I remember back at old Emerson Junior High School in Dayton, Ohio back in the late 30's and early 40's, we always had an assembly right before we got out of school for Christmas Vacation. The older kids would put on a play, very year, the Wise Men, the Manger, Mary and Joseph and the Baby Jesus, always a big bright star hanging overhead, maybe the PTA or someone would have a gift for us, a candy cane or something. Seventy years later and those images are still vivid in my mind. The last day of school, now Christmas and all that goes with that.
We always did a few church services, a candlelight service at the old First EUB Church in Downtown Dayton. Always a play of some kind at church, many good memories of past Christmases.
Sunday night and I am sitting here reflecting over the last few days.
There were a few movies about the birth of Christ, but you had to really look to find them, Jeffrey Hunter as I recall. He is almost my image of Christ.
There was nothing at Walmart, no mangers, no religious scenes for under the tree, none of the TV shows had any mention of the birth of Christ.
There was a lot on the news about Christmas Sales and products, statistics on how well the retailers were doing, the large volume of sales on the Internet, a lot of statistics on sales and selling, a number of Christmas musical shows, all selling CD's. pre-Christmas Sales, post-Christmas Sales, but NOTHING about WHY we celebrate the season.
Poor kids will have only a few memories of the day, when they get old, and they will all be about "presents" they received, probably not much about the reason for the day, no really nice vivid memories they can look back on. What a shame.
