Christmas Season

Truly, one would need to search all over to find two people who enjoy the entire Christmas Season as much as we two do. Both of us believe that the true meaning of Christmas is about the birth of our Saviour Jesus Christ, and we treasure every story and Scripture reading. For several years we had wonderful Advent books, which we read chapter by chapter for each night of Advent, with a candle lighted. They were wonderful in helping us to focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

Both of us enjoy seeing the Nativity scene, and as a result, we began to collect manger scenes. There is one in olive wood from Israel which Mom brought back years ago, and a white porcelain one she made that is larger. There is a black Native American pottery one, and a small wooden one made in Hawaii. There is an Italian Fontanini one with a cast of hundreds, and a beautiful, treasured Hummel one. That way we could place them all around the house.

However, perhaps because we do enjoy the true spirit of Christmas so much, we also delight in the traditional and more sentimental side of this special holiday. In our hearts, the spirit of St. Nicholas lives on eternally in our childlike hearts, and so we love to see and have collected a variety various Santas from around the world. They have been wood, porcelain, and cloth, some simple and some decorated with ornaments and staffs. Years ago at Christmas, I discovered the little people of AnnaLee Thorndike, various felt Santas, angels, eleves and animals with the happiest hand-painted faces, which made me smile just to see them. At first I had just a few small ones, but as the collection grew, so did their sizes, and we now have several Santa and Mrs. Santa figurines with their own sleighs and Rudolphs, each of which is three feet high. At last count, there were several hundreds of our stuffed friends decorating our house last year. This year, we only have a small Mr. and Mrs. Claus by our tree and an angel on top of our wee tree. For the past couple of years we had our larger Nebraska home decorated with all of those, plus two or three fully-decorated trees, as we also love to collect ornaments. But this year, we have our lighted little tree and will just enjoy the bigger trees our children have, as we cheerfully wander to the north for this Christmas.

And, just as the Presbyterian Church in Kerrville was decorated and beginning to fill with the lovely hymns of Christmas this morning on this first Sunday of Advent, so we will find the same traditions and music in Omaha and Ann Arbor, whether in the Presbyterian or the Episcopal churches. As we celebrated the beginning of Advent here, we will continue to celebrate it across the country! We hope all of you will enjoy this happy, blessed season as much as we do, in the various ways you choose! Let us know what you are doing!