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Show December 17, 1965 The Brigadier JeJaJ Mill J tand aJ iiiagic ctf children at ChttittnaA nostalgic by Berry Herem Now is the time we wish we could have written it all down in a diary. Memories lade and the Christmas seasons we enjoyed as children will probably go again in the holiday rush of life. OCCASIONALLY, accidentally we may glimpse the magic oi a child's Christmas and feel, in the tingle of nostalgia that it leaves behind, a tiny poition of what Christmas unre-membere- d Citadel unbearable. Could you ever get to sleep that night0 Not hardly. At last the thoughts ot the coming morning were envisioned in your 2 dreams. Somehow the weather was right, somehow the reindeer tlew. somehow St. Nick got down the chimney and somehow Christmas morning Theres something special about Christmas, something that makes happy children happier, that makes even grouchy old men with smile when it snows on Christmas Eve. Something that makes everything look silvery and shimmery and permanently rosy. Something that lights up every Christmas candle, rings every bell, tickles every sidewalk Santa until he chuckles, sparks songs of gladness to every shopper's lips, something that warms even a Scrooge's heart. THERE'S SOMETHING special about Christmas, something that makes you want to read an old. old story that you have heard many times before, but somehow you still like to hear it. A story 2000 years old, it is a simple story about a mother, an infant, a stable and a star. Yes. Christmas is something special, something very spe- rheu-natis- No ing. Seasons Greetings FOR YOUR LAST iWIXUTL GIFT Shop UTAH OFFICE SUPPLY 6G East Center Utah J Acul by Sterling W. Sill Each Christmas time our minds make a pilgrimage back to Bethlehem. The little town nestling among the Judean hills was the end of the sixty-fivmile journey of Joseph and Mary to fulfill the decree of Caesar Augustus, that everyone must be taxed in his own ' city. THEY ARRIVED in Bethlehem just before Jesus was born. Of Mary. Luke says, And she brought forth her first born Son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for him in the inn. We feel a certain sense of shame and regret that there was no room for the Savior of the world to be born. But the cry of no room" followed him throughout his life. He was forced to flee to Egypt be- May your success and cause there was insufficient room for Jesus and Herod in the same realm. AFTER HEROD'S death Jesus returned to Jerusalem but the cry "no room" continued. There was no room for his doctrines, no room for his miracles, no room for his Strange marvels follow birth of Christ child hu.-he- d. n bell-ringin- g long-expecte- happiness be increased during the coming year and future years! . . d . wanmtedl minim The Dutch nicknamed The legend of the good saint, the BUT HE WON'T be easy to track gift giver, later spread to Russia. las Santa Claus" for short, but down for he has- many aliases. Scandinavia, Holland, Belgium and his image as a fat little man with rosy cheeks and a white beard Santa's name and timetable and Germany. comes down to us from a poem , the MIDDLE IN THE coun-AGES, gifts vary with the particular bewritten in 1822 by Dr. Clement C. and form took human I out opera-- giftgiver try where he has staked who the Moore, an American minister. The directed an officer came tions. The Night Before In Spain, he bears gifts on Janu- festivities of the holiday season. poem was He recited it to his ary G. Epiphany, in celebration of Dubbed the Abbot of Unreason by Christmas.who were of Lord Misrule, children, delighted. the Three Wise Men. Kids put their the Scots, and the THEN HE threw it away. A lady shoes in the windows and fill them he held office from Christmas until with straw for the neighbor's horse January 6. and his word was law. visitor rescued it from the wastein the hope that while the horse Either elected or appointed, he basket and had it published in the ruled over the royal activities in Troy. N.Y.. Sentinel. It became a may neigh. Santa won't say nay. IN GERMANY, he wears a big the household, colleges and inns. literary classic and almost every chain which he rattles at the door, The English called him King of the child now knows about creatures and enters bringing candy and Bean and to the French, he was that were not stirring, not even a mouse. cookies for the good youngsters, an the Boy Bishop. 15th IN the GERMANY ones. During the 19th centurv. Santa for bad the sack during empty potato the Atlantic from the a Martin fills Luther, Santa United States. the religious century. In the good children's stockings and leader who also invented a lot of US. A. and became known as leaves under the tree everything new German words, substituted the Father Christmas in England. THE NORWEGIANS call him from electric trains and model Christ Child, or Christkindlein. for and he works overtime Julemssen. of the St. Nicholas bearer as gifts. space rockets to dolls and tobogto make the bearing of in the land of the fjords. He brings He wanted gans. IN ITALY, Santa combs as an old gifts a symbol of the Wbe Men's gifts to good kids before they go to woman on a broomstick, named La visit to Bethlehem, bringing gold, bed on Christmas Eve. after the Befona. and leaves gifts in the frankincense, and myrrh. So the family has finished Christmas dinchoes of nice children But woe to Christ Child came secretly to Ger- ner; and in the week between those who don't mind their parents, man homes on the Eve of Christ- Christmas and New Year's he totes his sack to a communitv party for they're apt to find ashes in their mas. IN THE SIXTEENTH century, a the children called Ju'trefest." brogans. REGARDLESS of the name bv In the fourth century he was German colony led bv William which Santa R known, and no matand in Pennsylvania. modeled after the original St. Penn settled he appears, one fact ter where The name his Nicholas who lived in Turkey and again Santa changed t infer remains conold about the Christkindthe kind-had settlers brought j whose deeds of courage and stant: it but somehow with them lein got death the him after ness earned He is a wanted man! saint of the children. transformed into Kris Kringle. title of St. Nicho- Santa Claus is a wanted man. - I patron example. The chief priests saw in him the downfall of their religious system, and they knew there was not enough room for both. Jesus found nowhere to lay his head" in life, and in death, his b;dy was placed in a borrowed tomb. ALL THIS TOOK place a long time ago. But the cry of "no room has continued to be the significant characteristic of our world. Every in our lives that day we ancient scene in Bethlehem. There was no room in the inn because the available space had been