'Christmas I Remember Best': Christmas without the trappings is a wondrous event

Imagine Christmas without decorations, lights, Christmas music and advertising. Imagine Christmas without holiday shows on TV.

Imagine Christmas where stores are not stocked with Christmas merchandise: no Christmas candy, toys, gift baskets, cards, wrapping paper or decorations. Imagine Christmas without Santa Claus and Christ. Imagine a place where Christmas is something that cannot be celebrated openly and must be talked about in hushed voices in public.

This sounds quite unimaginable in the world that we live in today, but there is a place like this that actually exists. It is a place where Christmas is treated like any other day of the week. It is a place where Christian holidays are not acknowledged; thus, they are not celebrated.

It is a place in which my family had the great fortune to spend one Christmas … the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Yes, I consider my family fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend one Christmas in Saudi Arabia. It is hard to imagine Christmas without all the Christmassy things that accompany this special day, but to experience Christmas in this manner is incredible.

In the world as most people know it, Christmas is going to happen and does happen whether you want it to or not. It's impossible to avoid the lights, decorations, music and advertising. Take it all away though, and Christmas doesn't feel the same. This is the best way to find out what Christmas is and what it truly means.

My children were 6 and 10 years old at the time and they remember that Christmas well. It was so different from any others that we have ever experienced. If we were to have Christmas, we had to make an effort to make Christmas happen. We didn't have any decorations so we had to start from scratch.

Trees could not be purchased so we started with making a tree, the biggest tree we've ever had; a 12-foot flat tree made with butcher paper that we taped to the wall topped with a 1½-foot paper star. Thankfully, the house we lived in had a really high ceiling.

We decorated this tree with paper lights, handmade ornaments and ribbon. We made Christmassy sweets like candy cane cookies. Presents were wrapped in homemade wrapping paper. We told Christmas stories from memory and sang songs a cappella. Since this was just another work day, the kids impressed me with their patience and waited until their dad came home from work in the afternoon to open their presents.