Christmas can have a real melancholy aspect 'cause it packages itself as this idea of perfect family cohesion and love and you're always going to come up short when you measure your personal life against the idealized personal lives that are constantly thrust in our faces primarily by TV commercials.
It's true Christmas can feel like a lot of work particularly for mothers. But when you look back on all the Christmases in your life you'll find you've created family traditions and lasting memories. Those memories good and bad are really what help to keep a family together over the long haul.
We consider Christmas as the encounter the great encounter the historical encounter the decisive encounter between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly let him rejoice.
We always had lutefisk for Christmas dinner after which Dad read from the Norwegian Bible.
Our last jam session was this past Christmas. Dad played his harmonica mom sang in English and Italian and I played guitar. I'm so happy that we could share that musical experience for one last time.
Like my dad I have a Christmas party most years. I like to celebrate and see as many people as possible.
It was you know probably 80 degrees out in L.A. and my dad took me outside and there was snow. At the time I thought 'Every kid doesn't have snow in their backyard on Christmas?'
My parents were kind of over protective people. Me and my sister had to play in the backyard all the time. They bought us bikes for Christmas but wouldn't let us ride in the street we had to ride in the backyard. Another Christmas my dad got me a basketball hoop and put it in the middle of the lawn! You can't dribble on grass.
Come Christmas Eve we usually go to my mom and dad's. Everybody brings one gift and then we play that game when we all steal it from each other. Some are really cool others are useful and some are a bit out there.
I remember driving to North Carolina when I was a little girl in a snowstorm to get down to my mom's family in the Carolinas. There were chains on the car - it was the late sixties - and we were just singing in the car. Christmas carols.
Christmas is over and Business is Business.
We didn't have a whole lot of money when I was growing up either. I would always ask for magic books or magic tricks for my birthday or for Christmas and the rest of the year I either had to mow lawns or find part time jobs to help supplement the cost of doing magic.
I'm over the moon to be involved in the 'Doctor Who' Christmas special. I can't quite believe it as it's a part of the family tradition at the Jenkins household. I heard the news that I got the role on my 30th birthday and it was the best birthday present ever.
I wrapped my Christmas presents early this year but I used the wrong paper. See the paper I used said 'Happy Birthday' on it. I didn't want to waste it so I just wrote 'Jesus' on it.
The pattern of a newspaperman's life is like the plot of 'Black Beauty.' Sometimes he finds a kind master who gives him a dry stall and an occasional bran mash in the form of a Christmas bonus sometimes he falls into the hands of a mean owner who drives him in spite of spavins and expects him to live on potato peelings.
My mother she had a very good attitude toward money. I'm very grateful for the fact that we had to learn to save. I used to get like 50 pence a week and I'd save it for like five months. And then I'd spend it on Christmas presents. I'd save up like eight pounds. It's nothing but we did that.
My mom is a really good cook. I didn't get the cooking gene but she cooks this really amazing dinner every Christmas and that's always really fun.
I've got some incredible fans actually - so loyal and they make me birthday cards and Christmas cards. I got this package of poems and artwork based around the songs. They've got this thing called 'Floetry' where they all have to put in artwork. They've set up their own competitions and stuff which is kind of amazing.
The next thing I wrote was in a writing class at night school. It was about a poor woman who worked at a dime store and who was all alone for Christmas in Laurel Mississippi.
I think we need one recognized respected public figure to make a tough blunt statement on just what Reagan's record is and what he might do to the country let alone the Republican Party before Christmas.
Christmas lights may be the loneliest thing for me especially if you mix them up with reindeers and sleighs. I feel alone. I feel isolated. I feel I do not belong.
'The Christmas Song ' by Nat King Cole is not only a masterful performance to me it just sounds like the holidays. I've never sung it because Nat's version is so perfect. I gotta leave it alone.
My mother was a professional sick person she took a lot of pain pills. There are many people like that. It's just how they are used to getting attention. I always remember she's the daughter of alcoholics who'd leave her alone at Christmas time.
With the song 'This Christmas' I wanted to do something that was kind of different. I mean Donny Hathaway is an amazing artist. So I wanted to bring my flavor to the song so when people over the age of 45 or 50 hear it they'll be like 'OK he did his thing with that record.' It's like I can appeal to everybody and not just a younger demographic.