Best and Worst Christmas Gift Contest
BEING THE WIFE OF AN EPISCOPAL PRIEST, with four children and two grandchildren, Christmas day, while wonderful in its own way, has always been hectic for me. In addition to the usual family activities and responsibilities, I assist with the Christmas services, such as folding bulletins, getting visiting choristers into the right choir vestments, preparing the altar, seeing that the church-school children get their token gifts, and so on. Many times, Christmas also included having all four grandparents as house guests which required extra cooking and cleaning while coping with excited children.
Last year our son and daughter-in-law, who live about fifty miles away, approached me some weeks before Christmas with the suggestion that I take Christmas day off. Their proposal was that they would plan, shop for, prepare, serve and clean up all the meals Christmas day for all of us. I was told I must stay out of the kitchen all day.
My son and daughter-in-law arrived on Christmas Eve with baskets and bags containing everything from homemade coffee cake for breakfast and turkey for dinner to festive table decorations. Needless to say, I had themost enjoyable holiday ever.
Mrs. John Carson,Hillsboro, Ohio
MY FATHER, ORPHANED AT THE AGE OF EIGHT, was bounced from different boarding houses, institutions and cousins' homes. Now in his seventies, he and three cousins get together for reunions several times a year. They have often recounted memories and sung old songs, but one favorite had eluded them--The East-Bound Train.
It told the story of a little girl on a train, going to the governor to get a pardon for her old, blind father. However, after so many years, memories had failed. The only lyric theywere sure of was the last.
For four years, I searched for those lyrics in every music store and library within fifty miles, reading literally hundreds of books on folksongs. Checking song references from Los Angeles to Baltimore, I wrote to scores of libraries, including the Library of Congress. There, I found an arrangement to the song that was filed in 1935, but no lyrics.
Last year in a book entitled The Hell-Bound Train, an old folksinger recalled how he and his mother sang a combined version of The EastBound Train and The Hell-Bound Train. In September I wrote to him, in care of the publisher, and hoped for a response. Three days before Christmas, an envelope arrived from Georgia. I read the lyrics, not certain that they were the right ones, until the last two lines: God bless you little one, you stay right where you are. You'll never need a ticket, while I amon this car. It was the song!
My wife calligraphed the words. It was framed, wrapped with the inch-thick stack of notes and correspondence, and presented to Pop. He was more touched by that than by any gift before or since.
John Marchand, Livermore, California
CHRISTMAS DAY CAN BE A VERY UNHAPPY TIME for those who are alone. Even though many people are thoughtful enough to include others in gatherings later in the day, the most difficult time to get through Christmas morning-is often overlooked. Since I lost my husband four years ago and have no children, I know how lonely Christmas morning can be.
Last year and for several years, a very special couple I know have been opening their home and hearts to folks who have lost a loved one and are alone on Christmas morning. My best Christmas gift is their open invitation to join them and the others they find out about. They build a fire in the fireplace and serve pancakes and sausage at 8:00 a.m.
They start off what can be a lonely day with a warm and friendly beginning. They give much more than breakfast.
Blanche Buchter, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
HAVING THREE CHILDREN, evenings out for my husband and myself are rare. Realizing this, my brother and his fiancé decided that their Christmas gift to us would be not just an evening out, but an overnight away from home.
This gift included tickets to see our favorite professional basketball team-the Boston Celtics, dinner at a famous German restaurant, arrangements for child care by my sister, overnight accommodations at an aunt and uncle's home, and their company. All we had to do was pack our suitcases and drive to Milwaukee.
We had a delightful evening getting to know the new member-to-be of the family and our team won in double-overtime by one point.
Nancy Johnson Russell, Wausau, Wisconsin
OUT OF THE MANY beautifully wrapped gifts under the Christmas tree last year, one bulky little, tissue-wrapped, yarn-tied package stood out. When I opened this gift, I found a worn toy made of bright-colored wooden shapes strung together on a wire spring, looking like no dog known on earth.
The note inside read: I found this in a box of Mother's things. I think it was yours. As I held this odd toy with teeth marks on its tail and legs, I recalled a snapshot of myself on my first Christmas clutching this dog in a small fist, teething on its tail. In fact, it may have been the only toy my young parents could afford on that depression year Christmas.
While others may see this wooden dog as an unusual antique toy, I see it as a symbol of my mother's love-something she could never bear to throw away because it belonged to her baby. Whenever I look at this homely, little wooden dog perched on my desk, I am sustained by the realization that my mother's love will always be with me.
It cost nothing, meant nothing to anyone else living, but it was a gift of memories, of the past, of love. It wasa perfect gift for Christmas.
Mary McCallum, Winnetka, Illinois
AS A GIFT TO EACH OTHER, the members of the Drey family decided to organize a family trivia game to be played Christmas day. Since I am an in-law at their large Christmas gathering which includes many extended family members, I welcomed the chance to get to know everyone better.
Each family member was to come to the Christmas celebration with twenty family trivia questions written out on index cards with the answer written on the back. The questions were shuffled all together. Then one by one family members drew a card and tried to answer the question.
The family trivia game provided a lot of laughs, a few tears and a general bonding of family members as the past was remembered and enjoyed.
Janet Drey, Des Moines, Iowa
THERE IS A LEGEND IN CUBAN FOLKLORE about a very unusual- looking tree. As the storygoes, a long time ago theCeiba tree looked very different than itdoes today. The trunk of the Ceiba tree, it is said, was once very thorny from its branches to its roots. So it was that the Ceiba looked that fateful night in which Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt with their newborn baby.
King Herod gave orders that the Christ Child should be found and killed to end the threat of another King. Herod's soldiers were closing in, so the Holy Family sought refuge in the darkness of the night next to a Ceiba tree. As the soldiers drew near, the massive trunk opened up to receive the anxious parents and their child, closing again over them. When the soldiers arrived there was no mark, no evidence, no sign of what had happened. They saw only the enormous, thorny trunk of the Ceiba tree.
Once the soldiers had departed, the tree opened up to release the Family. As a memorial of that night, the Ceiba tree still has exposed roots that form coves around its base.
J. A. Gonzalez, Rome, Georgia
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