Harry Christmas

    My mother’s side of the family is large and very connected.  It started with my great grandfather, John B. Harry, a successful grocer during the latter 19th and early 20th centuries in Washington DC.  He believed in family.  So much so that he surrounded himself with his family by taking the city block on which he lived and owned (at this point the area was considered suburban farm land), and, when each of his six children were married, he gave them the land on which to build their homes.  They did build there, thus my mother grew up surrounded by aunts, uncles, and cousins.  In many ways they had an amazing childhood, and I was the beneficiary of some of the same kinds of gifts.
    My mother’s parents instilled these values into their family, so I grew up, not living as close to my aunts, uncles, and cousins, but being with them almost every weekend in the summers.  It was a great gift to receive and share.
    One of the extraordinary events that my great grandfather began was something we now call “Harry Christmas.”   It began in the mid-1940's as a progressive dinner around the block. They’d share one course, then all head out to the next house with horns, noise makers, and pots and pans, celebrating joy and making as much noise as they could.  After all, it was Christmas day!  They always ended the evening at the patriarch’s home.
    When they got to my great grandfather’s house, they had dessert but then everyone would gather in the sitting room, where a freshly cut cedar tree was standing.  Hanging from the branches of that tree were $10 bills (a lot of money in the mid-20th century).  These were for the grandchildren.  Every one of the seventeen grandchild, who were in attendance, got a bill.  After my great grandfather died (he lived to be 105 years old), he left a sizable trust, part of which was to fund the giving of those bills to the grandchildren at Christmas, a tradition which continues today.
    The progressive dinner eventually evolved into a gathering at one home, then at the family church, Eldbrooke UMC, and finally at the Methodist Retirement Home in NW Washington DC.  This gathering continues today, and in fact, my family joined 72 family members at the Home where we did what we always do.  We sang Christmas carols, shared stories, received the gifts of shared talents (musical instruments and reciting poems) by the great, great grandchildren, recited the Christmas story, then finished with lighting of the plum pudding followed by sharing in refreshments and fellowship.
    This year’s gathering included an invitation for family members to share their memories and feelings about this unique experience.  Many talked about family members who have passed on, some of those who married into the family spoke of what an unusual family it is, and some of my generation spoke about how it’s not Christmas for them until they experience “Harry Christmas.”

    As these stories were shared, I found myself reflecting upon the uniqueness of my family and the connection we have.  I thought about how, as we are now on the sixth generation of those gathered, there are some in the family I do not know and some I know well.  There are some I used to know better than I know now, and there are some I knew very little about growing up but know much more of now.  But underlying it all was an acknowledgment that we are all from the same lineage.  We are all connected by a patriarch who cared so much for us, that we were established as one family.
    As a pastor, it didn’t take too much of a leap to see this as a reminder that it’s the same with us in the Church.  We are a gathering of people who are connected by One who cared for us enough to establish a lineage that spans across generations.  There are some in the Church that we know better than others, there are some whom we used to know better than we know now, and dare I say, there are some whom we’d not be associated with were it not for being members of the family of God.  
    In the wake of the celebration of the birth of Christ, I am thankful that we are indeed connected, and that because of that connection, we are never alone.  Indeed God has established us as one family, united in the One who came and who comes to heal the world.  Thanks be to God.

What about your family?  What is it like?  What are the unique aspects that you share together?  How does that connection help you to relate to the Church?