Through the years, the ways of celebrating Christmas have taken on many different forms.
Today’s Christmas tree is apt to be plastic or aluminum, rather than nature’s own fir, spruce, or pine. The glow of tiny beeswax candles on a tree is only a memory by the oldest residents of Armstrong County, replaced now by strings of twinkling electric lights.
Jolly Santa, once transported only by reindeer-drawn sleigh, may now arrive by helicopter, plane, or even a Kittanning or Ford City fire truck.
In spite of the changes, the essence of the season, the basic spirit of Christmas, stays the same.
Christmas is, above all, a time for togetherness and rejoicing. And a modern Christmas, just like an old-fashioned Christmas, calls for gatherings of family and friends, with much merriment, fun, and feasting.
Like families of yesteryear, they celebrate with gifts and greens, with the warmth of a glowing hearth and the gleam of a lighted tree, with stocking hung by the chimney with care and even with candles, though these beckon brightly from battery-operated candleholders in the window or mantle rather than from the tree.
All these ways of celebrating are part of the legend and lore that makes up Christmas in Armstrong County.