Article December 25, 2017 Issue

A selfless Christmas

Judy Wolff

When I married a graduate student with limited income and moved far away from my family to live with him, I expected I would celebrate a much more modest Christmas that year than what I had enjoyed while growing up. I had accepted this, but I was stunned when I learned later that I would have to work straight through Christmas and miss celebrating it altogether! But that’s when I was forced to discover more about the true sense of Christmas as being about selfless love, as honoring the selfless love of Christ that God has given humanity.

I held a management job in a large retail store. As the newest hire, I was assigned the night shift for four straight weeks, during the Christmas season and lasting through New Years’ Day. Every night, a team of a few experienced staff members, along with several temporary hires, worked to restock the entire store. Because of the high volume of business, we were told that, in addition to being stuck with the night shift, on Christmas Eve we would start working in the daytime, and go straight through until Christmas morning without any time off.

Since I was working all night and my husband was busy during the day, I despaired of us having any time together, or of having any time to prepare for the holiday. I felt as though I was being robbed of all the goodness I associated with Christmas.

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