This is one of those rare sequels that may have been better than the original. Think ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ or, perhaps more fittingly this year, ‘The Godfather Part 2‘. In this instance, it’s the follow-up to ‘The Kids Who Saved Christmas‘, a post which itself had such a sprawling epic feel that it demanded its own second part.
After the rather dour start to this Christmas season, a start that never really lifted me into the realm of Christmas cheer or seasonal spirit, I wasn’t thrilled to be heading to Boston to host another Children’s Holiday Gathering, hour or not, especially when my niece and nephew couldn’t even make it… but now I’m getting ahead of the story, so let’s start at the very beginning, a very good place to start…
For several years prior to COVID, I’d been hosting a Children’s Holiday Hour in Boston – where my friends with kids would be invited to visit (strictly for an hour, because that’s the kind of Virgo I once tried to be) have some hot chocolate, then explore the city in all its seasonal splendor. The fledgling event took place in 2015, and consisted of Suzie, Pat, Oona, Milo, Alissa and Sophia.The hour elongated into an afternoon, and the hot chocolate became snacks and sweets, and ultimately a take-out Thai dinner.
Based on how well that first gathering went, the next year I invited the same group to make sure it wasn’t a fluke, and we had an equally-fun time. By year three (2017) of throwing this thing, it had its own rhyme and rhythm, though I was still extremely grateful when Kira agreed to join in that year’s festivities. It’s not easy to plan and set up these events alone.
In 2018, the kids had started to save Christmas for me, lifting me out of the typical rut in which some of us adults kept finding ourselves at this most wonderful time of the year. When the world is screaming at you to be happy and joy-filled, and you’re just not, it conspires to kill all hope of holiday spirit. Still, I rallied and hosted and we all had a grand time. When my niece and nephew were old enough to join me on their own for the first time in 2019, it also happened to be the last time we’d have such an event before the pandemic hit. That visit was a happy one, especially as I finally had some family members of my own who were children and could join in this all-too-brief section of time when Christmas holds all the magic and wonder that it should.
During COVID, we took two years off, and I wasn’t sure I even wanted to do it all again. Planning and hosting an event for a possible group of nine adults and nine children, ranging in age from 9 to 47, in a tiny Boston condo, is not without a hefty dose of stress. Add to that the strains of the holiday season and everything else going on in this mad world, and I just wasn’t sure. But when you’re dining with Suzie on a beautiful fall afternoon and having such a fun time, you forget the work involved and end up sending out a text message inviting everyone to a Children’s Holiday Gathering in December. Absolutely no regrets.
And there weren’t any – after two years of madness everyone wanted to reconvene, so everyone confirmed. My niece and nephew were on board, as were everyone else’s kids (and parents) so a full-house looked like a distinct possibility – the first in quite some time, and the prospect felt daunting. The Boston Children’s Holiday Gathering 2022 was on. As the days ticked away I kept waiting for the Christmas cheer to kick in, but it never did. Almost twenty people were about to descend upon our Boston home, and the person who set it all up wasn’t sure he was even going to show up…
…Leaves barbed like holly, berries poisonous too…
{To be continued…}
