A True Christmas Story!

I have been busy finishing up my decorations, been doing quite a bit of shopping this week and finishing up the last of my orders. My oldest son and I are going shopping again this afternoon and I need to pick up some fabric for my youngest son to make something for his big sister. He loves to sew and does a great job at it.

Anyway, my camera is acting up and I can't get any pictures to show you. The picture above is one I took last Christmas. When I put these candles out each year I'm reminded of the year I bought them. I typed this up the other night to post on here, but that's when my camera stopped working. Anyway, just remembered I had this photo from last year.

The Story of the Christmas Candles

This is a true story that happened in the late nineties while we still lived in Utah. Each year one of our traditions is to pile in the car and drive to look at all the Christmas decorations. I always make sandwiches and pack a "picnic" dinner. We've lived in four different states and have always had a special place where we'd stop to eat. Here in Washington, there's a park along Lake Washington that is decorated with beautiful lights. If we're lucky, we may get a glimps of the Christmas boats. Each night these boats, all decorated in Christmas lights, will travel Lake Union and Lake Washington. There's always a boat filled with Christmas carolers. It's a beautiful sight. Anyway...back to my story...

One year back in Utah, we piled in the car to go look at the decorations. Another of our traditions is to pick a certain item each year to count to see how many we see. One year it was plastic Santas, another year it was those lighted reindeer, another year snowmen, and on and on. We try to pick something different each year, and our wonderful retailers with all their new products, have helped us to choose new things over the years.

This particular year it was those plastic nutcrackers that people would adorn each side of their doors with. As we hunted for these we started seeing the plastic candles on the front porches. My oldest son, Sean, fell in love with these candles and begged me to buy a pair for our front door. While I mostly decorate for my kids, plastic candles on my front porch just didn't go along with my current decor. But that was all he could talk about...those plastic candles.

Now I'm a patsy when it comes to pleasing at Christmastime! So I figured I'd start looking for a pair of these candles. I knew of the perfect place for them INSIDE my home and I knew Sean would be happy with that. I drove down to our local hardware store to buy a pair, but there were none to be found. So I drove to a Home Depot over in the next town...still none. I searched K-Mart, Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer! I couldn't find these tacky little candles anywhere. I knew Sean would be disappointed, as he had now added these candles to his Christmas Wish List! I was disappointed, too! Sean is mildly autistic, and he tends to fixate on subjects or items. And all he could talk about that year were those candles! I was not looking forward to Christmas morning and no candles.

About a week before Christmas I went to turn on all the Christmas lights for the evening. When I turned on the tree lights I noticed a long strand of lights smack dab in the middle of the tree wasn't working! I jiggled and played with each light. I hunted down a pair of those little fuses and changed them out...still didn't work. I couldn't have a tree that was filled with lights top and bottom but dark in the middle. How would I get lights on a fully decorated tree, though? I had to find a way, so I hopped in my car and drove down to that little local hardware store to pick up another strand of lights. Of course, being the week before Christmas the only lights left were either the clear white lights or the solid strands of lights in either red or green. Our tree has always been decorated in the multi-colored lights...kids wouldn't have it any other way! So I grabbed a box of green lights and a box of red lights and figured I'd have to make do! As I was walking to the checkout I noticed the display of artificial trees at the front of the store. It was a pretty little display they did each year. It also included those pieces of the large yard art with the tinsel and lights, as well as the moving decorations, train sets and other things. I always enjoyed looking at it. And then, it caught my eye. There straddling one of the trees was a pair of the plastic candles! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. They hadn't been there the first time I visited the store! I know...I had looked! I hurried over there faster than a mom looking for a Tickle Me Elmo doll that year they first came out! LOL! I grabbed them up and paid for everything, and as I was driving home I was just so thrilled I'd found them. I decided not to let Sean know I'd found them and not to put them out that year. Instead, on Christmas Eve, after I'd put all their "Santa" out, I plugged in the candles and had them on each side of the tree. On Christmas morning, that was the first thing they saw when they came downstairs. Santa had left him the plastic candles!

And now, those candles have become Justin's favorite Christmas decoration. He's my youngest son and probably doesn't even remember the year Santa left those candles. Of course, he no longer believes in Santa, but he has a sense of how special those candles were!

But that's not the end of the story. For when I came home that night with those lights, still trying to figure out how I was going to get them on the tree, I drove up to see in the front window a tree perfectly lit! The strand was now working! No one knew how or when they'd come back on, but they worked throughout the rest of the holiday!