taken. The problem is still with us. The Sabbath day is filled with recreation. Our lives are overflowing with the pursuit of material things. MOSTLY THERE IS NO ROOM left for worship, no room for meditation. no room for Godliness. Our time and our activities have already been fully allotted. But as the spirit of Christmas again occupies our thoughts, we become aware that Je.su i still stands at the citadel of our souls pleading for entrance If we make room for him in our lives, who can (ell but that room may be made available for us in his kingdom. re-ena- According to tradition, on the Holy Night there fell upon Bethlehem of Judea a strange and unnatural calm: the voices of the birds were water ceased greeting, the to flow and the wind was stilled. Merry Christmas same bell shaped cookies and the But when the child Jesus was born decorations and all nature burst into new life; trees same tree trimmings. put forth green leaves, grass THIS IS MOST important beup and bright flowers sprang cause Christmas is a holiday for bloomed. To animals was granted memory and tradition. So the same the power of human speech and the things should appear each year, ox and the ass knelt in their stalls even to the same slightly battered in adoration of the infant Saviour. angel or star for the Christmas tree THEN IT WAS THAT the sheptip top. This is a holiday for rememberi- herds abiding in the field with ng as well. We pause on our hur- their Locks heard the angels praisried shopping tours to drop a coin ing God. and king of the Orient in the kettle by a watching in their far countries" Santa" and to feel thankful that saw ablaze in the heavens the we have so many blessings. We sign. Even in distant pause while putting up our family's Rome there sprang up a well or nativity scene to remember just fountain which ran largely" and why Christmas is celebrated and the ancient prophetess. Sibyl, lookin whose honor the holiday is dedi- ing eastward from the Capitoline lull heard the angel song and saw cated. well-know- Difference in countries m cial. But it is very hard to say anything new and meaningful about something which is so precious and personal. We usually offer the same Y ear In 1897, Frank Church of the New York Sun wrote a letter to a little giri, Virginia, in answer to Is there a Santa her question, more beautiful answer Claus0" was ever made. It is so fine that just as the thought of Santa Claus never grows old, so this letter never becomes tiresome to the reader. "NOT BELIEVE in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in lairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not ee Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but there is no sign there U no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither men or children can see. Do you ever see fairies on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonderful things that are unseen and unseeable in the world. "You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a wall covering the unseen world which not the strongest man nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only, faith, poetry, love, romance can push aside that, curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real'.' Ah. Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abid- taU; Christmas time forthankfulness of blessings p Ha ppy N rriH hr,'nat 0 e daw ned. You dashed from your room with great expectations and all the anxiety of wondering whether Santa had remembered you faded with w as. of new wind-ucars and Do you remember when Santa the drone of new di esses. the touch Claus was the mod wonderful, the BUT MORE THAN THE tastes, most real and most exciting person the smells, the sounds, the anxieties on earth'.' Perhaps you were a born or even the gifts there was that incvnic and never fell lor that 'down the chimney" story but. most of tangible something about it all. you did. You eouid never really about Christmas morn, about the figure out just how lie got down childhood reality of Santa that just that skinny chimney, but then, it made 'you and life different. It is didn't really matter. Santa was said that this is the spirit of Christomnipotent and even if you didn't mas. Perhaps that is the best way know what that meant it was still to put it. Wherever it was, it was real, more real than anything and true. Bui Christmas had its problems, so 'Christmasy'. You can never go back to what not the least of which was how it was, but now and then the swirl would Santa pull a sleigh through of color an a cahdy cane or the California sand and wouldn't he get awfully hungry with so much to do imaginary tinkle of sleigh bells in one night? But you fixed that, will faintly recall all of it and just dear old Santa got his fill of pie for an instant you're a child again. Do you remember? and hot chocolate. FINALLY after the most agonizing weeks of waiting, Christmas Eve showed up. The tension was CW Famous letter: Santa IS real 3 Page in vision all the wonders of that night. There are many such traditional tales of the nativity, of the star-le- d wizards" and of the marvels wrought by the boy Christ. They tell of the bees singing their sweet hymn of praise to the. Lord, of the palm-tre- e bending down its branches that the weary travellers fleeing from the wrath of Herod might be refreshed by its fruit, of the juniper which opened to conceal them and of the sweet smelling balsam which grew wherever the drops of moisture fell from the brow of the Boy as He ran about or toiled in His loving service for His Mother." Quaint fancies some of these, perhaps, and not all of them worth preserving: but oftentimes beautiful, and with a germ of truth. FROM THE centuries between then and now. come stories of holy men. of bishops and peacant-saints- , and of brave men who preached the White Christ to the vikings of the north of Iona's isle. As in popular belief, with each returning eve cf the nativity the miracles of the first Christmas happen again, m in these tab's the thorn-treblossoms anew and wonderful roses bloom in the bleak forest. Other stories tell how on each Christmas eve the little Christ-chil- d comes again to earth and wanders through village 'Of town;" while lighted candles are placed in e the windows to guide Him on His wav. THESE VARIOUS legends and traditional tales, which sprang up among the people like flowers by the wayside and became a part of the life of the Middle Ages, are still of interest to us of today and have a distinct charm of their own. And wlr'o the otrldlike faith and beauty of thought of the finest of these have found expression in literary form thev eem particularly suited for our reading at the gracious time " IVANS DRUG 125 West Center J W ishes You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year |