I could identify with the line used by Errol Castens in a recent column in the Daily Journal. He told about the kid who was raised out in the country and who experienced great anxiety every time he heard the song “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.†Sure, he’s coming to town. He’ll make it to Many and Leesville, but what about all of us kids living out in the country? What about Route 1, Box 147, Hornbeck, Louisiana?
I always envied those kids who lived in town. They had a swimming pool in town, several hamburger joints, two movie theaters, and even got the paper delivered early to their door every day. And, now, on top of all that, Santa Claus was coming to town!
Our only method of dealing with this sense of inferiority that came with our living in the country was to look down our nose at the kids who lived in town because of some things they didn’t know. They didn’t know about corncob fights. They had never known the thrill of rat-hunting in the barn. They had never been swimming in a creek. And they knew next to nothing about stables and hay and feeding troughs (I’ll have to admit that we never called them “mangers,†but we knew plenty about feeding troughs in the barn). It was this latter bit of information that gave us an inside track on Christmas. We could identify with the description of a stable, the presence of animals, and the musty smell of hay in the barn. Santa Claus may be coming to town, but Jesus came to a barn and a stable.
So, by faith out here in the country, we got ready for the coming of both Santa Claus and Jesus. We carefully hung our socks (no stockings for us boys) by the chimney with care. My mom probably felt like the mother who said she was overwhelmed at seeing her children hang their socks up by the chimney on Christmas Eve because she had never seen them hang anything up.
We hung our socks up because it was the traditional thing to do. When my mom and dad were growing up, about all that they would receive at Christmas would be in their sock. We expected more things than that, but we hung our socks up any way as a tip of the hat toward Christmas tradition. Nowadays folks hang up big, decorative stockings, and even those are not big enough to hold all that they expect for Christmas.
We got ready for the coming of Jesus with the help of Plainview Baptist Church. We learned Christmas poems and Christmas songs. We looked around for old bathrobes and made angel wings out of poster paper and glued glitter onto them. It was a special time of the year, and it still is.
I’m glad that Santa Claus comes to the country as well as to town. And I am especially grateful that when Christ was born in the little town of Bethlehem, His coming also was announced in the country to the shepherds. God loved us all so much that He sent His Son to those who live in the country as well as to those who live in town.
