Christmas this year unfolded for me across two very different but deeply connected days. December 24 and December 26.

On Christmas Eve, we gathered for a Holy Communion service that felt quietly joyful and surprisingly full. A few days before the service, our families had decided to prepare something simple, baked cookies to share with those who would come. It was not a grand plan, just a small gesture of welcome. My kids worked together in the kitchen, measuring, mixing, and baking. There was laughter, a bit of mess, and a sense of shared purpose. We made more cookies than we usually would, expecting a slightly larger crowd than usual.

What we did not expect was just how many people would come.

That evening, the church filled beyond what we had anticipated. There were familiar faces and new ones, individuals, couples, families, and friends. As we worshipped, prayed, and shared Holy Communion together, I was reminded that Christmas is not only about what we prepare, but about who shows up, and how God often meets us in ways larger than our expectations.

During the service, we encouraged people to spend and cherish time with their beloved family members and friends. In a world that so often rushes past one another, choosing to be present, to sit together, eat together, and worship together, is itself a sacred act. Celebrating the birth of Christ is not just about a moment in history. It is about how love takes flesh among us here and now, in ordinary relationships and shared time.

This reflection stayed with me as Christmas passed and Boxing Day arrived.

During the holiday season, many community nonprofit organizations and shelters close for a brief time. We understand why. Staff and volunteers are also sons, daughters, parents, partners, and friends. They too need rest. They too deserve time with the people they love. Honouring that is important.

At the same time, we also know this truth. The needs of the community do not stop during the holidays.

That is why I felt deeply grateful when the lead of our Friday Lunch program, Kim, decided to open on Boxing Day. Even more so, I was grateful that our families were invited to be part of the team serving the community that day. Instead of waiting in traffic jams, spending hours looking for parking spots, and standing in long lines just to enter stores on Boxing Day, our family spent the day serving the community together. We listened, helped, and simply were present with people.

It was meaningful in a way that is hard to measure.

Serving together reminded us that community is not an abstract idea. It is something we practice. It is built when we choose presence over convenience, relationship over routine, and compassion over consumption. For my children especially, this was a quiet but powerful lesson, that holidays can be about giving time, not just receiving things.

Looking back on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, I see a thread that connects them both. The grace of being together. Around the Communion table. In the kitchen baking cookies. In the community, serving side by side.

This, to me, is one way we live out the meaning of Christmas. Welcoming Christ by welcoming one another, and allowing love to take shape through shared time, shared work, and shared humanity.