Pastor Andrew Wyermann told about a Christmas celebration in a nursing home. Listen to his story: I asked the folks to tell us about their favorite Christmas experience. The group seemed to light up. Spontaneously one by one they told their Christmas story. Each was different except in one respect. Every experience was taken from their childhood. They did not remember Christmas as a parent, but as a child.

Then I turned the question on myself. I, too, returned to my childhood.

The first, and perhaps most memorable, experience I recalled took place when I was seven years old. Early Christmas Eve,…