Some Thoughts on My Christmases

It is the time of year that Paul McCartney calls that "Wonderful Christmas Time" and I agree. For me Christmas has always been a wonderful time.

When I was a child it was a a wonderful time because I was out of school and anticipated a day certain when I would get something special for me. Indeed, I still enjoy viewing the old tattered photos and reliving Christmases past. In fact, I loved Christmas so much that when Susan and I married it was at Christmas time.

It was also a time when I knew we would all gather at my aunt's house as an extended family. Family members would come from all over to be a part. All of my father's brothers and sisters would be there as would all my cousins. As I grew older the gathering grew larger as our children and those of my cousins joined the gathering. We would exchange gifts, sing hymns and carols of the season and end the day with the reading of the Biblical account of the birth of Christ.

It all made for a "Wonderful Christmas Time." For me however, the wonderful part of it all was the coming together of the Appleby clan. It was a recognition that while we all lived our own individual lives and had our own families we were everyone part of a larger family that shared a common heritage of faith and hope. It was a sad day for me when this gathering ended. In a lot of ways I have always hoped for a rebirth of this Appleby Family Tradition.

(Someone recently mentioned to me that maybe in our electronic age we could do the same thing using Skype or some other electronic hook-up. Sorry, it may be the best we can do in our day but it just isn't the same. Reaching out and touching an image on a screen is just not my idea of family.)

When I had children of my own I again relived these childhood days through watching my children come Christmas morning to the tree in anticipation that old Saint Nick had been there and left something special just for them. Christmas seems to bring out the child in all of us and watching my children around the tree Christmas morning searching for gifts with their names on them was like being a child again myself.

Well, the years have come and the years have gone and I have celebrated 63 Christmases and have yet to be disappointed. These days it is not the gifts that come in brightly wrapped packages. In fact I don't believe it ever was about the brightly wrapped packages. It has always been about the people and our relationships . . . family and how important we are to one another.

This Christmas gathering was a reaffirmation that we were Appleby's one and all and that we shared a common Christian heritage that extended back for generations and was to be perpetuated in our own lives and individual families.

Don't get me wrong. I still love Christmas time. Just wish it weren't so much about the gifts. What I really wish is that there was some way to recapture some of what we had back then. I don't really believe that we can recreate the experiences but I do believe we could make a little more effort in providing an environment in which our children and grandchildren can experience something similar to what was such a meaningful influence in our own lives.

With that said, I wish for you and yours a . . .

Very Merry Christmas!