What if?

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By David S. Edge

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With the Christmas season upon us, I always look back over my life; I revel in the warm memories of Christmas of past and present. Of course, it’s nothing of the sort of stuff of Dickens on’s Scrooge or “Miracle of 34th Street” or even “It’s a Wonderful Life”. But, somehow for me, the elements of these books and movies make my memories a combination of all three.
There was the boss that made me work Christmas Eve until late to finish all the work that had to be done before I could take off Christmas day, but he left early to enjoy the Eve with his family (Scrooge). There was the time when a wonderful miracle happened and money arrived just in the nick of time to make Christmas presents happen at the last minute. And, of course, there have been many incidents of what would have happened, that particular Christmas if I had not been there? We’ve all had these situations occur…and these occurrences, the actions we took, and the memories we made are what make each of you…you!

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When I was a young teenage boy, our church wanted to do something to make Christmas special. As most churches do around this time of year, any money was used to assist our more needy members of the congregation with food and medicine before any leftover funds could be used for “extra unnecessary activities”. So we kids put our brains to work to try to figure out a way to make something out of nothing. I was taking an art class at the Jr. High and we had been making small paper Mache figures and I had an epiphany! “We can do a live manger scene in the front yard of the church every night the week of Christmas”. The whole town can drive by and view it’! There were the usual objections of ‘we have no money for building a manger’ and ‘how would we do this or that when it costs money we don’t have.’ ”We can build it all for free”! I had everyone’s attention. We make full-size paper Mache animals! We just need newspaper, flour, and water.

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We visited a local building site and asked the contractor if we could have all the scrap lumber, we asked church members to donate used newspaper, and a local grocer donated a few 5 lb. bags of flour for the glue. We were off and running! We made wooden frames for the animals. There was, of course, a donkey, a cow, and a few sheep. But our pride and joy was a full-size camel for the wise men! We nicknamed him Clyde.

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Each wooden frame was covered in chicken wire and then molded with the paper Mache into incredible likenesses. After some of the men in the church saw what we kids created, they got involved and came and built a simple wood frame that could be surrounded by bales of hay to make the manger. All that was left was bathrobes and towels for headdresses and a few floodlights. We had our live manger scene! To help us keep warm, some the church ladies brought hot chocolate each night for the live kids to keep us warm as we were posing as the shepherds, wise men, Joseph, and Mary. There was even a live angel above the whole affair with a star. Our little production was a big hit and the church continued this live manger scene for years to come as each generation of teenagers took the helm and made it happen.

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Years later while I visiting my Mom at Christmas, we decided to go to Christmas Eve church service. As we drove into the parking lot, to my amazement there were all the animals we had built some dozen years before when I was a young teen! I was immediately overcome with emotions that something we created out of nothing was still being used each Christmas all these years. It was my personal “It’s a Wonderful Life” moment!

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I’m sure you have a Christmas story to tell… and these are what make you…you!

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David S. Edge

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V.P. of “Paper Mache”

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Healthcare & Retirement Planning Professional

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Utilizing fact-based decision making to protect your retirement lifestyle!