Christmas is my favorite holiday. I guess I can blame it on my childhood from the time I began to remember my life. It wasn't a time filled with "glitzy" trees, decorations, bright lights and presents overflowing everywhere. My memories tell me the truth. Childhood taught me to understand reality. And the reality was we were a farm family in the countryside with six children at home. It also made me understand a nasty four letter word called W-O-R-K. I realize this does not sound like a "Christmas" story. But believe me it has everything to do with the holiday, the festivities and celebrations involved. Getting back to the WORK part; we were a family of never ending chores, jobs and challenges. Each child was assigned specific duties according to age and abilities. These ranged from cutting fire wood, feeding livestock, hoeing crops, weeding gardens, hand picking corn, mowing grass, shoveling snow, harvesting potatoes, onions and the list goes on without end. From the age of six I remember performing more than one of these jobs. This was in another era of American life. The time was a late part of the industrial revolution, and before the modernization of farm life. There were no TV's, internet, or many modern appliances. And smart phones were not even on the drawing board then. Forget about digital cameras!
Christmas was a big event. The biggest for me was the school program where each grade level put on a Christmas program for the parents and community. My first participation was in my kindergarten class when we sang "Silent Night". That was well over a half century ago; and to this day that night is still embedded in my psyche. The teachers gave each student a gift; the boys got small pocket knives and the girls got hair brushes or other girl things. (Yes, we knew what gender we were back then!) All were given a small bag of hard candies. (Lord knows that would be an act of terrorism in today's insane world!) I suppose it's a little nutty for an old man to write things like this. Some might see it as an act of senility. Others might say "he's gone off his rocker"! But I say, it is experience based on real lifetime events. And the best part of all are the memories of those long past days.
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Why then shouldn't we make some new memories at each Christmas season? They would be for our children and grandchildren to make memories of their own to cherish when they are old. Making memories requires action such as Christmas events of all kinds. Below this paragraph are examples of events and items that help foster the Spirit of Christmas in both children and adults. Like my memories listed above, their memories will long be remembered when they are old. (And getting old is a fact of life. We must accept it with honor!) Our children made ornaments using colored paper, glue, photos and string when they were in class. The good part is that each one is now a priceless keepsake.
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