The Perfect Gentleman Issue 9 - Christmas | Page 26

As Christmas and New Year are just around the
corner, a time of ...giving & receiving, spending
time with family and friends, reflecting on the
past and pledging for the future, as millions of
people around the world are in frantic pursuit
for the ‘perfect gift’, I decided to combine my
attempts to resurrect the concept of a hobby
with the notion of giving the most precious
thing of all - your TIME.
In an effort to bypass the physical or material
gifts most of us are tempted to bestow on our
friends and family I wanted to explore not only
the idea of a spiritual giving to others, but also
the idea of taking time for YOU. In Christianity,
the idea of spiritual gift is called Charismata,
symbolising any good gift that flows from God’s
love to humans. These endowments which is
given by the Holy Trinity, these are the word of
wisdom and knowledge, faith, gift of healing,
gift of miracles, prophecy, and gift of tongues to
name a few. As profoundly secular person who
resents the idea that religion and spirituality are
one and the same. I may not be united with God
but I am with humans, and while we may
choose not to attribute curtain aspects to the
divine, we do have the ability to bequest
knowledge, to learn a new tongue, we may not
be able to restore sight by placing our hands on
the blinds’ person eyes, but we can bring
emotional healing to heartbroken and the
lonely. We can teach our kids and ourselves to
believe in the power of affirmation and
inspiration.
On an evening when my kids were visiting their
grandmother with their dad, I had some time to
give by making a little booklet of home-made
pictures of my kids, their favourite toys and the
little drawings they brought from school. Unlike
the previous years, I decided not to go to a well
known high-street photo shop chain and
handed them a disk-on-key, but to print out a
hand full of pictures from my phone on home
printer.

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I got comfortable at the kitchen table and
armed myself with scissors, glue, copious
amount of glitter, stickers, devilishly strong
Irish coffee and got to work...after years of
expensive gifts given to them by the selfcompensating father...the expression on their
face was absolutely priceless! “You’ve done it
for me mummy?!” – Yes, “For me???”...
Yes...yourself? ...Yes, ...”Wow mummy... I love it!
I will keep it forever and ever!” It was over a
year ago which is nearly “forever and ever” for a
small child and they did. They both keep it in
their special box and I often find them looking
through it and showing to their little mates, with
a “My mummy made it!” remark full of genuine
pride in their voice.
But it’s not just about getting, it’s about giving
just as much. My children and I make our
Christmas cards for their friends and teachers,
we bake some cookies for their old nursery staff
and neighbours and I can see the change in
them, the sense of pride and accomplishment
and the reaction of the people on the receiving
end, when my eldest explains to our diabetic
neighbour, that this basket he made specially
for her and it’s sugar free.
But glue and glitter is not just for the kids...long
gone are the days of the mixed-tape. People
sneer at home made gifts, people are afraid of
being thought of as cheap, but it is only true
then you do not really know the person ( i.e
giving a gluten intolerant person a well
intentioned box of artisan cookies) In order to
give a person the ‘right’ present you need to
know what he reads; Is he allergic to any food or
what it his hobby?

CHRISTMAS GENTLEMAN