Ochanel's First Christmas

Some of the boys came to visit me in the office this morning on their way back from tutoring. Iverson and Ochanel were sitting on the couch looking at the Christmas tree we have set up in my office. Ochanel was touching each ornament like it was a treasure. I was working away on my computer only half listening to their conversation, but I knew Ochanel was asking lots of questions. Iverson was talking about presents, and Christmas and how excited he was, Ochanel looked at him, pointed at the tree and said, “Is this the present?” I stopped typing and joined in the conversation. It hadn’t dawned on me that Ochanel had never seen a Christmas tree before, so I asked him if he had. He looked at me with his big beautiful eyes and asked, “What is a Christmas tree?”

The next 15 minutes will be forever etched into my mind. Iverson and Stevenson (with a few words here and there from myself) started telling Ochanel all about Christmas; about Christmas trees, ornaments, decorations, the Hope House Christmas party, special dinners, waking up to find presents under the tree and all about Santa Claus.

Side note: I’m not really sure what our kids believe about Santa, they know that I put their Christmas gifts together but they also talk about Santa quite often. We do have our very own Santa Claus “Pere Noel” look alike who has been visiting pretty much every year around January when he comes with a team. Every year we have a special night where Santa hands out gifts to each child, and I think some of them think he really is Santa.

Iverson and Stevenson excitedly told Ochanel all about Santa Claus, his flying sleigh,  reindeer and his big bag of gifts. Ochanel’s eyes were popping out of his head and he was grinning from ear to ear, although he kept looking over at me when they were talking about the flying sleigh, I think it freaked him out a bit. I Goggled Santa Claus images and watched as he looked at the pictures of the big bearded man in a red suit for the very first time. Iverson kept saying, “Do you know what Santa says, “Ho,ho,ho” and pretending he had a big belly. It was another one of those ever so simple, yet extraordinarily beautiful moments. Ochanel is 17 years old and this Christmas is going to be his first, what a blessing to get to be a part of it. I am so blessed to be able to play a role in building such exciting memories for these beautiful children.

SPOILER ALERT about Santa here:  As Ochanel is 17 and comes from a family heavily involved with voodoo I knew the idea of a man flying into the house would be affiliated with voodoo for him, hence him being so freaked out by it. So I called Ochanel back into the office when the boys were leaving and quietly explained to him that there really isn’t a Santa Claus that comes in a flying sleigh, but that a long time ago there was a very nice man who loved Jesus and wanted to help children be happy so he made toys for poor children who didn’t have any, and when he died people decided to keep on giving special gifts to children to bring them joy every year. Parents like to play a fun Christmas game when their kids are little, and make them believe that Santa still gives out toys. I explained that he shouldn’t tell the other kids because some of them still believe. I also explained that the most important thing about Christmas is celebrating Jesus’s birth of course. His smile could not have been any bigger. Ochanel is officially excited to celebrate his very first Christmas!

Peace, love and first Christmases!

Rachel