Thieves at a Christmas Party

"If you want to make friends, join a book club."
~James Kier in The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans

Monday evening was the 11th annual St. Andrew Book Club Christmas party. It is a highlight of our monthly get-togethers and everyone makes the attempt to attend. There were seventeen of us this year, and we are a raucous bunch. We enjoy each other’s company as much as we do the books. But when it comes to our annual Christmas party, we pull out all the stops on fun.

Our discussion group leader hosts the event every year as a motivator to get all her Christmas decorating done. She’s got a high ceilinged family room to display a beautiful 14-17’ tree which she amazingly decorates all the way to the top. It is into this festive display that we all settle ourselves among chairs and sofas (and even on the floor), after having dipped into the sampling of holiday goodies and beverages our host has conjured up for us. Once we’ve all got a seat, we attempt to seriously discuss our book for the month. This year we read The Christmas List by Richard Paul Evans. Each December we plan to read an easy, usually sappy Christmas story, because you know we’re really not there for the book this month. Within the span of about 15 minutes we discuss and dispense with the book because we’re on onto better things. In December, the St. Andrew Book Club becomes a den of thieves. And we love it.

The highlight of our annual Christmas party is supposedly the gifts….and the stealing of gifts. Many of you may have engaged in this little game. Everyone brings a wrapped gift of $15-$25 and each person picks a number, 1 to 17 in this case. The first person selects a gift from the pile of brightly colored packages. That becomes “the mystery gift” which does not get opened until the very last person has chosen a gift. The person holding the “mystery gift” at the end gets to open and keep that present. During the game, in the course of their turn, everyone else has the option of stealing the mystery gift, one of the already opened gifts (and then that person would choose another gift), or selecting from the pile of unopened gifts.

Now, you see how this could go on and on so we’ve instituted a “3 steal rule” meaning no gift (except the mystery gift) can be stolen more than 3 times. If you are the 3rd thief, then you keep the gift. This year the most desired items were a felt snowman door draft stopper (from Kohl’s, I believe), a set of about 15” tall sculpted Christmas trees (from JC Penney, I believe) and a huge, ceramic, metallic-finish garden frog and garden tools (not sure where it was from). You never know what the hot item will be each year. It’s fun just to reflect on that! What an odd bunch we can be!

While you might think, “How terrible, church women stealing gifts from each other,” the reality is that this is just plain fun as everyone knows each other very well and we all bring great gifts. Usually every gift is a keeper or highly desired item. I usually begin watching the sales early in the Christmas shopping season to find a really great gift at such a great discount that it’s usually worth at least double our suggested gift price.

By the end of the evening we have laughed so hard, and enjoyed each other’s company so much that no one leaves without a big smile on their face and a feeling of “I love being with these people.”

It might be the Book Club Christmas party, but it’s not about the book. And…it’s not about the gift, no matter how much fuss we make over whatever the most coveted item to “steal” might be. It’s about the fellowship that we share. The fellowship that surrounds the women of this Book Club is built, not upon an annual Christmas party, but upon monthly book discussion gatherings and weekly Sunday worship. It is this year-long investing in the care of each other that builds our community of faith and friendship and allows us to “steal” from each other and have a riotously fun time doing it.

It is the fellowship that we share, beginning at the communion table each Sunday and transcending worship into our daily lives, which makes us St. Andrew. Come and see for yourself.