Holiday season means Christmas programs

Stanton Covenant Church will host our after school Kids' Bible Club's presentation of “Love Came Down” at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 15. Mamrelund Lutheran's preschool and youth groups are participating, too.
As we help about 30 children practice, my mind wanders back to earlier Christmas programs. Do you remember yours?
Years ago, people filled churches and schools to take in Christmas programs. I'm told standing room only was common. Communities were eager to gather for Christmas programs.      
My brothers attended country school, so we, like generations of neighbors, had to get to the Christmas programs.   
The last Christmas before we country kids went to “town school” was also the year our farmhouse sat shivering on “jacks” during howling wintry storms. Before the next harvest, we would have cement walls surrounding the dirt cavern Dad, dynamite, hired hands and equipment dug under our house. If all went well, other remodeling, including a new “north room” would be nearing completion.
Multiple times since, our family members remembered that not one snowflake settled in the unfinished dirt cavern, and though windows were replaced or installed around us, none of us had so much as a cold that “breezy” winter of remodeling.  
The night of the school's Christmas program, Dad's job was to keep us kids occupied in the unfinished addition while Mom wrapped shiny child's purses my sister and I would receive when Santa dropped by the school a couple hours later.
If I try, I can still smell and feel the raw oak floors and trim surrounding us when Dad told us his version of how bears lost their long tails.  
Eventually Loren would “lisp” his recitation about only wanting two front teeth for Christmas, so he could wish everyone a “Merry Thistmas.” Mom assured us little sisters it was only black paper and a rubber band making our brother toothless.   
Though too young for school, I'd been recruited for a skit in which my big brother, Jim, “taught” me to drive. He had serious lines. I was the silly woman unlikely to comprehend such a challenge. Tsk, tsk.
A couple years before the country school program, I began my “public speaking” as part of Rachel Anderson's “beginners” class.   
Memory places me on the left side of the country church's platform. I can still see the quiet audience packed into the pews. To a shy child, the crowd equaled a stadium full of people.
Full disclosure? I was bribed.  
I still have the miniature lamp I earned by saying “my piece” and helping sing “Away in a Manger.” Each Christmas, my lamp collection expanded as I outgrew my bashfulness.
Bible Club children will sing “Away in a Manger” on the 15th, too. Can you imagine a Christmas program without it?
Yes, they'll do the motions, making stars twinkle before their little arms rock Baby Jesus.
Do you remember your Christmas programs? Were you a bath-robed shepherd, an angel, wise man, Mary or Joseph? Another part? I hope you didn't miss out altogether.
May this Christmas find you adding to your memories as you take in a few “live” Christmas programs in area churches and schools.  
Many, like ours, will likely have refreshments so you can visit a bit with neighbors you might otherwise seldom see.
Even if programs aren't perfect, you will likely go home feeling a bit more like you're ready to celebrate Christmas.
Though times and methods change, we need to keep telling, and hearing, of Jesus' birth. After all, that's really Christmas.
Marge Warder is a freelance reporter and columnist for the Express. She can be contacted at mawarder@yahoo.com.