Merry Christmas everyone. I hope that you all have a happy and healthy new year. My early Christmas memories in Drew County revolve around our house. The home of my parents Elvin and Lucy Gaddy Doss was the gathering place for all of us. Since I was the youngest of a large family I already had brothers and sisters who were married. Several days before Christmas Daddy would take us out to cut the Christmas tree. He would already have one picked out, a big cedar that would almost touch the ceiling. I know that we probably had very few decorations to go on it but when it was finished it was beautiful. The tree would be set up in the room where Mother and Daddy slept and where the wood heater was. Christmas eve night my sister or I one would get to sleep with them to see if we could see Santa when he came. We never saw him but he always made it. Christmas eve Mother and Daddy would go to town because that is when Sterling's and Ben Franklin would start marking down the price on Christmas items. Some how they always managed to get something for everyone. For me it would be a new doll. How they managed to get just the right one every time I will never know but on Christmas morning there it would be under the tree "just where Santa left it." My sister and I would each put a shoe box under the Christmas tree. (No hanging stockings on the mantle for us. The fireplace was in another bed room and while Santa had to come down it to get in we didn't want him having to leaving things in 2 different places.) On Christmas morning each box would have an apple, orange, nuts, candy and some fireworks in them. Christmas dinner as long as my Mother lived was basically the same. A huge roasting pan of the best chicken and dressing you ever tasted, sweet potatoes, different vegetables and a big fruit salad. No Christmas dinner would have been complete without Mother's home made rolls, cinnamon rolls mincemeat pie and a big jam cake made with blackberries that we had picked during the summer. um um good. I remember one year when my brothers were in service they got my sister and me each a Betsy Wetsy doll. (You gave it a bottle and then it wet on you.) They sent them several weeks before Christmas and my Mother hid them in the hat box of the wardrobe. My sister found them. So every day while Mother was working we would get the dolls out and play with them. If we heard Mother coming we very quickly put them back. Sure enough on Christmas morning there they were under the tree. About 30 years later we told Mother about it. Looking forward to hearing from some of the rest of you on your early Christmas memories. Mary .