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I REMEMBER By Jim Bell T sat down at my desk to try and compose something for this week's paper but this is one of those days that one can think of nothing but how dismal the weather Js and how quickly Christmas is creeping up on us, Then we start to wonder if our money will hold out for all we want to buy. What will I give my wife for Christmas and what will she give me, Will the kids he down or will we have to eat our dinner all alone, So it goes on and on till suddenly I real- ize that I am right back to where I started and have not thought of anything to write yet. Thank goodness I have a good part- ner. My wife just handed me an editorial clipped from a 1966 Star Weekly. It is called ’'The Forgotten Christmas”. There are some things in it that are well worth repeating. “The story of Christmas with) its eternal message of Good Will Among Men was never so wide- ly told in recent times. Yet good will among all men has Pedi steagsonaagaentB indi a ng peace but a chimera. In our we keeping Christmas any better than the heathen or the Infidel. We sing “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer”, instead of “Hark The Herald Angels Sing”, or “I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas”, instead of “O Come All Ye Faithful". A red nosed pot-bellied Santa Claus with an insane laugh has displaced the Three Wise Men. A garishly dec- orated tree has dislodged the Nativity Scene, To send a card with a religious theme is to risk being considered a little queer. | For far too many of us, Christmas has become an orgy of eating, drinking and spend- ing, which mocks everything that the name of its patron ought to stand for. In the ten days before Christmas, Canadians will spend millions of dollars on beer and liquors, They will spend twice as much on Christmas card postage as on Christmas charaties, Can- adians will go millions of dollars in debt for things they don’t need or for gifts for people that don't need them, It is true that tive million Canadians, including children, will go to ehurch on | Sunday morning, proving that the spiritual impact of Christ- pagan give up hope? For the greatest hope of mankind is in the babe that was born in the little town of Bethlehem nearly two thous- and years ago. The world changes but the Christmas mes- sage never changes and never will.”