Stories

Reflecting pool at Temple Square Photo by Lesley Stubbs

The trees in my yard are white with frost, each small branch outlined. It makes me want to stay indoors, snuggled up with someone I love, with a good book or with a pen and paper. Thursday at Temple Square in Salt Lake City, I saw trees outlined in a different way, each one lighted with white or colored lights. The cold chills my fingers and toes and makes me draw my scarf tighter around my neck, but I cannot deny the wintry beauty of this season. It is the season of storytelling. Thursday night the stories of Oliver Twist, the Little Match Girl, and Ebenezer Scrooge were brought to life at the Dickens Christmas Festival. My husband and I and two of our granddaughters were carried back in time by a carriage ride and hot chestnuts roasted over an open fire in the streets.

“Once upon a time is now, and ‘our happily ever after’ will come at the end of a Christmas story that only we can tell.” So began Jane Seymour and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as they brought us Good King Wenceslas and his page in story and song at the Tabernacle Choir concert. I never heard the sweet story of that Christmas song so clearly before. Later, our own Christmases past came to light as we walked among the brilliantly decorated trees and talked together.

The winter season and winter holidays bring family and friends together to visit and to reminisce. The greatest story ever told is repeated over and over. We remember days gone by and family members who are no longer with us. These days it’s easy to pull out the cell phone or digital recorder and capture some of these memories. Grab a handful of photos and pass them around, letting story spark story as we record captions on pictures and stories on our mobile devices. Christmas is just once a year. Write some family history this year.