Keep Christ in Christmas

In Southern California in the 1960s there was a rising tendency by holiday advertisers and Christmas tree lot merchants to use a heathen abbreviation when referring to the celebration of Christmas.   It had become popular and acceptable to use the paganistic devil-worshipping term, Xmas, probably to save space, and ink, paint, and paper.  Roman Catholics in particular were offended by the removal of Christ's name from the holiday, and thus began a movement to "Keep Christ in Christmas."

The movement was talked about at church and you could get a bumper sticker that actually said, "Keep Christ in Christmas."  I don't think our family put one on our car because we apparently weren't  the bumper sticker type, but just about every other car in our church parking lot had one.  Whether the campaign was successful or not, I don't really know.  Seriously, the folks who used "Xmas" were painted as ignorant apostate yokels who preyed like ravenous lions on devout Christian lambs and cared only for their own filthy lucre.

 

Decades later, as I dug deep into our Carpatho-Rusyn family history and learned to read the Cyrillic alphabet, I discovered that in the Eastern Rite Christian cultures, what appeared to us as the letter "X," is the Greek letter Chi which standing alone can symbolize our Savior, Jesus Christ.  The light bulb went on as I realized why the Roman Catholic Church club for teenagers was called Chi Rho.  The letters Chi and Rho together--XP--also symbolize Christ and is often visible in icon paintings.

Curiously, the trend of decades before to seemingly drop Christ's name from Christmas could be understood on two levels.   Were seemingly lazy merchants attracted to the ease of using "X," or, was there an understanding that the use of "X" was as valid as using the name of Christ?  Well, I think we would all agree that the commercially used term Xmas was done for ease of use.  Much simpler to spray paint Xmas on your scrap piece of plyboard in front of your tree display in the gas station parking lot, than to try to spray the 9-letter C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s.

Merchants and the folks up in arms about Xmas may not have known the truth, and Xmas has not lost its offensive air to Christians.  When I drive by an Xmas tree lot though, I smile and think, yeah, that works.

Out-of-the Ordinary Christmases

 

The approach of Christmas reminds me of our family celebrations of years past. It's the memory of out-of-the-ordinary celebrations that remain the strongest.

There was the year (2007 I think) that we all flew to Southern California on Christmas Day.  Our home teacher drove us to PDX on Christmas morning and we told him that his service could count for a year's worth of visits. We enjoyed a sunny holiday with family in California and in Tucson Arizona that year.

In 1984 we moved into our current home on our 10th anniversary, Dec. 19. Even with all the busy-ness of moving our furniture and goods into the house with 3 small children "helping," and me being pregnant-sick with our 4th child, Craig still found time to grab a Christmas tree off a lot and set it up that first night in our home.

Christmas 2004 was a sad time. My Dad was dying. Our family spent Christmas Eve the usual way with a humble dinner, a simple program centered on the birth of Christ, and the treasure hunt we do for family members, where they have to solve clues to find a hidden gift. Early Christmas morning I boarded a plane for Pittsburgh to be with Dad during his last days.

For some years we involved our children in a dramatization of the Nativity. Bathrobes subbed for shepherd garb, Craig was the donkey, and the youngest child was always the newborn babe. The year Teresa was about 4 she was the Christ child; Bridget (8) was cast as Mary. Teresa was lying down in a blanket pretending to be the baby while "Mary" cooed over her. Suddenly Teresa piped up, "Mary!   Your breath stinks!!" We couldn't continue . . .

One of my most amusing holiday memories pertains to the second Christmas we were married (1975). We were college students living on nothing. Buying a tree and decorations was out of the question, but how dull it would be to have no vestiges of holiday cheer in our tiny apartment. Craig had an idea. Plenty of students who lived in the dorms on campus had money to decorate their rooms for Christmas. And, they were required by student housing to remove all trees and decorations from their rooms before leaving for home to enjoy the holidays.

We waited until school was out and students had left for home. Then we scrounged through the dumpsters behind the dorms and pulled out a nicely decorated tree just the right size for our apartment. Our lovely tree brought in a holiday mood, and no one ever knew we had stooped to dumpster-diving to get it.

A Funny Christmas Memory

For Christmas 1983 we traveled from Idaho to Southern California to spend the holiday with our folks.  Our 3 children were all attacked by chicken pox that month.   The lengthy16 hour drive was not the most pleasant we ever made.

Not long after we arrived at my folks' house, my Dad (George), with a shopping bag in his hand, cornered Craig out in the yard.   He pulled out a red box, the container for a TI-5015 adding machine, and asked Craig "the engineer's" opinion of this clever little device.  Dad meant it as a Christmas gift for my Mom (Jean).  Craig expressed his opinion which was that it seemed like a useful quality gift that my Mom would enjoy.  Dad went away satisfied.

