The Christ in Christmas
Cowgirl Sass & Savvy

By Julie Carter

At daylight on an icy, snowy Christmas morning, my dad went to the barn to do the usual daily chores. He was also keeping a secret there and the secret needed to be watered and fed.

Hidden in our barn was a coal black Shetland pony he'd ended up with in one of his horse trades.

He had sold a perfectly good 2-year-old bay gelding for some Christmas cash and somehow ended up with this "prize" pony as part of the deal.

My dad hated ponies, believing that if you wanted to ride, you should ride a real horse and there were plenty of those around.

That point was driven home, literally, when the pony unloaded him on Christmas morning when he rode him bareback to the creek for water.

Landing hard on his jean pockets on the frozen ground left my dad with a broken tailbone that offered a painful reminder of his horse-trading abilities for months to follow.

While my dad provided many opportunities for memories during my formative years, there isn't a Christmas day I don't think about that incident and the many years that followed with the black pony adventures.

That simple, almost accidental, gift to us children became a memorable bookmark in our childhoods through many seasons.

I look at my children and wonder what parts of a tradition-filled holiday do they remember?

I'm sure there are individual stories for them, too, but generally, they remember the traditional things passed through generations of our family.

My teenage son tops his list with family get-togethers and big dinners. Food to fuel a growing boy's stomach is still a big part of his priority list.

However, with that is the delight in having the relatives gathered in one place.

My daughters recall the traditions they now carry on with their children. A cookie-decorating event, a family tree-trimming night, making grandma's recipe for homemade caramels and peanut brittle, the hanging of the stockings designed and sewed by grandma and the arranging of the traditional Christmas village.

A family favorite for generations has been the nativity display, complete with real straw to litter the barn floor and a light to represent the star in the East.

Bringing forth the solemn wonder of Christ's birth was, and is, as much part of our tradition as any one thing. Unlike the Christmas pony, it was not an accidental gift.

It is the one true gift that has kept on giving.

Political correctness makes every effort to sterilize the season by making it improper and, in places, even illegal to use the term "Merry Christmas." It is only a matter of time before they realize their "Happy Holidays" is only a version of "Happy Holy Days."

Somewhere in all the red and green everything, the masses of lights and never-ending glitter, it is important for us, as individuals, as a family and as a nation, to hold on to the true meaning of the season. The Christ in Christmas.

I never was very politically correct. Merry Christmas!

Visit Julie’s website at www.julie-carter.com