’d like to tell you a story my grandmother told me when I was six or seven years old. We had gone to her home for Thanksgiving dinner and the drive was rather a long one. I had filled the time with making a list of all the things that I wanted for Christmas that year.
Later that evening after I was ready for bed, I showed the list to my grandmother. After she read it, she said, “My goodness, that really is a long list!” Then she picked me up and set me on her lap in the big rocking chair and told me this story:
“Once there was a little girl who came to live in an orphanage in Denmark.” (Now my grandmother was from Denmark, so this story might even be true.) “As Christmas time grew near, all of the other children began telling the little girl about the beautiful Christmas tree that would appear in the huge downstairs hall on Christmas morning. After their usual, very plain breakfast, each child would be given their one and only Christmas gift: small, single orange.”
At this point I looked up at my grandmother in disbelief, but she assured me that was all each child would receive for Christmas.
“Now the headmaster of the orphanage was very stern and he thought Christmas to be a bother. So on Christmas Eve, when he caught the little girl creeping down the stairs to catch a peek at the much-heard-of Christmas tree, he sharply declared that the little girl would not receive her Christmas orange because she had been so curious as to disobey the rules. The little girl ran back to her room broken-hearted and crying at her terrible fate.”
“The next morning as the other children were going down to breakfast, the little girl stayed in her bed. She couldn’t stand the thought of seeing the others receive their gift when there would be none for her.”
“Later, as the children came back upstairs, the little girl was surprised to be handed a napkin. As she carefully opened it, there to her disbelief was an orange all peeled and sectioned.”
“How could this be?” she asked.
“It was then that she found how each child had taken one section from their orange and given it to her so that she, too, would have a Christmas orange.”
How I loved this story! I would ask my grandmother to tell it to me over and over as I grew up. Every Christmas, as I pull a big, juicy orange from my stocking, I think of this story. What an example of the true meaning of Christmas those orphan children displayed that Christmas morning. How I wish the world, as a whole would display that same kind of concern for others, not just at Christmas, but throughout the year. ~Author unknown
Doesn’t that story just warm your heart? Santa heard there was some very good paper crafters out there and literally left a whole sack full of fun product at my desk! Leave a comment telling me the best thing you’ve ever received in your Christmas stocking. One lucky winner will take home this entire Christmas-themed collection from Me & My Big Ideas! All comments must be received by midnight (MDT) on Sunday, Dec. 27.
One lucky winner will take home this ENTIRE prize package!
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Kelly
P.S. This little elf was so busy yesterday, she forgot to wish Paper Crafts Go-to Gal Teri Anderson a happy birthday! Teri, you know I love you, girl! Hope your day was extra special!
P.P.S. There’s still time to upload your Christmas cards to our December Gallery Challenge! Three lucky winners will walk away with a free subscription (or special issue of their choice) and the opportunity to be spotlighted on this blog on Monday, Jan. 4! Click HERE to upload your cards today! The deadline is Monday, Dec. 28!
I love your orange story.
***The best gift I received in my Christmas stocking was a gift subscription card for Paper Crafts Magazine!! I love this magazine and the blogs associated with it….Merry Christmas, Kim! Thanks for the inspiration and the wonderful orange story. I look forward to another fun year with Paper Crafts!
~Rachel in Sacramento
what an inspiring story! I remember loving those life-saver books in our stockings!
Merry Christms to everyone!!!
***I loved the life-saver books that we’d find in our stockings, thanks for the wonderful inspiration we find here regularly!!
Scrapbooking and crafting magazines!
I got a great set of Nick and Nora PJ’s in my stocking. Love those! If I won this though, I think it might become my new favorite stocking stuffer
We’ve never really done stockings, and I’ve been blessed to receive many wonderful gifts over the years. At this time of year, I’m most thankful for the opportunity to celebrate the gift of Christ’s birth. He gives us the most wonderful gift of all. Thanks for the chance at the generous prize package.
A gift certificate for a massage, the best yes mam!
*** No stockings for Christmas actually, all our presents go under the tree. I cannot definitively was my best present ever but I always love those of my little brother for he chooses very well
Happy Christmas!
I have always been fortunate enough to have lovely little things in my stocking. However, the best thing that was ever in my stocking was a mini finger nail file that Santa left for me over 20 years ago! That Santa, he is a smart one!
