MyChristmasThoughts8

CHRISTMAS is celebration: and celebration is a favor- ite theme these days. With gift and gaity, with merri- ment and music, with colored ribbon and scented greenery, we pay tribute to the day My family became Quakers about the time I was born and they had too much of a German background not to celebrates the birth of Christ. Just think of the many centuries, the many threatening circumstances, during which Christ- mas has been celebrated since that cry came ringing down the ages, "Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord."

I like to reflect on the many meaningful ways I have celebrated Christmas through my 90 years. Let me share just three of them with you.

The first took place nearly seven decades ago in my home Meeting at Buffalo, Iowa. It was the traditional practice, as a Meeting, to celebrate on Christmas Eve.

Always there were children's recitations, some kind of presentation of the Christmas Story, Santa and treats for the children

Another occasion, which was repeated while our girls were small, was initiated by my wife. On Christmas morning, before we gathered around the tree to open our gifts, we sat around the table for breakfast and cele- brated the birth of Jesus. There was a birthday cake, approp- reatly decorated, and we read the Christmas story from the Bible. This was always a joy- ous time for the Prignitz family - a real time of celebration..

The final way that has had deep and lasting significance for me has been through celebrating Christ- mas in a candle lighting service on Christmas Eve from eleven until twelve o'clock. When it was first suggested in one Meeting there were the skeptics who predicted that no one would show up at that hour for such a celebration. They were wrong. and for those who did - and still do - it is a meaningful occasion.

Yes, Christmas is celebration. But traditions that cluster around the day have significance only if they translate the heart's intention - the yearning of the human spirit to reach out and express faith, hope and love. Without this intention the gift is bare - the celebration just a touch of tinsel, the time without meaning.

Faith and hope and Love, which cannot be bought or sold or exchanged but only given away, are the wellsprings, firm and deep, of Christmas celebration. These are the gifts without price, the ornaments incapable of tarnishing, discovered only within oneself. They are not always easy to come by, but they are in unlimited supply,and available to all.

How have you celebrated Christmas meaning- fully in the past? How will you celebrate Christmas this year? I invite you to sign my Guest Book and let me know!

The one occasion that still has the element of celebration for me, as I recall, was the presentation of the story one year. Our pastor, Viola Smith, asked me to work out the story by means of a series of silhouettes projected on a screen while the Gospel accounts were being read and the choir sang ap- propriate carols in the background. The response from the gathered meeting still lifts my spirit.