Her only response came in an agitated yell from her bedroom, " You will not give anyone in our family a Christmas gift wrapped in birthday paper; not even Granny who can't see to tell the difference. People will think you really are crazy Elizabeth!" .
After careful explanation of the entire social norm assignment my mother allowed me to keep a few of the gifts wrapped up in the birthday paper. These two were for my dad and grandparents who I was to go see on December 6th to do our Christmas because his job keeps him out of town much of the year. My dad met me at the door and took the packages from my arms. He looked at them and said "It's not my birthday- I just smiled and told him it was Jesus". He got that same look of befuddlement that my mother had and just shook his head.
My grandparents were not quite so tactful in their disapproval. My grandma went on a tangent about how my mother was too cheap to buy Christmas paper and my grandpa kept this confused look on his face. After arguing with themselves over who was right about why this paper was not in line with traditional Christmas they both agreed that I was being silly in wrapping gifts in birthday paper. .
I did manage to explain my assignment to my Dad's family but their general consensus was that they understood that it was Jesus" birthday but that did not mean that we should celebrate Christmas with a birthday cake and presents wrapped in anything but red, green, or poinsettias. .
Throughout this assignment I couldn't help but feel little hostile toward much of my family. They all just seemed to be so caught up in what was proper for the holidays according to society and what matched the Christmas tree that they couldn't see, even though it was in a non-traditional way, I seemed to be the only one who was celebrating the real meaning of Christmas. I understand that my family is very traditional and, at most times, think I am the black sheep of the family, but I still see no reason why we can't get away from the greeting card Christmas where we decorate to suit the guests instead of remembering and glorifying our family and Christ.
