Photo by Doug Kretchmer\nNow there's a North End home that's ready for Christmas.<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\nI used to love going to Grandpa and Grandma Kretschmer’s (my dad dropped the ’s’ in our last name) house on Christmas Eve for the huge feast with all of my cousins and relatives. After the meal, the guitars would come out and we’d sing Christmas carols and a few other happy songs like Me and Bobby McGee. Then we’d open our presents from the grandparents.<\/p>\n
I found it kind of interesting that friends of mine and their two kids from Bangalore, India (who have since moved back after spending five years in Winnipeg), had never celebrated Christmas before they came to Canada. I would take them around the city looking at Christmas lights.<\/p>\n
The two kids were six and 10 and they were fascinated by the displays they saw. The idea of decorating a tree was quite a surprise to them also, but they enjoyed themselves as they took part in the festivities.<\/p>\n
Another fun thing I did that kind of became a tradition for me and a few friends was to go ‘church-hopping’ to various churches of every denomination on Christmas Eve, just to see the different ways that Christmas was celebrated. Some of the choirs were quite amazing. I think one year we visited five different churches on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n
All in all though, whether you’re religious or not, Christmas time does seem to bring out the best in most people (as long as not a lot of alcohol is involved). Although I personally feel that it has become quite commercialized over the years (it seems like most Christmas shopping happens on Black Friday or Boxing Day), it is nice to get together with loved ones and family.<\/p>\n
Why not keep the love and generosity going all the time?<\/p>\n
So as to not offend anyone I offer a few greetings (pick whichever one makes you happiest)… Merry Christmas, Season’s Greetings or Happy Holidays.<\/p>\n
Oh, and all the best in the New Year. See ya next year.<\/p>\n
Doug Kretchmer is a freelance writer, artist and community correspondent for The Times. Email him at quidamphotography@gmail.com
Twitter: @DougKretchmer<\/em><\/p><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":290377651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"_classifai_error":"","_classifai_text_to_speech_error":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,14],"tags":[],"education-subject":[],"media-literacy-topic":[],"post_topic":[],"content_type":[24],"class_list":["post-566316901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-correspondents","category-times"],"acf":{"short_title":"","seo_title":"","deck":"","story_tag":"","byline":"Doug Kretchmer - Community Correspondent","updates":null},"apple_news_notices":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/times\/2019\/12\/18\/what-does-christmas-mean-to-you","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"What does Christmas mean to you?","url":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/times\/2019\/12\/18\/what-does-christmas-mean-to-you","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/times\/2019\/12\/18\/what-does-christmas-mean-to-you"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-northend-kretchmer-dec25.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2022\/04\/e-comm-northend-kretchmer-dec25.jpg"},"articleSection":"Community Correspondents","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"feedloaderapi"}],"creator":["feedloaderapi"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Our Communities","logo":""},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2019-12-18T20:33:00Z","datePublished":"2019-12-18T20:33:00Z","dateModified":"2019-12-18T20:41:15Z"},"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t