CHRISTMAS IS FOR REMEMBERING

        The Grinch who, along with the Covid-19 virus, stole Christmas for many of us last year is not getting a repeat performance this year.  Christmas in 2021 is back with a vengeance!  The other evening I had the opportunity to ride through several neighborhoods and the many beautifully decorated homes with brightly lit trees showing in the windows was evidence enough we were going to have a wonderful season of love, remembering, giving and uniting with families and friends.

I started decorating early, wanting to make up for the dismal offering I had last year.  The house is once again resplendent with all the beauty and wonder of the Christmas season.  Going through bin after bin of decorations and books brought anew to me the magic of this most beloved of all seasons.

        Books heralding the many facets of Christmas, Santa’s, greenery, pine cones, candles, all have found their perfect spot this year. The music of the season bathed each room in a warmth not usually found during the year as I added a splash of Christmas cheer in each room. As Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, Perry Como, Andy Williams, Manheim Steamroller and various pipe organ selections serenade me the rooms come alive in their best holiday dress. 

As I decorate my mind goes back to my hometown and the beauty and simplicity which adorned Broad Street and the many stores as they prepared their best offerings to their customers.  You could spy Santa in the windows of Gallant Belk and Aycock’s along with many of the smaller businesses as their windows beckoned you to come in and find that special Christmas treasure.

As I pulled books from my storage bins two in particular caught my interest this year.  One is the small book, “Let’s Keep Christmas,” by the late Dr. Peter Marshall and Atlanta’s beloved late AJC reporter and columnist, Celestine Sibley, whose book, “Especially at Christmas,” is still vigorously sought after in the Christmas season.

        Dr. Marshall’s book is a compendium of various Christmas sermons he gave over the years which was fashioned into book form by his late wife, Catherine.  She said she received thousands of requests over the years to publish his Christmas sermons. She gathered together all the sermons he gave during the holiday season, taking the best parts from each and the result was “Let’s Keep Christmas.”  He gives the reader his vision of what is most important about the season and how wonderful it would be if we could keep Christmas all through the year.

Celestine Sibley wrote two books on Christmas.  The above book and “Christmas in Georgia.”  In “Especially at Christmas” Celestine says it isn’t the things that are important at Christmas but the people. Celestine had a memory like an elephant and during the holiday season she would pepper her columns with memories of Christmases long ago and the people she came in contact with or who came to her for particular help.

On Christmas Day 1987, her column appeared under the headline, “Christmas Means Love,” which was inspired by a letter she received a week or so before Christmas.

        A young girl from Snellville sent her a letter saying she was doing a research paper for her honors class in junior English and was basing her report on how Celestine wrote about Christmas. She said, “If you would tell me about why you love Christmas and enjoy writing about it so, it would be much appreciated.”

        Celestine’s reply to her turned into the published column for that year.  Reading this column I was reminded of the letter that was sent to the editor of the New York Sun by Virginia Hanlon asking the editor if there really was a Santa Claus.

Ending her reply to the young girl, Celestine said, “I wish for you what I think is the greatest gift of Christmas—love to receive and love to give.”

        Since the spirit of Christmas revolves around love and people; folks you know, love and those who are with you and those who only live now in memory, I want to pay a holiday tribute to someone who left our town and hearts 59 years ago this month.

        Every December I check the calendar to see what day it falls on. The day was December 20, 1962 when one of my Walton Circle neighbors and long-time family friend, Kate Stewart, died.