I thought it would be really nice to share some family christmas stories, now that christmas is quickly approaching. So I’ll start it off, and then I want to hear yours! If you have a really touching, funny, sweet, memorable, or even angry Christmas memory… write it!

So here’s mine!
This is a story of my FAVOURITE Christmas. I’ll always remember it because it taught me a lot of things.
It was 2001 (I was 11).
Actually, I should start off by briefly explaining the Christmas prior to this one… so, 2000. The Christmas I found out Santa wasn’t real. My brothers told me he didn’t exist and I got so angry. I actually realized that my parents spent money on the gifts I got from Santa, and they didn’t just magically appear. I felt so bad that my parents spent all their money on me for Santa gifts that I was determined to buy them presents with my OWN money next year.
Ah, Christmas 2001. You’re probably wondering how I managed to make money. Well, I had a brilliant solution. I waited until my 11th birthday (July, 2001) and got a job with The Record. I made $250 a month and put it all away. In November, I decided to go Christmas shopping. I took out $500 and went out with my mom. I bought my entire family their Christmas presents (and still had about $500 that my mom put away for education). I wrapped them myself (pretty badly, but hey, I was 11) and put them under the tree. I was so proud of myself. It felt so good to know that I was going to make my family smile at Christmas. Ah, Lesson 1: The value of money. I learned that somtimes, it sucks spending your own money on things for other people. But you do it anyways because it makes them happy.
That Christmas, my oldest brother Adam (who was 17) was living in foster care (it’s a long story). He came home on Christmas Eve, and then on Christmas morning we realized that he didn’t presents for us. Since he didn’t live with us my mom and dad hadn’t realized that he didn’t have money to buy his own presents. He started crying because he felt terrible (for those of you who know my brother – it was a big step, crying). He felt like the worst person in the world. So the next day, I told my mom that I wanted to go shopping, and so we did. I got her to give me the $500.00 that she had put away and I bought four presents. One for me, one for my brother Matt, one for my mom, and one for my dad. I put them under the Christmas tree and said they were all from Adam. When he came to visit the next week he saw the presents and I said ‘Santa must’ve dropped them off late.’ (Cheesy line, I know, but cut me some slack!) He started crying again, and we all sat down and he gave us our presents. I’ll never forget that Christmas.
Lesson Two: Family is more important than anything else in the whole world.
Lesson Three: Make someone happy. If you can make just one person happy, you will feel like a million bucks.
Lesson Four: How To Fake It. If you know about your gifts before hand, and you know how to fake being surprised, it will make other people feel better .

So that’s my Christmas story.