by Gail Kerry

Created on: August 14, 2008

I would like to relate a story about my first Christmas together "alone" with my two sons after the departure of a non-supporting spouse. The three of us were in our "first home" and I was very, very thankful that we were finally able to afford a small apartment after reverting back to living with my parents for what seemed like an eternity.
Needless to say, we didn't have much money for the Christmas holiday. I narrowed down the long list of things my sons "wanted" for Christmas to one item each and informed them of the necessity for doing this. They were old enough to understand that Santa didn't really exist. In order to purchase the one item, we had to wait for my paycheck, which was being disbursed the day before Christmas Eve. My bank made these funds available on Christmas Eve and I was scheduled to leave work after noon.

For a family with little money, we were certainly in a good holiday spirit. We decorated our little apartment that day with some "hand-me-down" ribbons, drawings from school and paper plates with little Christmas candy canes. We also had a small poinsettia which they had given to me at work. Of course my sons, Kevin and Danny wanted a Christmas tree as we had always had before, but it was not in the budget.
I took their mind off of the tree by baking cookies with them. We had plenty of flour, sugar, eggs and a few luxuries like chocolate chips and candies. They helped me prepare cookie packages to bring to their grandparents the next day. Again and again they kept bringing up the lack of a Christmas tree.
I explained to them in detail how we couldn't have a "real" tree in the apartment anyway, as it was not permitted. I also didn't know how to set one up (I was never very mechanically inclined and didn't know much about how Christmas tree stands even worked). Then, I reminded them that on Christmas Day we would be going to their grandparents' home and they would enjoy a tree there. Most importantly, I reminded them that I only had $60.00 for presents ($25 each, plus wrapping paper and misc.) if we purchased a tree, we would have to forego the gifts.

They accepted this explanation and once we arrived at the store together, they were excited about shopping for their presents. We spent over an hour making elections, declining most of the choices because of their cost. My youngest son Danny asked Kevin and I to come and look at something great he had found. We followed him to the holiday decoration aisle as he pointed out all of the lovely "artificial"

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