***My parents didn’t do Christmas Stockings but for a wedding gift a dear family friend knitted my husband and I each a stocking with our names on it. Then when each of our daughters were born she also knitted one for them! We are a family who now does the Christmas stocking tradition!!!***
The favorite thing I ever received for Christmas was a gold cross on a real gold chain that my husband gave me for our 10th Christmas together. I had never owned anything made of gold before and it blessed my heart that he would actually get me something so precious. I even cried when I opened it!
We celebrated our 26th Christmas together this year…what was my favorite gift from my DH!? A new set of Copic markers
Oh, how priorities change LOL!!!
Kim Marie
Hmmm, the best gift I every got in my Christmas stocking would have to be make-up. When I started wearin make-up my mom would put it in my stocking on Christmas.
Santa loves to leaves stamps and ribbon in my stocking!
That would be such sweet blog candy. So many cute Christmas goodies! I would love to share these with my sisters!
What a fantastic story!! Yesterday I found the best gift I’ve ever got in my stocking…it was a print out of the new computer that’s on it’s way!! So excited!
Well, I must say the hubby did pretty well this year – a scrapbook suitcase and shoulder bag, 5 papercrafting/scrapbook books and mags, a scallop square die cut for my Big Shot, and gift certificates to the Melting Pot (an all fondue restaurant!) I must say…he scored extra brownie points for this year’s present!!! I guess that doesn’t fit in a stocking…but I don’t remember any stocking stories….we didn’t get a whole lot growing up.
What a beautiful story! It’s a great reminder to us all of how fortunate we are.
We didn’t have stockings but I can remember getting a Betsy Wetsy doll!
Each year for Christmas we would get fruit,nuts and candy in our stocking with little gifts also. I carried on that tradition with my children. Little things mean so much and that Christmas stocking meant alot to me growing up.
*** When we were little we received paper lunch bags with an orange and nuts from Grandma’s church on Xmas Eve. My family is not so creative about stocking stuffers, once I wade throught the socks, I get my dark chocolates and scratch off tickets. I love the commentabout Laura Engals Wilder stories, how touching, what a great stocking she received!!! A gift for life!!!
The best gift I rec’d in my stocking was having my kids do it for me. For years I took care of the kids’ and husbands and never did one for myself, until my daughter took over and filled mine with scrapbooking adhesive and almond joy mini’s. It was nice to get one with the others.
The best thing that I have received in my stocking was a gifft card from my favorite store with a very nice note from my husband.
hmmnn … I generally hang stockings and put smaller gift items in there for my sons, but one year added a gift certificate in my DH’s one for a hot air balloon ride for 2, which we used on our following wedding anniversary! Does that count?! LOL!
That was probably tied by his small gift for me one year: I dislike tinsel but LOVE class icicles, and he found a 3″ size that he gave me. We now have 5 sizes of icicles on our tree, starting with the smallest at the tree top, working to the largest ones at the bottom. LOVE IT!
Thank you for the “orange story” – we always had oranges in our stockings, growing up. Now, we put clementines in the stockings along with chocolate! One of my favorite Christmas presents was a pair of slippers from my young son – they were actually my slippers that had been “missing” for about a week and half before Christmas!!
We didnt have stockings at Christmas growing up, but the best thing I ever got under the tree was a unicycle when I was 10 years old!
My dh gave me a swiss army knife and a cookbook back in 1997 and I still remember it. I had asked for a swiss army knife for so long and he got me ~ I was so pleased that he remembered and took the time to get one. The cookbook was really cool and interesting.
This year it was a digital photo editing program and a HANDMADE gift certificate entitling me to the online digital scrapbooking classes of my choice. Isn’t he great? After 19 years he is still enabling me in my crafts.
Santa gave me a Kodak camera when I was 10. When I got married and moved away, mom gave me my childhood stocking. When I reached in down to the toe, I found my Santa letter asking for that camera…Santa had written below that I had been a very good girl and a camera it was! I still cherish that letter, as my dad has long passed and each Christmas I pull it out and reread it, savoring his distinctive handwriting. Warm memories of a very warm and loving father!
I love the story of the little girl and the orange. I gave that story to my kids along with an chocolate “orange” in their stocking a couple of years ago. I hope they remembered the message, and not just the chocolate (a sweet take on a tangerine!)
My favorite stocking gift was the old Lifesaver Story box! They had 10 rolls of lifesavers, one of each flavor. My favorite was butterscotch. The ones I saw this year were disappointing, only 4 rolls of candy.
