When I think back to the Christmas’s of my childhood, I can’t help but be flooded with memories of Christmas Eve at my grandparents.

In our family Christmas Eve was the big night. We would drive an hour to get to the grandparents house.

We would hurry in from the cold, dressed in our finest. My grandmother would have the pirogues ready. When walking into the house you could hear the beautiful sound of Nat King Coles voice.

My grandfather always played his Christmas record. To me Christmas was not Christmas without Nat King Cole. To this day it doesn’t even start to feel like the Christmas season until I’ve listened to his, and my, favorite Christmas song, The Christmas Song. “Chestnuts roasting on and open fire/Jack Frost Nipping at your nose”. Read More »

My favorite Christmas song is ‘Peace On Earth/Little Drummer Boy’ by David Bowie and Bing Crosby.

I first heard this song while watching an old Bing Crosby Christmas Special. It happened to be his last one. It was recorded in September 1977, Mr. Crosby passed away a month later.

The show was prod cast that December. After hearing the song the first time it played over and over again in my head. I’m not sure what it is that makes me love this song so much. Perhaps its the two wonderful artists that sang it.

Or maybe its the amazing harmony of putting ‘Peace On Earth’ and ‘Little Drummer Boy’ together the way that David Bowie and Bing Crosby did. No matter what it is, every Christmas season since I first heard it I always looked forward to hearing it on the radio. Read More »

Silent night is my favorite song. The first time I heard it was at church. That was a mere prelude to the best time I remember hearing it.

During a Christmas program at the church the next year they played Silent Night on an electric guitar I loved the way it sounded.

The guitar added a higher quality to the sound of the instruments that traditionally played the tune.

It was very surreal and relaxing. I had almost an out of body experience as the music moved through the room.

People of all ages were touched deeply by the music. To this day my mother can not sing the song without tearing up. The lyrics of Silent Night are as follows:

I was a single mother raising 4 children. Money was scarce. I had been working 2 sometimes 3 jobs just to pay the bills. Nothing extra. Christmas was soon approaching. As I lay awake night after night trying to figure out how my children were going to have Christmas, the tears would start flowing.

It would take a miracle to help me provide Christmas for them. That miracle happened around December 19th. My father sent $100.00 for the kids for Christmas.

Now came the decision of a lifetime. Do I go and spend $25.00 on each child and get a few little gifts? I had overheard my children discussing on how they wanted the new Nintendo. Hmmm, that could be another choice.

It was selling for exactly $99.99 back then. One present or a few little presents? I headed for the store and bought the Nintendo. Next dilemma, only one gift and 4 children, how will they all have something to open? Read More »

On December 19, 1995, my son Wyatt was born in respiratory distress. Because he was delivered by c-section, I had to remain in the hospital in our home town while Wyatt went first by ambulance, then by helicopter to the hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I had never known such sadness as wondering if my tiny boy was doing well or fading. I felt angry and then heartbroken that I couldn’t be with him, holding him while he fought so hard to survive.

My pastor and members of my church came to visit me many times. When I finally got word that Wyatt might be released from the hospital on Christmas Day, possibly Christmas Eve, I shared the news with my pastor. Read More »

I come from a blended family; my birth mother passed away when I was a baby. When I was two, my father remarried. His second wife already had a little girl who was seven years old at the time.

Because we each had two families, my sister and I would each spend Christmas Eve with the “other” family. I would go to my Grandmother’s and my sister would go to her Dad’s. We would all come together as one family to go to the midnight service at our church.

We would then have our family Christmas on Christmas morning. As I grew, my relationship with my birth mother’s family became more strained and I began to look forward more and more to attending the church service. Read More »

This Christmas I witnessed the blessing of a Christmas Miracle. The mystery around this miracle still remains. It was an answer to a prayer and who knows what guides the power of prayer.

My sister had five small children. Her husband spent his meager earnings at the local pub in a small southern Alberta hamlet where they lived.

My sister scrimped every year come Christmas time often making her children their Christmas present with scrap wood, old paint and whatever else she could put her hands on.

She yearned to be able to buy them nice gifts from the stores in the city but there was never enough money. One Christmas Eve, my sister and her family traveled to the nearest big city, which was over thirty miles away, for Midnight Mass. Read More »

I am getting to that age where I am hard to buy for. I’m 48 and have two wonderful thoughtful children. Last Christmas I received a beautiful pair of flannel P.J.’s from my daughter and a new wallet that she picked out for me while she was shopping with her friends in N.Y. Read More »

I am a 21 year old female but still celebrate a very traditional Christmas, presents, santa, and heir of mystery galore. This is mainly because I have a sister that is 10 years younger than I am, and she tends to keep the magic alive for our family. Read More »

I am a 43 year old woman with two children. I’m divorced and I’m sorry to say that most of my Christmas are a little like Mr Bean’s. He has no one who wants to give him gifts, but must buy them for himself and then act surprised to get them.

Last Christmas was quite unique in many ways. I had learned that my mother was diagnosed with cancer and that is was possibly terminal. I had decided to change careers and had left a job of ten years behind me.
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