I remember as a young child (don’t laugh we were all young once) on Christmas Eve we didn’t go to Church instead we had a different Christmas eve.  It would start with cleaning up the house after all what would Santa think if he saw a dirty house.  (thanks Mom)  This was the one day I cleaned, along with my two brothers, like our life depended on it.  Then dinner, which could be anything from pizza from Eddie’s Italian kitchen, to a casserole so we could grab a plate and help ourselves.  By about 6:30 it was bath time.  I remember looking out my bathroom window to see if I could see Santa or one of his helpers looking in on us, my brothers, and I, to see if we were doing what we were supposed to be doing.  The in to our pajamas and the next step was the hanging of the stocking.  My dad always had a movie camera (today you call it a camcorder) of the three brothers hanging the stocking by the fireplace with care. This was a fake fire place made of card board and if we didn’t use care, my Dad would remind us what care was.  I’m not sure where the movies are and being 33mm I don’t know if I could even play them, but I remember that after the hanging, of stockings, we were to sit and watch the prior years, more then one, of prior Christmas stocking hanging.  Since three were three brothers, me in the middle, one older, one younger, after hanging the stockings the brothers three turned into the three stooges.

After this we got down to business.  Since we didn’t go to church my parents brought Christmas service to us.  Somewhere my Mom had gotten an at home Christmas service.  We started with a hymn, I believe it was silent night and as the years roiled on, where the three boys started out supporting Mom’s pitch and Dad was solo, eventually Mom became solo, and we were on Dad pitch.  We read from the bible, each of us taking a turn at the Christmas story, here was the meaning of Christmas, although Santa was in the picture, we never forgot to wish Jesus a happy birthday.  My mom had a large candle or Jesus’s Birthday candle, and each of us had out own candle to light from the light of the world and make a wish for the next year.  Interesting that we never asked for ourselves but rather for the family, relatives, and friends.  Even back then we knew the TRUE meaning of Christmas. We would close by singing “Away in the manager” and head to bed.  I remember by just concentrating on what we had just done it made it easier to go to sleep.

Just a little part of my life, which had an impact on my life, how about you?  Any traditions, memories, or just plain thoughts about your Christmas past?  In addition, Do you have a Christmas wish you wish to share, or not.

I wish you a very special and Merry Christmas with love and hope for the future.  May Jesus direct your path and more importantly may you let him.  Something I forget once in a while.

Ego Eimi Tertius

Ken