A Special Christmas Memory

Perhaps getting out some boxes of Christmas decorations old and new with an EIU student I have only known for a year led to so much story telling on my part as we unpacked various items.  He seemed surprised that I had made the crocheted stockings for Jim and me.  I must say they are impressive representations of a blue baseball shoe (tongue and white laces included) and a black Mary Jane shoe, both about two feet long.  Other shoe styles were available with accompanying patterns, but these two seemed to be the most appropriate for Kay and Jim.  Another old item is the Christmas tree skirt with pinwheel-like sections of various Christmas colors and patterns.  I had made two, the other for my parents which now hangs out under daughter Bonnie’s tree.

However, my favorite decorations and the accompanying details from that first Christmas as  newlyweds reveal more about us than I realized at the time.  Let me set the stage.  Both our families had celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve although Jim’s family would go to midnight mass and then exchange gifts.  My Presbyterian church had a candlelight service but we did not attend as a family.  So, on this first special Christmas, we had been to both our parents’ houses; now, back at our home, one of four apartments in a two story, old flat, we had our own time for gift-giving, 1972.

Not surprisingly, I am now short on the smaller details.  But each of us had bought a nativity set for the other, and we couldn’t have found two more diverse representations of the scene of Jesus’s birth. One is the standard manger set about 12” x 12”, a wooden enclosure with painted figures glued to the floor—until Henry crawled up close and popped an intriguing wise man off his spot.  Nothing that a little glue couldn’t fix.  The other set has no manger, just wooden animals and totally movable figures that look like plain carved pieces of varying shades of light and dark wood.  Baby Jesus is less that 2” long, separate from the little base he rests on.  Sadly but not surprisingly, I have no idea who gave which one to the other, but the traditional one always sets right under the tree facing out into the room.  The other has taken up various residences, this year along the top of our piano with a lighted star on a little metal stick right in the middle added just last year—perfect.

Now, some 47 years later, I see these gifts representing the importance of faith in our lives and as part of what Christmas is really supposed to focus on.  This would seem obvious, but there are many virtually Christ- less observations of the holiday.    Our Catholic/Protestant upbringings became blended and matured to a more Jesus- centered faith; the changes and growth were not always easily achieved, stretching us farther as we sought a more Biblical faith experience.  However, Jesus still takes center stage, just as He did on that first Christmas night and our first Christmas together.