Making Christmas Memories Last Forever

Christmas memories stay with us for our entire lives. Long after the presents are lost, broken, gone or forgotten, the memories remain.

Christmas is an event that seems more commercial with each passing year. While giving gifts to friends, family and loved ones is an enjoyable part of the holiday, it is not the best part of Christmas.

The custom of giving gifts on Christmas is attributed to religious reformer Martin Luther. In the 1500's, Luther started the custom of giving gifts to children on Christmas. The gifts were supposed to come from the Christ Child. Before the tradition of giving gifts on Christmas Day was started, children received gifts on the saints day of St. Nicholas and St. Martin.

The gifts that children received in the middle centuries were probably small and much appreciated. What started as a charming custom has become the bonanza that is expected today.

My best memories of Christmas, like many people, go back to my childhood. We gathered at my grandparents house for a large and lively party on Christmas Eve. Grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings is what I remember about my childhood Christmases.

Certainly there were presents, but they were not the focus of the family Christmas party. Everyone pitched in and put a grand meal on the tables. The gathering was too large to fit at one table, so the children were relegated to the farmhouse kitchen and the children's table. It was a gathering filled with love.

The best gift that the family gave on Christmas was the gift of love and attention. Before dinner was served the family gathered around the staircase. The tradition was that the children had to "sing for their supper." It helped to be part of a musical family.

We children were excited at the chance to perform for the family. Children put together an impromptu program of solos, duets. trios and choruses. We were given a free hand for program selection. My mom would play the piano to accompany each child as they performed their selection.