Christmas Memories

Day 8


One of my favorite Christmas memories involves my Grandparents and their love of Christmas.

My family with it's large Irish roots has been too large to gather at any one person's home for years now, what with all the Children, Grandchildren, and Great-Grandchildren (we are often 44 for Christmas dinner, and that's just three generations of immediate family). So, we started the tradition of renting out a local hall for all our holiday get-togethers. We pot-luck it and laugh and sing and eat. But the highlight of the Christmas festivities is the annual 'Christmas Show'.

Starting from around the time that I was 9 or 10, my Gram decided that we kids were too focused on the gift exchange. So, to entertain our thoughts and make the night last a little longer, she insisted that we "work" for our gifts by putting on a Christmas program (one of the benefits of a large family, there are always enough kids around to put on a show, lol!). We would work through October and November, memorizing poems and lines, praticing songs and pieces on our instruments (for those of us of the 'band-geek' persuasion ;)), and thinking up costumes for Mary, Joseph, and the Wise Men/Women. And thanks to my very fertile Aunt (mother of 9), we almost always had a real live baby Jesus, lol! I remember loving it when I was young and scorning it in my teen years, but until I was married, I took part in it faithfully, every year.

Now that I look back, I am so thankful that my Gram helped us to create those memories. My Grandparents' healths are failing and the family is so busy that "The Program" is often a put together a bit hastily on Christmas Eve, but I still have the memory of those great family Christmas productions, and they really mean a lot to me!