When Christmas bells are swinging above the fields of snow,
We hear sweet voices ringing from lands of long ago,
And etched on vacant places
Are half-forgotten faces
Of friends we used to cherish,
And loves we used to know.

I have great memories of all the traditions we followed every Christmas.  We attended a small country church that also served as a community center for special events. 
The men of the community would go out looking for the biggest, most majestic evergreen, one that seemed to me to be the kind Santa expected every child to enjoy on Christmas Eve. 
Then, the women would decorate it, using tall stepladders.  (Of course, I only learned all this much later. _ I only knew that when all the friends and neighbors arrived with their wide-eyed, excited children that it stood there, replete with tons of packages stacked under it.

I would look up to the top where the star perched, brushing against the ceiling, so huge in diameter that it hid treasures we children could not yet imagine.
While all the children squirmed in their seats, anxiously awaiting the highlight of the evening--the arrival of Santa Claus--the whole congregation would join together singing Christmas carols. 

FINALLY!!!  A noise on the roof and the jingling outside of bells!!! (Oh, the work that our parents went to in order to preserve that illusion for us) It had to be St. Nick himself.  As if, by magic, he stepped from behind that huge tree still ringing his bells and declaring in a loud deep voice--Ho! Ho! Ho!   His pack was loaded with treasures for every boy and girl.

Then, out of that bag would come festive stockings , adorned with Christmas images with each child's name carefully embroidered across the top.
Inside was a plethora of Christmas goodies, including an assortment of old-fashioned Christmas candies--the red and green tightly-woven  hard accordian pieces, chocolate-coated candy with a creamy interior, chocolate cherries, candy orange slices, peanut brittle, divinity and more.  
 An assortment of nuts--walnuts, pecans, peanuts, almonds--all to be cracked, and the succulent center to be picked out and enjoyed on Christmas Day.
Naturally, every sack had an apple and an orange as well as some small surprise.  BUT, we children all knew this was just a prelude to the real treasures, those enticing packages sitting so placidly under the tree.

At last, Santa would turn his attention to those!  We each squirmed in our seats waiting for our name to be called as each of us hoped that big box was ours.
To our dismay, as Santa called name after name, we children found all these hidden delights were for the parents and the teens--NOT A ONE FOR US LITTLE FOLK. 
As we turned to our parents with tears in our eyes, they assured us just to be patient.  Then, Santa would announce that he thought he had left a few gifts behind the tree as the elves had just not had time to wrap them.

 
One-by-one, Santa's helper would bring from behind the tree, bicycles, tricycles, dolls,  hobby horses, pull toys,  trains sets, scooters, pedal cars,  baseball bats and gloves, basketballs, games, and so much more.  Our eyes got bigger and bigger as we impatiently waited for our name to be called. and tried to guess which was ours.  I don't recall a single child being disappointed.  It seemed Santa had read our letters after all!!  Each child seemed to get "exactly what he'd wished for."
I so wish I had pictures of all that...however, photos could probably not begin to compare with the memories I have carried with me all these years of those simple Christmas Eves in a small country church.

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