As these school children grow

As these school children grow older they will begin to realize (that the Holy Season of Christ's Birthday is celebrated not by any set routine in any nation. The celebration is one of family customs.

Here in the United States, and in Rappahannock county, the methods of observing the Christmas season vary with each household. To some it is a family gathering, a special season when the whole family “clan gathers” to renew family ties.

To some it is accompanied by the custom of the family attending church, and their are mute evidences that the insistence that eVery member attend has met with some small difficulties. Little sister is apt to bring the new doll to church with her, refusing to part with it and mother and father haven’t time to argue iwith her. Little Brother is Hopalong Cassii dy in person, present in the family grou]^ in body only, for his mind is elsewhere on the trail of bad men. Mother and Father usually look a little haggard, the result of getting to bed late from all the Christmas secret preparations and then having the wild Indians of the family up Christmas morning ahead of the sun.

To some the season is one of social hours; hours of pleasant visits and chatter among their friends.

This Christmas season will be a happy one in many homes—as it should be. As in all years through the ages, there are many homes where sadness mars the season.

Annually it is heard through the land that Christmas has become commercialized until it has lost its real meaning as the Season of the Greatest Gift from God to Man. There is no reason for this talk. The commercialized Christmas has been forced upon no one. Regardless of how dark the outlook is at this moment in history, we are free people still. We can accept or reject the “commercialism” as we please. If a man has become bound by a com