The day after the Christmas tree is up my youngest rushes out and searches the tree looking for it. He finds it, a little plastic green mail box. He opens the wee door to the mailbox and yells out for all the family to hear, “We’ve got Christmas mail!” He looks hard at each scrap of paper and delivers each little letter to the intended recipient.

I gather each precious message meant for me and tuck it away for reading later in the day. Right now, Elijah is tugging at my arm asking me to help him read his messages.

The first message is from his biggest brother. It talks about how much fun he is to play leggos with, fight zombies with and that he is the best little brother ever! It goes on to tell him that he is a super cool dude!

The second message is from me, his mom, and tells him that I love him to the moon and back; that I love the way his hand feels in mine when we cross the street; that I love spending time with him in the garden and drinking hot chocolate together.

The next message is from his sister. It is a special cartoon, MERRY CHRISTMAS drawing meant just to make him smile and it does. That smile gets bigger as each letter is read. He is lifted up and encouraged! We all are, when we read our own Christmas mail, meant just for us. See for yourself; Our Christmas tradition!

This is our Christmas tradition. It started when someone gave us a wee mailbox filled with candy. That little mail box sparked a memory in me. My sisters and I used to have bunk beds growing up and on each bunk bed was a wee mail box. One was a basket. One was a small Kleenex box(it doesn’t have to be complicated) We thought it was so fun to deliver little encouraging messages to each other.

When I looked at this little plastic green mail box, I thought of Christmas mail. As soon as the tree is up and the mail box is nestled in it’s boughs it is game on. For the first few years, with small toddlers, it was just mostly pictures in the mail box with the exception of the letters between my husband and I. That was a time when I really needed to hear, from my husband, what a good mom I was, an awesome cook and a laundry cleaning ROCK STAR! I think he needed to hear my thank you for his hard work, day by day, to provide for us so that I could stay at home and love on our babies.

As the years have gone by the letters have changed. Shh, don’t tell anyone, but I keep all my Christmas mail. When I am struggling with a child, or in my marriage, I get out my box of letters and read what a great mom I am or the little things my kids love about me. It always makes the struggle seem smaller. I am reminded that no matter what is going on, they love me with their whole hearts.

That is what Christmas mail is all about; making everyone in the family feel loved and encouraged!

My wish for everyone is that they would have a Christmas mail box nestled in their tree filled with uplifting notes and drawings.

MERRY CHRISTMAS from Bloom Where You’re Planted!

This post was shared on the Simple Homestead Blog Hop