Why do we as adults, tell our children these types of stories mostly during a time of year when children express their “list of hearts desires” … basically a “Santa” thing?! My parents would always remind us of the starving children “somewhere specific” when we weren’t interested in finishing our meal. Our family of 10 children didn’t have the individual stocking, but instead, one huge stocking that held all the goodies for each of us! It was jam-packed with little wrapped boxes with our individual names on each, as well as, filled with candies and fruits & nuts! It was something we all dove into together and shared.
WE always had stocking and they were packed full of little goodies and candy, oranges, apples, and nuts….. I remember getting a tranistor radio with ear phone in my stocking….. what a Christmas that was……
I don’t remember anything I have ever gotten in my stocking, but I have a slew of wonderful Christmas memories of special times with family. It just goes to show that memories are the best gifts and priceless!
Best thing in my stocking EVERY year is a book of LifeSavers. No, they’re not my favorite candy, but my grandma has always given them to us…. it’s been 30 years!! It’s not Christmas without them.
My husband and I don’t do stockings anymore but every year we visit my Mom and Dad and they always have my stocking stuffed from when I was a little girl. I get so excited to see all the little goodies. I think I enjoy the tiny lotions and creams the most! But mainly it is the love that goes into the gifts! Jennifer
What a heartwarming story! I was lucky enough to receive a stocking stuffed with toys and sweets when I was a child but will always remember that in my parents’ childhood oranges and nuts were their only gifts.
I love stockings! The best present I ever recieved was an iPod from my hubby! He knew I would love it! I still do!
Loved your story – a true reminder of the real spirit of Christmas. thank you so much for sharing, especially for taking the time on Christmas day.
My favorite thing in my stocking was when I was a child, always getting brand new box of crayons in my stocking. I so looked forward to that each year, and carried on the tradition with my daughter, and now with my granddaughter!
This year, I got something I’ve been hoping for in my stocking–an index card organizer! It may not sound like much, but I’m really bad at keeping my recipes organized; the index card “thingie” is a great solution!!
The Christmas Orange story is a lovely picture of true Christmas graciousness and I plan on retelling it to my class of third graders. One of my favorite treats I always found in my Christmas stocking was a variety of uncracked nuts. My grandmother and I always enjoyed spending afternoons cracking these nuts for a delicious treat. My grandmother is now in heaven and a bag of mixed nuts at the grocery store always brings to mind a special Christmas memory I shared with my grandmother
As a child, I had a pillow case instead of a stocking. It was always exciting to find a book by my favorite author on Christmas morning.
oooh as I child I loved checking my stocking. As an adult I know they are a pain in the butt to fill for the whole family, but my mom did an amazing job of keeping it magical. I always got things like purfume or a watch or special things like that.
My dad thought an orange, a candy cane and a handful of nuts (with the shells on) was a big deal growing up in the depression. I had greater expectations and was pleased to receive candy and toys in my stocking. But I think the biggest gift I (we – my twin sister and I) received were car keys to our first car, our senior year of college. It wasn’t new or big (a Datsun) but we drove that car for at least 6 years.
i had nine siblings growing up and while there were a few special felt stockings that hung as decorations, on christmas morning we each had a plastic stocking with an orange, an apple, nuts and a coloring book or comic and a special little toy like a kalideiscope(sp?) or one of those sliding word puzzles.
I’m 63 and can’t remember a thing that I got in my stocking except for two things: fruit and nuts. I wasn’t much of a fruit eater when I was a kid, but the apple and orange that came in my stocking was special and I always enjoyed eating it. We would also get nuts, but I don’t think I ate that. I’m sure there was candy too!
A little big for my stocking, but I got a Quickutz Silhouette SD. I am having so much fun playing. Thanks Judith.
Great story! The best thing I received in my Christmas stocking this year was some scrapbook supplies and acrylic stamps from my DH. The thought of him standing in the aisles at Michael’s picking out the perfect stamps and embellishments just warms my heart!
Love the story! My favorite item was a Bonne Bell lip gloss when I was 8. (We don’t do much as adults now for stockings)
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In my stocking? Well, everything was so thoughtfully chosen, it’s hard to choose, but the adorable pair of black ballet flats that I wanted/needed so badly was definitely a favorite!
Wow, I just found this web site. I love Paper Crafts magazine. This story is wonderful, I have never heard it before. I will be sharing it with my friends to bless them. My childhood memories are of receiving the LifeSavor book in my stocking. I have done the same for my daughter every time I can find it.
Thank you for this blog and for your inspiration. God bless you all at this glorious time of year.
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