Nearly Everyone ‘Travels Home’ for Christmas

We all go home, physically or mentally, for Christmas. Regardless of one’s nationality, there are certain traditions that families follow to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Learned and cherished in youth, they are carried for the rest of our lives.
Those time-honored ceremonies may include the reading of the Christmas story by a parent or grandparent. Others may look forward with great anticipation to a seafood feast on Christmas Eve.
Later that night, religious traditions may bring a family together as they travel to church for an evening service or midnight Mass. Such observances are recalled through decades.
One may recall being pressed close to a dear grandmother or grandfather in a crowded church pew, and hearing them sing “Silent Night” in German or Lithuanian or Greek in the candlelight.
Such recollections may have taken place 50 or 75 Christmas Eves ago, but on this special night they are as real as the first time them took occurred.
Years never erase memories of Christmas, especially the good ones. We may not be able to recall an exact year, but crystalline moments are eternally etched in our minds as we vividly relive that wonderful glee we felt when our wishes became reality. There was our first set of electric trains, all shiny and new, ready to roll down tiny tracks. Perhaps it was a new bicycle, with a big red bow on the handlebar. Maybe it was a special stuffed animal or doll that a small heart desired so badly that went from dream to something real on that special morning. These are the things that linger through time, that make Christmas special to each of us.
One tradition in our household is Christmas breakfast. No other day of the year do we enjoy a breakfast of eggs, bacon, toast and jelly, prepared by my wife. Our grown children remember this one special meal, and it’s but one of the things that we do to make the day stand out from all the others.
Yes, we have breakfast every day, but they are smaller, less formal things, a bowl of oatmeal, some buttered toast, but nothing as united as on Dec. 25.
Such recollections may have taken place 50 or 75 Christmas Eves ago, but on this special night they are as real as the first time them took occurred.
Those of us who served in the military can attest that Christmas was the most heart-wrenching holiday to be away from home. That is the way it has always been.
Whether it was in the years of the Revolutionary War, when one of the young nation’s most astounding victories came on Christmas in Trenton or through the Civil War, when the nation was torn, and families missed their sons and fathers. Americans who serve their country will forever miss that close time when family means more than ever.
In two days, many sons and daughters serving in uniform on foreign soil will miss Christmas with their families. Modern technology will bring their words and images into focus in homes around Cape May County, but it will not bring their kiss or hug, their being physically close to their loved ones.
While they may be absent in the fight against terror and evil, their thoughts will be at home. Instead of being a Marine or sailor, a soldier or airman, they will be a child once more, remembering the sights and smells, the warmth and soul-filling spirit that we cherish at Christmas. Time cannot change such memories.
Then too, there will be residents in nursing homes around this county who are as distant from their loved ones as those serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. They may be in wheelchairs or bedridden, but through the miracle of Christmas, they may recall those cherished holidays when they were younger and happier, and their loved ones were eager to gather around them and hold them dearly on this special holiday.
There are caring people among us who, living alone, will share their holiday with others in similar circumstances. Perhaps they will visit those in nursing homes to help bring a smile to a wrinkled face, and exchange memories of Christmas 1949 or 1964 when things were better and happier than today.
Some may look at a basket or tray of Christmas cards that have been delivered in the mail over the past weeks. They may remember how many others they used to get, but the senders are no longer here, aunts, uncles, cousins, neighbors and friends. They are also part of our Christmas “going home.”
We all go home for Christmas in reality or in our memory bank. I hope all your holiday memories are fond, or that you may have the opportunity to make brand-new ones this year that will last for generations to come.
Merry Christmas!