Christmas won't be the same for me this year, but I need to share my feelings with you special folks.

My first memory of Christmas is when I was about 4 years old and my father, mother, sister and me, of course, lived in a small rented house somewhere in Ohio. Our country was still in the long process of recovery after the Great Depression and jobs were few, money was scarce and my world was our home because we didn't travel much back in those days.

That Christmas Eve, my mother had sent Shirley and me to bed early because she wanted to stay up to decorate the house for us. I was almost asleep when I heard something crash and then mom crying. I didn't know it, but she had knocked the little tree over and I guess everything was a mess. I hear dad say, "Come to bed, Mary, I'll fix it in the morning."

The next day was a wonderful Christmas. I really don't remember much about any Christmases after that one. I do think about the decorations that brought my hometown to life.

I claim Huntington, West Virginia, as my home because that is where I grew up, attended school, graduated from Marshall and met the love of my life, Julie Marie Wright, the prettiest girl I had ever met.

Most likely, Huntington was just like any other hometown anywhere in the country. We had specific holidays that were all very important: there is nothing like the Fourth of July and having a picnic on the banks of the Ohio river and waiting for the fireworks. And then came Halloween and Trick or Treat with little ghosts and goblins running all over the place. Then came Thanksgiving with all the relatives and no Christmas ornaments, decorations, music or displays until December.

Well, let's be more accurate and say that on the day after Thanksgiving, the town changed! Music departments in every school began rehearsing for the Christmas program. Church services were now blessed with the old favorite carols. Our local radio station played, "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" so many times, I thought my ears would explode and every store window – that's back in the days when downtown was the place to shop – was decorated so beautifully that little kids and big kids would stand and look at the displays for hours on end.

Things have changed. Retailers are overlapping seasons to the degree that it is hard to tell what is being celebrated. I may be fudging a bit, but I thought I saw a Hallowthanksmas card, Santa Claus wearing a Pilgrim outfit and carrying a trick or treat bag. I accept the fact that people have the right to celebrate or not celebrate most any way they please. None of the above will take away the joy, awe and expectation I grew up with. As the Grinch discovered, Christmas will come without Rudolph, store decorations or anything manufactured for the sole purpose of generating a profit or creating a holly jolly mythological season.

We need to remember that God gave us the reason to celebrate in the many forms we all choose. It is God who gave us Jesus. It is Jesus who gave us the understanding of God's purpose through His life, death and resurrection. No amount of tinsel, music or pageantry will change the miracle of God's grace.

I still think, worship, sing, rejoice and hope in a very childlike way, and I won't let it go. I get misty-eyed when I read the biblical birth narratives, sing "Silent Night," decorate the tree and can't sleep because very soon it will be Christmas.

Yes – and I know that you know – my Christmases will be forever changed. Life will go on and must be lived one day at a time. I cherish what I had, what I now have and what I will have.

Thanks, God