For those of you who read of my family Thanksgiving celebrations, I hope it brought similar memories of happy times with your family. And here we are with another major holiday season event directly ahead. This one is different from all other holidays in many ways because of what is being celebrated. On a political note, the USA was founded upon the principals of the Christian Faith and is embodied in our Constitution and accompanying documents. But then, we recognize the existence, death, and resurrection, or not, of Jesus Christ. In our country, we allow many variations of just what that event means to each of us. It is a personal thing. And then most obvious to everyone is the build-up leading to that special day. 

When most of us take the time to reflect upon our own “Christmas Pasts” we find an unbelievable number of memories that are both different and often nearly the same as those experienced by our friends and family members. Each of us can relate to something someone else has also experienced during their own Christmas holiday. We chat and laugh as we tell of things that we said, saw, or did with others. This is my AI. AI? You mean artificial intelligence? NO! I mean authentic or artifactual intelligence, the experiences I know from my own experience. This comes from “actual things” that existed in my life. These things were not conjured up with bits, bauds, gigabytes, nano bytes, electric or light pulses in a computer program. 

I remember the smell of roasting turkey or ham, pumpkin pie fresh out of mom’s oven. That was real. I remember anxiously waiting for my favorite uncles and cousins to get here and the fun times that followed. Of course, in my younger years, my siblings and I all waited for that early morning wake-up call from Mom or Dad so we could see what Santa brought us. Yeah, you’re right we knew who Santa really was, but didn’t want to lose the fun that that myth carried. Then we also shared in the secrecy each of us had with Mom and Dad as they helped us pick the gift for our sibling gift exchange. 

As we grew older, things and expectations changed; families grew and sadly some broke up. The celebrations changed too. Now, eight decades later, the memories of celebrations of past times are genuinely appreciated, regardless of how they occurred, because they were real, authentic, and ours. As I have observed for many years, most of us “mellow out” and begin to think more seriously about the “Christmas celebration” and what it means. I hope that yours are as rich as mine have been. Merry Christmas to you.