A holiday recipe

Another year is winding down and Christmas and the holiday
season are upon us. The first day of Winter arrives next week (Dec.
21) and soon schools will be closing for a mid-year vacation.
The hustling and bustling of gift shopping, party planning and
welcoming home out-of-town family members is making for busy days,
long lists and rekindled memories.
These are not the holidays we remember as little children when
we all gathered at grandmother’s house. We no longer live in a
snow-covered still life or a Norman Rockwell painting. Times have
changed and many old Christmas traditions and holiday scenes have
been changed or lost forever.
Yet, we are fortunate to live where we do, in small towns where
the songs, symbols and spirit of Christmas and other December
celebrations are still cherished. We live and work with people we
get to know and care about all year long. Here we are not so rushed
or insulated from one another like people in bigger cities or
places that lack a certain personality.
Here, we still gather around a Holiday Tree and welcome Santa
Claus to town. We sing carols and visit each other’s
brightly-lighted neighborhoods. We shop and tour our hometown
stores where we know the owners and all the faces are familiar to
us. People say the true Christmas spirit is for little children,
but that same genuine feeling belongs to all of us of all ages when
we have such a great place to call our very own hometown.
Most of us celebrate Jesus Christ as our holy savior on his
birth on December 25. We tell the story of the Three Kings, the
Christmas Star and the Manger to our children. We adorn our homes
with living greens and we gather to feast. Others of us light
candles on a menorah at sundown on Hanukkah, while still others
renew their faith with simple blessings on the night of Solstice.
In many other ways, and in many other gatherings, we all pause to
observe the end of an old year and the arrival of a new one.
Then there is the commercial part to our December holidays,
practiced in crowded shopping malls, noisy parking lots and while
standing in long lines. Christmas doesn’t happen anymore without
credit cards it seems. Some of us give gifts, others just buy
things. What is the joy of browsing for items on the Internet and
having FedEx do the job of Santa Claus for us? That kind of spirit
is how we got the “X” in Xmas in the first place.
In this edition of the newspaper, contributing writer Juliana
LeRoy offers a long list of excellent holiday-time suggestions to
restore and enjoy a more true holiday spirit. (See page B1.)
Make cookies, watch favorite movies, look at old family photo
albums, play parlor games, read to each other and take walks around
town or the plaza, LeRoy writes. “It’s easy for kids and grownups
alike to get caught up in the ‘buy, buy, buy/gimme, gimme, gimme
barrage from advertisers,” LeRoy also writes. “Most kids have their
wish lists … now challenge them to go through catalogs or
advertisements with someone ELSE in mind.”
Here at home, we have many great opportunities and invitations
to think of someone else, not just during the holidays but all year
round. It’s a big part of why we live in such a great community.
Our church food pantries, Salvation Army kettles, toy drives and
free community Christmas dinners remain the best ingredients of our
annual ecumenical Holiday.
These events, charities and ourselves make up all the best
ingredients for a meaningful and spiritual holiday.
— Rollie Atkinson