The Perfect Christmas Gift

By Dorothy Ward-Winters

Many men are challenged when it comes to selecting a gift for their wife, especially during the Christmas season. My husband is gift-selection-for-the-wife challenged in the extreme. TV commercials have no effect on him. A pretty girl wearing a mink stole extolling its virtues for the wife would not occur to him to think she was talking about his wife. A mink stole in Texas? A plastic raincoat perhaps.

I once hinted for a vial of Chanel No. 5, a much advertised perfume during the 1950s and still popular today. Innocent that I was, I had no idea what it cost, but I wanted a bottle. Once I discovered the cost, I lost my desire for it. I knew we could use that money to purchase pajamas for a family of ten. I did not get the perfume.

Jewelry? Clothes? Each selection presented more obstacles. Poor husband, getting more and more frustrated would finally give up, meet me in the coffee shop, and confess, “Failed again”.

I took pity on him and began suggesting items I would enjoy owning. He couldn’t take seriously my desire for a Cadillac or a Lincoln Town Car, so when I suggested I needed some pretty hankies, he nodded. “I can handle that.” I hoped he would find a beautiful sweater that could be accented with a pretty hankie. Nope, not that Christmas.

One Christmas, hoping he would not take me seriously, I told him, “Don’t buy anything for me. I have everything I want. A beautiful home, a loving husband and three precious sons.” Doggone if he didn’t believe me. I didn’t make that suggestion again.

I must confess that sometimes the gifts I bought for my husband were funny and useless. Take the hat I bought one year. It was fashionable for men to wear hats to church, and the one my hubby wore was getting rather frayed. His facial expression when he opened the Christmas box was a toss-up between howling with laughter or crying. “Thanks, Honey. I needed a hat”, he gasped.

Three weeks passed. “Dear, why don’t you wear your new hat?” He had to confess. “Honey, it’s a cheap hat full of starch. If I get caught in the rain, it will be a soggy mess and so will I.”

I suppose the very worst gift I ever gave my white-collar-worker sweetie was a woolen red-and-black plaid lumber-jack long-sleeved shirt. He didn’t even get it out of the box before bursting into gales of laughter.

With all of the giving and receiving presents, we sometimes by-pass the true reason we celebrate Christmas. A musical program presented by the church choir reminded us that we celebrate God’s gift to us, the birth of His son Jesus who is called The Christ.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

Through believing and worshiping Jesus Christ, we achieve heavenly status. He is still the greatest gift of all.