I am pleased to include in this week’s column some of the childhood Christmas memories of Rachel Holladay Slate who was born in the Hopewell community near Danville.

“I was born in a little unpainted primitive house about a mile past Hopewell Church. I lived there until I was in the 4th grade. Those were some of the happiest days of my life, especially at Christmas time. Having been born during the great depression years, I didn’t expect a lot of toys and gifts as children of today expect. In the fall we received our new Sears and Roebuck catalog in the mail. I was the first one to seek out something special (and affordable) for my Christmas present. One year I found a beautiful large doll which had curly hair like Shirley Temple and you could see its teeth and tongue, also it would open and close its eyes when lying down and being raised up. I could not have received such a beauty if I had brothers or sisters, which would have expected something equally as nice. But being an only child had its advantages.

While I was counting the days until Christmas, I spent a lot of time cutting out paper dolls from the old Sears catalog. They were free treasures to me. Then as the time came nearer, my daddy went to the woods and cut the prettiest cedar tree he could find for our house. Oh what great fun it was decorating that tree There was popcorn to be popped and threaded on long threads and looped around the tree. Also, it was fun to color strips of paper to cut and paste together like a chain, and no tree would have been complete without sweet gum tree balls and pine cones. The decoration was completed by cutting strips of chewing wrappers for icicles. No, we didn’t have lights because we didn’t have electricity. I remember asking daddy how Santa could visit every child all over the world in one night. He explained it to my satisfaction.

May everyone who reads this have a blessed and merry Christmas, even enjoying the simple things of life and don’t forget whose birthday we are celebrating.”

Amy Fisher Smith of Danville enjoyed preparing Thanksgiving dinner at her home. Those in attendance were Brad, Kaila and Kaiden Irwin, Dania Voketz, Matt Smith, Whitney Hutto and Lola, John Fennell, Michael Logan, Payton and Amy’s dad Frank Fisher. Everyone enjoyed lots of good food and quality time together.

Members of McKendree United Methodist Church express belated happy birthday wishes to Ethan Partlow on Dec. 1, Whitney Griffin on Dec. 2, Larry Tilley on Dec. 4 and Robert Sandlin on Dec. 5.

Happy birthday wishes go out to Gene Durand and Jayden Terry, both on Dec. 10.