My Christmas Traditions

My list of Christmas traditions:

Putting up outdoor lights the day after Thanksgiving weather permitting

Putting up lighted greenery sway on balcony railing, also the day after Thanksgiving

Making Christmas cookies starting with Oatmeal Strips (not a traditional Christmas cookie but very rich and our personal favorite that is only made at Christmas time)

Putting up miscellaneous Christmas decorations, including the wooden scrollwork pieces from Barry's brother, Brad

Making more Christmas cookies
Taping Christmas cards up on the wall as we receive them

Making Mother's Chex Mix

Singing Christmas carols at church

Making fruitcake with dried cherries, dried cranberries and golden raisins

Starting to figure out a gift list (my best ideas come late)

Thinking about sending Christmas cards and Christmas e-cards

Getting a tree, usually by my birthday

Putting the lights on the tree (Barry)

Putting the ornaments on the tree, unbreakable ones on the lower half and more fragile ones at the top because of young grandkids and cats (Candy and Carrie)

Finalizing gift list and ordering, shopping and sometimes making

Making more Christmas cookies

Sending packages to Florida and Colorado, usually right at the deadline

Brother's dinner with Barry's brothers and wives

Christmas Eve or Christmas day with Ben, Sarah and kids

Opening stocking gifts Christmas morning

Eating breakfast

Reading the Christmas story as a family

Opening gifts to each other

A quiet Christmas evening

And two silly traditions that are all my own:

Listening to “Grandma Got Run Over by A Reindeer” all the way through just once during the season

Watching “The Preacher's Wife”

And one very dear to my heart tradition:

On Christmas Eve morning I listen to a broadcast of the “Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols from the chapel of King's College, Cambridge. The nine lessons come from Genesis, Isaiah, Luke, Matthew and John presenting the arc of the gospel story from the fall of man to the coming of the Messiah. Each lesson is accompanied by two carols sung by the choir and at times the congregation. The service always begins with “Once in Royal David's City” as the choir processes into the service. The first verse is sung acapella by one boy. All the boys in the choir practice for that solo with the final selection being made just before the processional begins. It is thrilling to listen live, to hear that lone voice begin singing, to hear the Scriptures being read, ending with the passage from John 1:1-14, “In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God and the WORD was God. Praise be to God.

Two Very Special Christmas Trees

I do not have a lot of specific memories of Christmases growing up.  I do remember Christmas as being a special family time with a tree and presents and the Christmas story from the Bible and sometimes special church events.  But two Christmases—or two Christmas trees to be more exact—spring to mind immediately when asked for a Christmas memory. 

After we moved from Long Beach to Hesperia when I was in fourth grade, my dad drove 100 miles to work as jobs were scarce in the high desert.  The only major employers were the Kaiser-Permanente cement plant in Lucerne Valley and George Air Force Base in Adelanto which provided some civilian jobs.  The region was sparsely populated and many were retirees.  But over time the drive to the better paying job “down below”, over Cajon Pass into the LA Basin, took its toll and was not worth the paycheck.  And so began his 5 year quest for a career in the high desert community which culminated in his becoming a firefighter and paramedic with the Hesperia Fire Department.  Those five years were comprised of a series of short term jobs, hard work and struggles to make ends meet.   

Of those five years, two Christmases stand out.  There was money to purchase at least one gift for each of us, but no money for a Christmas tree.  The first Christmas, out of desperation, very late on Christmas Eve, after all the stores and gas stations had closed, my mom picked up one of the leftover trees that would be thrown out when business resumed the day after Christmas, brought it home and decorated it.  Better than a Charlie Brown tree, but not a beautiful tree, to us it was wonderful.  The second unusual Christmas tree was also the result of a too limited budget.  A row of very tall cypress formed a windbreak at the back of our yard.  Their column a Christmas tree shape and when decorated was pretty impressive and to us wonderful.

ular shape did not suggest much in the way of a Christmas tree, but after my mom and dad cut one down, trimmed off the bottom to fit the ceiling height, and interspersed some of the trimmed branches in the lower half, it took on

As a parent (and grandparent) now myself, looking back, the sacrifices my parents made to provide not just needs, but also special things amazes me.  Their love for us and their hard work, even when the urge to tune out must have been overwhelming, made our lives special.  And our Christmases, whether adorned with much or little were very special.