GC Christmas Story: Oranges, Nuts, and Silver Dollars

Frankly, it doesn’t matter how many times I hear that story, because I still love it. I love it now, the days before Christmas when folks are fighting at department stores, shoplifting, and anguished over how to pay for the expensive gifts for family and friends. I love it especially since a couple of retailers were open on Thanksgiving and some will be open on Christmas day.

(As a child, I naively believed that there was no room at the inn for Mary and Joseph because the innkeeper closed early on Christmas Eve. Wasn’t that funny? I honestly didn’t make the connection that the first Noël was not some commercial event or national holiday. For that innkeeper, like businesspeople of today, it was business as usual.)

Back to the oranges, nuts, and silver dollars …

That banker brought priceless gifts to my Grandpa and Grandma’s children. Aunt Jeanne told me that they didn’t expect much for Christmas except for the usual penny, and some new socks and underwear. And she told me that they were thankful to receive those things, so the oranges, nuts, and silver dollars were exceedingly and abundantly above what they had asked for or even thought to receive.

I would, however, suspect that my young relatives would look at me with crossed and rolling eyes should I appear at their doors this Christmas Eve with a crate of Florida oranges, some nuts, and a silver dollar for each of them. They would, sadly, pocket the dollar, and cast the nuts and oranges to the side. You would call them ungrateful, but their actions are closer to trained. Someone taught them, by example, that the stuff they see on TV is more desirable than some fruit and nuts. Oh well, if they only knew that back in the day oranges, nuts, and silver dollars were like PS3 and MP3 players …

On that note: Please receive my Christmas blessing of oranges, nuts, and silver dollars, which only represent more than you thought or asked to receive. Enjoy and savor every last memory and moment. Bless the day to be one you’ll share with your family throughout the years to come. And it is my prayer that God be glorified in all that you do. Humbly in Him, Robin