Christmas often rewards people with heartfelt and lasting memories. Some of those memories, from a few neighbors, are recounted here. Perhaps they will prompt others to reflect on the meaning and spirit of Christ’s birth.   

In many ways the holiday of Christmas is all about family. From the story of a young couple and the birth of a baby in a livestock shelter, to the grandeur that has become Christ’s Church on earth, family is central to the story. 

It is little wonder why God chose to bring his Son into the world through that most powerful of human connections that is family. Family is indeed the most common theme behind these remembrances. 

Belinda Robertson recalled, “Every year, my mother would build a train set to run around our Christmas tree. She wouldn’t just put it up and take it down every year, but each year she would build a new scene for the train to run through. Although she did buy a few pieces – like a couple of buildings – which she did use every year, mostly she would fashion a scene from whatever was around the house. It is my favorite memory of Christmas.” 

Robertson lost her mom when she was a young girl, but recounting that memory made her eyes sparkle. Now with nine children and 15 grandchildren, Robertson’s holiday is understandably busy and she is looking forward to having her first holiday off work. It will certainly be a special occasion.

“My first Christmas morning with the family in 35 years,” she smiled. 

For children, Christmas is equal parts magic and family. As they grow, the realization slowly sets in that the magic and family are one in the same. 

Gift-giving is a big part of how the holiday has evolved. While it often gets bad press, the custom of gift-giving can teach valuable lessons. That first Christmas, after all, was the greatest of gifts.

For a young Shedarion Mitchell, the most memorable Christmas was when he received a special gift as grade-schooler. It was an Iron Man action figure. 

Mitchell explained, “I loved that Iron Man, and I played with it for years. I had broken it so many times. Each time I would super-glue him back together. At some point none of his limbs would move because of the amount of superglue I had used to patch him up.” 

The young man explained that his mom, Barbara Mitchell, went to great lengths to always provide a Christmas celebration for his immediate family. That was not always easy.

“We had to celebrate it sometime between Christmas Day and New Year’s, because not everyone in the extended family celebrated the holiday,” Mitchell related.

Of course, bringing family together is not without peril. Most families can easily fill in the blank of the following sentence: ‘Remember that Christmas when (fill in the blank here with some mishap, or embarrassment, or odd occurrence)?’

In pre-WWII Lufkin, a neighbor had made young Martha Moreland a table and two chairs. That year, the girl’s mom had the table and chairs moved into the family room in front of the fireplace.    

As her mother tended the fire that Christmas morning, she backed up into the corner of that table and fell, fracturing her tailbone. 

The family recovered from that most memorable Christmas and came to celebrate many more. Martha also happily remembered spending holidays at Granddaddy and Mamaw’s place in Palestine after her mom had recovered.

Siblings, especially when young, can create just a bit of havoc during the holiday season. Such was the case one year in the Pendergrass household. As Ann Marie Pendergrass explained, “I was around 12-years-old, and my brother Dawson was a few years younger. That year my parents gave Dawson a motorized T-Rex. It would stomp around and roar. Dawson was terrified of it, so of course, we spent the whole Christmas Day chasing him around the house with it.”   

Some people just have a way of cutting to the chase. Jake Hays hardly took a breath before answering what was his favorite memory of Christmas?

“I am the father of a 9-year-old and a 2-year-old,” he stated, “and seeing the joy in my kids’ eyes on Christmas morning is my favorite memory. It also reassures me that I am doing my duty as a dad.”

Family customs can also be rather unique. For a couple of years around 2008, shopkeepers in Mineola would be visited by Ebenezer Scrooge and his assistant. Around Christmastime, Scrooge would quietly walk into downtown shops and without introduction note to the shopkeeper that he was ‘behind on his rent.’ 

It wasn’t really Scrooge, but rather Robert Magee, Jr. and his sister Marcia Bush. As Bush related, her brother was a man of many talents, including acting in period costume. The siblings had grown up in Arlington, and each had led long, fruitful professional careers before reuniting in Mineola. Robert passed in 2011.

Bush was uncertain just how the Scrooge and assistant routine started. “But we sure had a lot of fun with it,” she exclaimed.

For Kenneth Barnes, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without his daughter Olivia asking him, “Daddy, where is the snow? – it’s Christmas!”  

Olivia’s query, which has become a bit of a Christmas tradition between father and daughter, began as a result of the Christmas Day snowfall of several years ago, when Olivia was kindergarten age.

“She just grew up believing that snow was a part of the whole Christmas event, so she asks me every year,” Barnes added with a wide grin.

Barnes also shared that when he was young, coming home for Christmas was an annual objective, but now he has become the host, welcoming family back to his home. He hopes to have a dozen (or more) home for Christmas this year.

Seventh-grader Aven Hack volunteered that the most memorable thing about Christmas was the trip that the whole family took to Disneyworld. “Grandma and Grandpa went along, so did a bunch of our cousins,” he explained. 

That one-of-a-kind event aside, Hack also noted that at Christmastime a lot of family come to visit. 

 “If there was one thing people should remember about Christmas – the most important thing -- is to be thankful for what you have received,” he said.

And that pretty much sums up Christmas, especially that very first Christmas gift.