Remembering Christmas

14 Masa'il 162 B.E. - December 24-25, 2005 A.D.

I do not celebrate Christmas, but every year at this time the memory of the way my Grandparents celebrated the holiday comes back to me. For my Grandparents Christmas was not just a holiday, it was a Holy Day a time to celebrate the birth of Christ and to tell the Christmas story and to play Christmas music.

My Grandmother begin to preparations for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. On that day she got out the Christmas Tree decorations, set the box in the corner of the living room and then on Saturday we would go with my Grandfather to get a Christmas Tree. Then on the Sunday after Thanksgiving we would decorate the Christmas Tree and the Christmas Tree would set in front of the living room window. On top of my Grandparent's Christmas Tree a star and not an angel.

My Grandparents bought a live Christmas Tree for several years while we were growing up. Finally though they got an artificial Christmas Tree, it was a silver tree. Even after they bought the artificial tree, my Grandmother would still get out the box of Christmas Tree decorations and we would decorate the tree on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

After the tree was decorated my Grandparents would play Christmas music. The Christmas records were always played in December and the Christmas Tree would stay up all of December. The day after the first of January the tree would come down, the box of Christmas decorations would be packed away and the records of Christmas music would be put away.