When you are in the retail business for 25 years and spend six months a year preparing, planning and then selling Christmas merchandise, you have to really be creative to enjoy Christmas.

Did you know that in:

• 1820 – Retail stores began advertising Christmas shopping.
• 1840 – Children visited the first Santa Claus in a retail store.
• 1890 – The Salvation Army needed money to pay for the free Christmas meals for the needy, so they dressed up unemployed men in Santa suits and begin soliciting money donations in New York City.
• 16th century – Devoted Christians brought decorated Christmas trees to Germany.
• 19th century – Christmas trees were brought to America from Germany.
• 20th century – Americans began decorating Christmas trees with homemade decorations.

The most important date- 2000 years ago – our Savior was born!

When Becky and I married, we decided we would begin making our own memories as a family. When our daughter was born, we worked hard to focus our memories on God, family and then celebration. We did all the traditional things at Christmas, and we prayed that we would transfer our faith, values and ethics to our children.

Recently, when I was on a plane traveling with friends and colleagues, one of the individuals on the trip showed me an article from the magazine “Real Simple.” Our daughter wrote the following, and it was published in the December issue:

“My family and I adapted a holiday tradition from the book, The Ultimate Gift, by Jim Stovall. At Thanksgiving, we decide on an amount of money to put aside, then we secretly spend it in a random, kindhearted way. Each of us have until Christmas Eve to complete our task, and we reveal it to the rest of the family on Christmas Day. The first year, I returned to the nursing home where my grandfather had spent his last years and gave gifts to a few residents who didn’t have families. The thought of going back there after my grandfather’s death seemed almost impossible, but knowing what it would mean to my mother and grandmother when I told them was worth it.”

What Christmas means to me is very simple- my role in life is to influence my children and grandchildren to live like our Savior did while on earth.

Merry Christmas everyone!