A friend asked me today what my favorite holiday memory was. It took a few moments to rewind through the annals of my life. The journey was pretty pointless, because it turns out the holiday moment happened last Christmas when the family was all gathered at my house and the boys woke up on Christmas morning only to discover that they didn’t get gifts from Santa. Instead there was coal and a note that set them on a massive treasure hunt to uncover their Santa gifts. I recorded the moment so the kids can later look back on it and smile. The question and answer set me to thinking on my role as a parent. I think it is important for me to be a dad, but it is equally important for me to be a memory keeper–to experience these moments of bliss and be able to talk about them.
This Christmas we continued the tradition of the treasure hunt, but instead of running around the house to answer riddles, each of Santa’s gifts were wrapped with a riddle. Solving the riddle revealed who the gift was for. Little things like these are both incredibly fun and meaningful. I didn’t have moments like that growing up, which is why I had such a hard time remembering any holiday of note from the past several decades.
If memories are the things that make us people, then creating amazing memories is among the most important things you can do for yourself and those around you.