Everyone has memories of their childhood Christmas celebrations. As a child, Christmas was magical. My mom was a terrific cookie baker, and we always had tons of baked goods around the house during the holidays. We searched Christmas tree lots for a live Christmas tree and placed it each year in the living room, and everyone was invited/expected to participate in the decorating of the tree. There were rules to follow, of course. The smaller the ornament, the higher on the tree it was to be placed. My two siblings and I had each had “our” ornament that we had to make sure only we would hang. I don’t remember exactly what mine looked like now, but I found it every year, and it was a thrill to place it in just the right spot every year.
Once all the ornaments were placed, the tinsel was strewn all over, one piece at a time. No throwing the stuff on the tree. You had to take it out of the package one sliver at a time and carefully place it so that it draped just so on the tree. I remember as a kid hating the tinsel placing mode of the holiday decorations and was glad when I had a tree of my own and the liberty to place garland instead of tinsel.
The final step was placing the star on top of the tree. Typically the only person tall enough to reach the top of the tree was my dad, so we all waited for him to complete his task. Our star was unique in that it had a picture of grown-up Jesus in the middle of the star. I always thought that was a little strange, since Christmas was about baby Jesus. My adult tree has an angel on top.
But all of the cookies and decorating were just prefaces to the best part of Christmas — the Christmas Eve service at church. It was my favorite service of the year. The church was decorated beautifully, we sang Christmas carols as a congregation and heard the Christmas story full of wonder and meaning. The best part of the service, though, was the very last song. Candles were passed around to everyone in attendance. Someone would turn the lights off. Everything was black except for one candle at the front. A voice would start singing “Silent Night” without piano or any other instrument. The person holding the candle at the front would light the candles held by the people to his/her right and left. They would then each light a candle, and that light would be spread throughout the congregation who had joined in singing the carol in 4-part harmony. It is so moving because you really listen to the words and watch as the darkness becomes light, just as the birth of Christ became the light to a dark world.
May you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year as you build your own Christmas memories!