December 23, 2011

Readers share their favorite Christmas memories

Children ask Santa Claus for new Nativity set for their Christmas gift

By Judy Mang (Special to The Criterion)

It was in the early years of the 1950s.

My brothers and sisters and I were still children.

Our father died in 1951 at age 39. Our mother was only 36 years old, and had six children who were all under 9 years of age to raise by herself.

One Christmas, we asked our mother if we could have a new Christmas crib.

She said that maybe Santa would bring a new Nativity set.

So, on Christmas Eve, we hid our cardboard pop-up manger pieces under the sofa cushions in the hope that Santa would see that we needed a new one.

The next day, on Christmas morning, there was a beautiful new crib where the old crib had been.

The crib had pieces that you could move around any place you wanted them.

We looked under the sofa cushions for the old crib, and discovered that it was gone.

Mother said Santa saw them there and took them away.

It was nice to have a new crib for Christmas.

(Judy Mang is a member of St. Louis Parish in Batesville.)

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