LANGFORD, B.C. — As he looks back on home movies from his Christmas pasts, Shaun Wilson will never forget being that boy in the blue bathrobe bouncing off the walls. “When you’re a kid, Christmas is the ultimate moment in your life,” Shaun smiles, before looking at video from the 1960s showing his family gathering together and opening presents. Because along with the gifts you unwrap enthusiastically and the others you open politely, there just might be that one present that makes your dreams come true. “It was a huge Christmas,” Shaun says, pointing to his mom helping him unwrap a guitar. “I always wanted a guitar.” It was his first guitar that inspired Shaun to grow up to be a professional musician and play in The Beatles tribute band The Sutcliffes. Decades later, on his latest guitar, Shaun wrote a seasonal song effortlessly. Shaun says that writing the song felt like a musical gift that unwrapped itself: “It just showed up.” The song’s lyrics — about his childhood Christmas mornings — were inspired by many happy holiday memories, thanks to so many loving family members, particularly his mom. “I love my mother dearly,” Shaun smiles, while watching her younger self smiling at his younger self in the video. “To see her then, when she was young, it’s kind of a bittersweet thing.” Because his now-90-year-old mom’s memory is not what it was, Shaun gifted her his original song set to their old home movies, as a reminder of the great mom she’s always been. “She was pretty surprised,” Shaun says. “She loved it.” And when she saw how she inspired smiles on the faces of children now grown and parents now passed, your eyes can’t help but fill with happiness and gratitude. “It’s hard to keep a dry eye reminiscing about family and those days gone by,” Shaun says. After seeing how quickly the present becomes the past, Shaun, now a father and grandfather, is committed to making his family’s memories in the future equally meaningful. “When you have moments when you can pull it all together and everybody is having a good time,” Shaun smiles. “That’s the best time of the year for everybody.” Because the greatest gift you can get, Shaun has found, is the love and time you give.
