Zurich Citizens News, 1969-12-23, Page 11TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1969
Christmas is Day
For Families To
Get Together
Christmas is essentially a home
day. Children troop'•hotne from
school wildly excited about the
day of all days,
Young people from college or
business have been looking for-
ward to this for weeks. Those
from a .distance strive to make
borne at all costs. If they fail
they phone and if they cannot
get through on the phone they
wire. The one thought which
more than any other gripped
the boys and girls long distances
away , is home.
Home At Christmas --giving
.and receiving gifts, enjoying
a Christmas dinner, just sitting
around relaxed chatting about
this and that, playing with the
children trying to make their
mechanical toys work.
It is a wonderful day, for most
people, and it is spent in the
home. It may be a little cottage,
perhaps a larger house or even
a more pretentious building, but
it is not the building that makes
the home. It is'the spirit of
those who live inside its walls,
the parents, brothers, sisters,
who are bound together in a
common concern for each other.
It is hard for us who live in
the twentieth century to think
of a time when the home did not
hold the affections and the inter-
est of the family that it does
today. But it is the family, as
we know it, that makes a Cluist-
ian institution. Before the Christ-
ian era, children were all but
ignored. They had to be fed
and clothed, of course, but
that was about all. Women too
were but the slaves of men.
They had a very inferior place
in the family.
Christianity changed all that.
Jesus set a child in the midst
of a crowd and gave him the
position of prominence. Women
too were given new status in the
society that He established. The
home is a Christian- institution.
Whatever good there is in it
stemmed from the teaching of
the founder of our faith.
It is a good thing once in a
while to remind ourselves of
that, especially at Christmas
when all the family will be to-
gether. We quite often forget
the debt we owe our religion.
Christmas festival. More people
are thinkingabout this aspect
of it than fr many years.
"Make Christmas Christian" is
a good motto for this year and
every year.
A world in turmoil needs a
Christmas when in quiet relax-
ation innocent joys, the intimate
association of the home, hap-
piness may be found,
ZURICH CITIZENS NEWS CHR15.TMAS kin`ribk
Christmas is hairy!
As the getting -ready -for -
Christmas tempo around our
house increases from mild pan -
ie to wild hysteria, I can't help
thinking a long way back; to
the times when Christmas was
an experience to be anticipated
with thrilling delight, to be
savoured when it arrived, rath-
er than the inane, exhausting
scramble it has become in
these affluent times.
First real indication of
Christmas was the buying of
the turkey. In my home town,
there was an annual Turkey
Fair, late in November. Excit-
ing for youngsters, Farmers
brought their turkeys to town,
fresh -killed and plucked, but
with heads, feet and guts still
there. Housewives wandered
among the turkeys, looking for
the perfect bird, pinching, pok-
ing, sniffing. Then it was hung
in the woodshed, by the feet.
At the right time, it was
brought in, the pin -feathers
plucked with care, head and
feet chopped off and guts re-
moved. Then the scent of
home-made dressing filled the
air. It was a real turkey.
Today, we elbow and shove
our way along the meat count-
er, gazing at a row of pallid,
yellow -white lumps wrapped in
plastic, legs neatly tucked in.
They all look the same, and
they all taste the sante (wet
paper), but we are secure in
the knowledge that we don't
have to disembowel them, that
they are "eviscerated" and that
the giblets are in a nice little
bag tucked inside the frozen
carcass. I can't quite .believe
that they have ever been real
turkeys that have walked and
eaten and fought and mated.
Getting the tree was the
next step. You went out into
tha country with your kid.
brother, walked half a mile
into the bush and selected a
beautiful spruce, one cutting,
the other watching for the
farmer. You dragged and car-
ried it, sometimes two miles,
home. There was a great sense
of satisfaction.
Now's the
time to thank
you for
your continued ..�
good will, and -
wish you and your
family a happy holiday!
BAYVIEW GOLF COURSE
Highway 21 South of St. Joseph
Today we go down to a
Christmas tree lot, fumble
through a pile of half -frozen,
crumby Scotch pines, select
the least misshapen, take it
home, and when it thaws, dis-
cover that the frozen side has a
gap the length of your arm in
it. This is after forking over a
small ransom. There is a great
sense of dissatisfaction.
Decorations in those days
were simple, inexpensive, but
just right. Strings of red paper
bells, venerable but cheery.
Strings of red and green
curled crepe paper all over the
house. The tree itself bad "ici-
cles" and some colored balls. A
few wealthy people had col-
ored lights. On top was a
home-made angel.
Today, on decorations alone,
some people spend what would
have fed a family in those days
for two months. Fancy candles;
store-bought wreaths of ersatz
holly; colored lights every-
where, inside and out; trees
that are almost hidden from
the naked eye by festoons of
fribbery.
Buying gifts in those days
was simple, compared to the
frenetic business it is today.
There was scarcely any money
then, and everybody needed
something. So it was long un-
derwear, or a hand-knit sweat-
er, socks or gloves, maybe a
few real luxuries, like a 59 -
cent game of snakes and lad-
ders, or a book. Ten dollars
didn't go far, even then. •
Today people almost go
around the bend trying to find
something for other people
who have everything, or can
buy it. Nobody makes a gift.
They buy them. They haven't
time, because of the "Christ-
mas rush". Clothes that don't
fit. light -dollar toys that last
five minutes. A hundred dol-
lars worth of ski equipment
that isn't the right kind.
Christmas Eve then was car-
ols around the piano, mother
stuffing the turkey, kids to bed
early quivering ciith excite-
ment. Stocking -stuffing time
PAGE' ELEVEN
for the adults. A quiet ehat,
with a little despair that there
wasn't money for skates and
new winter coats, and things
like that.
Today it's frantic last-minute
shopping and wrapping of
gifts, entertaining people who
have managed to finish their
rat -race (we got to bed at 4
a.m. Iast year after receiving
carollers and others, and, be
lieve it or not, we had frozen
chicken pies for Christmas din-
ner.)
Hope I'm not getting maud-
lin, but Christmas used to be
merry. Now, it's just hairy.
Everyone's singing out in merriment
and joy, announcing to the world that if's
Christmas! And it's our time to
thank you, customers, for your patronage.
Vernon Schatz General Store
DASHWOOD
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e heartily hope that the true joy of Christmas may light the
way for you and yours throughout the year. And we take this
wonderful opportunity to thank you for your loyal patronage.
TIEMAN'S
HARDWARE and FURNITURE
PHONE 237-3631 HASHWOOD