It Wouldn't Be Christmas Without ...

Say "Christmas," and people call upon their senses for unique definitions. Depending on who you are, "Christmas" brings memories and expectations that look like, taste like, sound like, smell like and feel like no other time of year.

At our house, we wouldn’t CONSIDER starting the Christmas season without inviting the sounds of Kenny G, Richard and Karen Carpenter, Barbra Streisand, Mannheim Steamroller and Handel.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the sight of homemade stockings made from felt hanging from our mantle . . . six brown ones with horses on them for the boys and two red ones with lambs on them for the girls . . . and the name of a child glued onto each one.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the smell of apple leather, cider wassail simmering on the stove and scented candles.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the feel of my children’s arms around me or my grandchildren’s special brand of hugs and slobbery kisses.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the taste of my mother-in-law’s famous dime-size pepper nut cookies, which I duplicate from a treasured recipe written in her very own handwriting. Only mine are more like nickels than dimes. OK . . . if you MUST know, they’re more like quarters than nickels.

It wouldn’t be Christmas without our family reading from the second chapter of Luke on Christmas Eve around the tree. It wouldn’t be Christmas without carefully unwrapping the seventeen ceramic pieces to the manger scene my sister made and placing each piece on its bed of red velvet. It wouldn’t be Christmas without the taste of crab dip or "figgy" nut roll. It wouldn’t be Christmas without chocolate. And most of all . . . it wouldn’t be Christmas without blending my voice with those of my friends and neighbors in church as we sing "Silent Night."