Later that same day, when Dad was out doing chores, my Mom cornered Craig in the kitchen with a shopping bag in hand.  She pulled out a red box containing a TI-5015 adding machine, and asked Craig's opinion on this handy new device.  She intended it as a Christmas gift for my Dad.   Craig did his best to keep a straight face as he gave her the same opinion: it was a useful good quality gift my Dad would enjoy.

He reported the incidents to me and we cracked up.  Needless to say, we were ready with our camera Christmas morning to catch this hilarious photo of my folks:

Don't you just love the look on each of their faces?   Dad is trying not to laugh out loud and betray the secret that he thinks only he knows..  Mom obviously suspected what was in her box.  And she was right.

A White Christmas

A person from Minnesota or the Northeast would laugh at how Oregonians react to snow, especially in the Portland Metro area. At the first flake people make alternate plans for work, schools consider shutting down, Tri-Met chains up its bus fleet, and grocery stores are mobbed with folks stocking up as if for an extended siege. To be fair, it must be said that there are only 2 or 3 snowplows to cover the entire tri-county area which Portland covers. Which means if you live in suburbia you're on your own. Your roads will not be plowed or sanded or rocked. The freeways and overpasses will be, but you'll have to rent a sleigh to get there.

Though snow usually falls over one or two days, then melts within a few days, December 2008 was not like that. On Sunday morning, December 14, the snow began to fall thickly. By church-time the buildup caused the cancellation of all meetings, and the Bishop directed people to hold services in homes with their neighbors from the ward. We joined a memorable sweet service at the Hyde's apartment with about a dozen others that day.

grandkids sledding on our hill

Over the next two weeks, snow fell every day but one which led to the cancellation of an entire week of school, 3 weeks without garbage pickup, and a second Sunday of meetings held with neighbors. On that Sunday I skiied over to the Laney's house while the rest of the family walked. Freezing rain had left a sheet of ice between layers of snow. Every glide tinkled like shattering glass as my skis punched through the ice.

 our small congregation December 21

This snow was a wonderful gift. I was able to go out on my x-c skis almost daily (except during freezing rain), and most days, twice. I toured neighborhoods in every direction and skiied around the golf course after dark. Night skiing is magical; it's solitude at its sweetest. I felt immersed in a Christmas carol or part of a Christmas card scene.

These next two photos are a little blurry due to water drops on the lens. When gliding through this narrow path in the drifts I half expected to meet Lucy and Mr. Tumnus by the lamp-post at the other end.

 our backyard

other area views

We enjoyed an unusual White Christmas. Some events were postponed because of the snow and the cancellation of school. Our church Christmas program was held on Dec 28. The Westview High School choir concert, always held just before the two-week vacation begins, was held after Christmas. Hundreds of attendees and musicians were all smiles as we sang together, I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas . . .   On January 7th!

35 Years

Taken at our wedding reception December 21, 1974, on a nice December 80-degree day  (Craig looks so young I appear to be marrying Steven . . .)

December 19 was our 35th wedding anniversary! Wow, that sounds like a lot of years. I remember when my parents celebrated their 25th and how old they seemed to me at the time. They made it to their 40th before my Mom died and here we are, only a few years away from that. We celebrated by going for an early dinner at the Reedville Cafe. It's a local place, one-of-a-kind that serves delicious meals far superior to the factory-food-popular chains that proliferate our area. We splurged by ordering an appetizer of their delicious homemade onion rings. I don't remember ever ordering an appetizer before at a restaurant. It's not worth the expense and most restaurant meals are enough food for me anyhow. But it was our anniversary . . .

December 19th seems like an odd day to get married. It is close enough to Christmas that most people would avoid it. We had a challenge scheduling our marriage. Because we are Mormons who were being married in the temple, we didn't have the choice of a totally open calendar. Temples were not open over Christmas and New Year break except for one day between the two holidays.

We were BYU students living in Provo and that week before Christmas was finals week, which ended Friday December 20, so getting married before that was not convenient. The last day that temples were open was Saturday the 21st. We wanted to have our reception in Southern California that day, but the drive from Provo was going to be close to 12 hours so we couldn't get married and get to our reception all on the same day. We didn't want to use that one day in between the holidays because we wanted to have our quasi-honeymoon over before Christmas so we could head back to Provo on the 26th.

We decided to get married at 7 PM on the 19th in the Provo Temple, then drive to California on the 20th, have the reception the 21st, go on a two-to-three-day honeymoon, come back Christmas Eve, leave for Provo the 26th. It worked out OK because I moved my final exams to be done on the 18th. Craig had two finals on the 19th. He took the first one, then when he showed up to the second one the teacher excused him because he had earned an A no matter how he did on the final. So he went home and took a nap.

Now that we passed that milestone, we have five years till the next significant one. My dream celebration would be to camp at Cape Kiwanda for a week, if I will still be able to get into a sleeping bag on a pad on the ground in a tent under the stars in my old age!