Contributed By Jennifer Thompson
When someone shares memories of their family and of times past, you can almost always count on stories from holidays, and often about Christmas. Of course, this is one of the happiest and most carefree time to gather; a feeling of peace and of cheer fill the air and our hearts.
I recall many happy holiday seasons from my childhood. A trip to the city to spend Christmas Eve with my grandparents and family on my father’s side first, where we all enjoyed a fine meal and caught up with the events in each other’s lives, as relatives lived from coast to coast. There were so many aunts and uncles that when young I could barely remember everyone’s name, most lived so far away I saw them but a time or two a year.
As "Santa’s Helpers," my sister and I got to pass out all of the gifts from beneath the colorfully decorated tree. One year, I showed my father a tag and asked who the gift should go to, and he told me to give it to Uncle Danny, and pointed him out to me. My uncle Daniel always wore one red sock and one green at Christmas, and I whispered to my father, loud enough for everyone to hear, "You mean the man with the funny socks?"
The family found it to be equally humorous when I identified my Aunt Raphael, who had waist length hair, as "the lady with the big hair." My parents made sure I was well enough acquainted with everyone before I would be handing out gifts again.
Christmas morning was spent at home with Mom and Dad opening gifts, then the remainder of the day at my grandparents house on my mother’s side, where there was also a gathering of relatives that weren’t seen nearly enough. There we had traditions as well, a massive midday dinner served by my grandmother who showed her love through her many delicious dishes and deserts and generous helpings, followed by the opening of gifts that we all wrapped in newspaper comic pages. Then all of the cousins went outside to sled in the fields and creek beds on the farm.
No matter where the gathering, Christmas to me always feels magical, although now the excitement comes mostly from watching children open gifts from me, listening to Mom’s favorite albums of Christmas music, and making special dishes and deserts for those I love. I’ve found that it is important to maintain traditions past down to us, but to also form new traditions of our own to pass down to the next generation.
May your Christmas be filled with the shared memories of old stories as well as the telling of new ones, laughter, love and peace.
Jennifer Thompson
Published in U S Legacies December 2003
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