CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS HELP TO DEFINE FAMILY

[Geee]

American Spectator:

Some of my warmest family memories center on Christmas traditions. Christmas celebrations and traditions help to define what it means to be family. The repetition of these traditions becomes a shared memory that helps cement the ties that bind us together as grandparents, parents, and children and as siblings and cousins. Conversations in adulthood often revisit, rehash, and embellish favorite times from years past, and often, those memories are about Christmas traditions and shared celebrations.

 

Those were simpler times — at least for us children. We always walked to the local Methodist Church for Christmas Eve services and afterwards walked across the street to Mama and Daddy Shaw’s house for their Christmas celebration. They always opened gifts on Christmas Eve with a big family party. Mama Shaw was the personification of the iron-willed lady and Christmas was her holiday; no excuse was sufficient for any of my grandmother’s 5 sons and their families to miss the annual gathering. As was the tradition in small Southern towns, Mama Shaw baked 6-8 cakes and stored them in her china closet to bring out for guests to sample a bit of each, with her strong, hot coffee. Her house was always decorated with whatever new style was the fad that year –– blue lights one season, silver aluminum tree another. The whole house was transformed into a child’s wonderland of lights and motorized displays: laughing Santas, graceful ice-skaters, an electric train circling the Christmas tree. There were so many things to make children’s dreams come true.

 

Most important of all to me as a young child was the conviviality of the “Shaw Boys” — as they were known all over Rockdale County, Georgia. My dad was the oldest of the 5 brothers and they were all great fun. My grandfather was a terrific story-teller who could keep us kids enthralled by talking about his experiences and his sons were constantly up to mischief –– my grandmother blamed her husband for encouraging them to match their dad’s shenanigans. Their hearty laughter and good natured teasing made Christmas a child’s delight and turned family gatherings into memorable times.