A recent newsletter from the Fenton History Center had a good article written by Norman Carlson on his recollection of past Christmas’s at the Fenton. It made me think back a bit to some of my own remembrances.

Like Norman, I grew up on a dairy farm. My Dad was so keen on seeing us kids open our stockings on Christmas morning, that he would have my Mom lock us in our bedrooms until he had finished the milking and could get back to the house. We would wait and watch out the window until he finally came out of the milk-house and would then seemingly slowly amble across the driveway toward our front door. We thought he would never get there. When he finally got his boots off and opened the bedroom door to let us into the living room — all four of us would make a mad scramble for our stockings. How could you not remember that?!

Of course, back in those days, there were no plastic or artificial Christmas trees. We didn’t have today’s tiny white lights either but, instead, bigger colored bulbs decorated the tree, about the size of the kind you might use today in a nightlight. The tree itself sometimes came from our own woods. Getting it home and decorated was a family affair.

For us, the big day was Christmas Day. However, later in life, I married a Swede and for her family, Christmas Eve was the big event. But, the tradition of stockings and the Christmas tree never changed.

I remember also, as a kid, downtown really being spectacular at Christmas. Instead of decorations on light posts, the City would string real greens covered in lights from one side of the street to the other. When you drove down Main Street, they would be above you in loops, held together by wire. When covered with snow, they made a winter wonderland of downtown.

Of course, downtown then was the retail shopping center for the community. There were no Malls or big chain establishments. People would be everywhere shopping and walking around from store-to-store. Like today, the Salvation Army had bell-ringers in front of the biggest stores. I loved going downtown at Christmas.

Then, as now, many people decorated the outside of their homes. There were certain streets, as I recall, that always “outdid” the others. Lakeview Avenue and the northside was always big. However, I remember Front Street, on the westside, as having almost continual lighting displays as you went from house-to-house. My Dad would put us in the car and drive slowly along these streets so that we could take it all in.

Though participating in all of these wonderful experiences, we were taught to never lose sight that behind all of the “hoopla” of Christmas, there was a deep meaning for that special day. Years later, at our Church, the Christmas Eve service became especially powerful. It was a late-night service starting at 11 p.m. At the end of the service, the lights would be dimmed, we would all hold candles and — as midnight came — the minister would conclude by saying: “The light shined in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it!”

Christ’s coming is still what Christmas is all about.

Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident.