As Christmas is now only two days away, I began thinking of Christmas past……

Christmas was always an important day in the Barber household.

Mother LOVED decorating the house for Christmas and she would take days to complete her decorating.

And, yes, we had lots of Christmas birthdays. Joe’s birthday is Christmas, mine is the 27th and JoAnne’s was the 3rd. Since we were close in age, we always had one large birthday party and for many years it was at Evan’s Skateland on West 8th Street.

On Christmas day we would go to Church at St. Peter’s after opening our presents. Then it was on to, as my father called it, the Barber ranch/family home. Santa (Uncle John) always made an appearance. We believed in Santa until we were quite old as we knew that it wasn’t possible for our parents to buy us birthday AND Christmas presents!

Once we were teenagers, we began going to Midnight Mass and then on to our great friend, Louise Behringer’s home for brunch. Looking back, I can’t even imagine brunch at 1:30 AM! But we did!

Our Christmas’ changed as we finished college and some of us moved out of town. However, you could always count on mother decorating every corner of the house and having a “live.” tree. So, fast forward until today.

I continue my Mother’s tradition of loving to celebrate Christmas!

Ryan and I begin by purchasing a tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and decorating the tree and the house so that on his birthday, December 2, the house has “come alive” with the Christmas spirit!

I am sure that you, too, have many wonderful memories of Christmas.

Enjoy!