By Jake H.
It was their first Christmas away from home for some students at The Family Foundation School. As the holiday grew nearer and nearer these students began to remember the holiday at home. Whether the memory is good or bad it is usually a very intense recollection. They start thinking if they were just a little better at home, messed up just a little less, they would be at home with their family. Then they realize that that is the past and the school is the now.
Christmas is a time for sharing laughs, trading presents, and eating a great family meal. The students spending the first Christmas at the school found all of them, but with a different family and in a different home. Slowly they started to realize that it’s not only who you spend your Christmas with, it’s also how you spend your Christmas. They started to appreciate the things and people they had and the hope that one day they would be able to appreciate them at home again.
It was Ben B.’s first Christmas ever. Ben was elated to experience the holiday for the first time. “I was so excited to open my presents and watch my friends open theirs,” he said. “It was fun to open them up and share laughs with my friends.” He was used to Hanukkah, where he received his presents over a period of eight days, and never experienced the anticipation of Christmas morning. He walked around the living room staring at his presents, wondering what he might get, not knowing that his Secret Santa, Ross A., had quadruple boxed and wrapped his largest present.
Other students who have celebrated Christmas before had a similar experience. For most of them Christmas at home was a time spent watching a clock or checking a cell phone waiting for the first chance to leave the family. This was the first Christmas for a long time where they were actually participating in the holiday. “It was a big change from home,” said Jens J., “It really gave me a sense of what Christmas really is.” Jens was ecstatic on Christmas Day to see his Secret Santa, Matt B., open his presents.
Although it was with a different family, a different house, and in some cases a different country, Christmas at The Family School is a time to remember how Christmas is supposed to be spent. The student came to believe in the true spirit of Christmas.
