Christmas InThe Old Country Church

Whenever Christmas comes I think of Christmas when I was growing up.  As everyone knows I grew up in the country.  This image is very much like our little Church looked.  I painted it one time long ago and donated it to the church.  Wonder if it is still there.  Years ago the steeple on the church disappeared and there were some additions to it but it is still standing but this is the way I remember it.

A few days before christmas all the women who were members and lots of the children went to clean it up for the Christmas tree.  We would all meet there with our brooms  and mops and gave it a good cleaning.  The men would go and find a huge tree to decorate for the party  When it was put on it's stand and in place we would all go to work decorating it.  Some of the ornaments were bought but a lot of them were made with love by the members.  We would use angel hair, tinsel and strung popcorn.  And always make snow from Ivory Snow whipped to the consistency of whipped cream and flung on the tree branches with large spoons.  And a star placed at the top.  It was always beautiful.

A couple of weeks before Christmas everyone would draw names so everyone would have a gift under it.  They were brought to the church and placed under the tree.  One of the men would dress in the Santa suit and come through the back door yelling ho ho ho.  He would ask for helpers and they would call out the names and everyone would go up and get their gift.  There was food and laughter and music.  And a lot of socializing.  One Christmas my dad was Santa and one little girl piped up with "That might be Santa but he has Jimmy Lewis" feet"  Dad was very pigeon toed and unfortunately I got that trait, to a degree, from him.  He was known for always joking around everyone but he couldn't seem to think of anything to say as Santa.  I remember I drew a little boy's name, who was about 3 years old and I got him a turtle you pulled around.  When he saw it he exclaimed "Oh, a turtle".  I wonder if he still remembers this.  

And this was how we celebrated Christmas when I was growing up in the little country church.  We knew how to laugh and play and I do miss those qualities in todays world.  Wishing you peace in 2013.