December 19, 2008

Christmas Supplement

Family continues tradition of decorating tree on Thanksgiving

By David Parrish (Special to The Criterion)

I grew up in Kokomo, Ind., and was the youngest of five kids who were being raised by a single mother.

We were what would now be classified as “extremely low income” and lived in public housing.

Mom would make sure that we had what we needed for school before getting stuff for herself.

For the Christmas season, we would drag the box filled with the fake tree out of storage and assemble the tree as a family on Thanksgiving evening. We would look forward to this and enjoyed every minute of it.

Now, as a father, I am continuing this family tradition by setting up our fake tree on Thanksgiving evening and letting my daughter, who is 7, and my son, who is 5, help decorate it.

(David Parrish is participating in the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program at St. Joseph Parish in Indianapolis.)

Local site Links: