Holiday Legacies

I hope that as you begin to prepare your house for the beautiful holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas that you take an opportunity to display and even use handmade objects that have come down through the years and which represent memories of people and places long ago.

A cherished object in our house which does not get displayed much is a handmade Christmas stocking that belonged to my wife when she was a tiny girl. The stocking is not terribly elaborate, nor does it exhibit particularly fine stitching skills or artistic ability. It is homemade. But its charm is in that very "homemadeness" and the link to the past that it represents.

One of the best hidden treasures of this legacy is that it still contains the handwritten note from Santa Claus which was written to tiny Julie to thank her for the food left out for Santa's visit.

If you have objects from the past that you display during the holidays, take some time to remember the people who created them and the memories that they represent. Take some time also to tell the stories that those objects represent. You don't want those stories to be lost.

And get busy creating some new legacy items for future generations!