This reader’s story nails the true spirit of Christmas. When you don’t have a lot, but you have love, family, and creativity you have it all.

From a TipHero Reader:

“My husband had gotten out of the military and had lost his job. We had four kids. I told the kids we were having a Christmas like back in the old days. Christmas is about the birth of Christ but I don’t know a child that doesn’t want gifts. So we had a ‘Pioneer Christmas”.

We made all our gifts and of course I helped with the little kids. We decorated our tree with hand made ornaments. We strung pop-corn (on dental floss) and hung our pop-corn garland. We cut long strips of fabric to tie on bows of all colors. We wrapped our gifts in brown paper( made from grocery bags) and tied them with jute cord. on the Eve we turned out all the lights and lit oil lamps and candles.

I served bean soup, chicken( legs and thighs) and cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes with gravy and green beans. For dessert we had bread pudding with lemon sauce. We had home made bread and drank our tea from jars. Our gifts were home made puppets (made from old socks) dolls for the girls and bears for the boys. In their home made stockings they got apples, oranges, nuts and candy. It was the best Christmas ever!”

photo credit: thenails