Review: Warm memories of past Christmases
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2011
"Dakota Christmas" was a very enjoyable nostalgic trip down memory lane. The author evoked memories of an earlier era in the United States when old Christmas traditions were just beginning to give way to more modern practices. (Based on the toys and books and people the author mentioned, I'm guessing that his boyhood was in the 1950s, the same as mine.)The story moved around a good bit, almost like a jumbled stream of consciousness outpouring from the author's memory, going back to his Christmases at different ages, but it painted a complete picture of his holiday experiences. He noted - correctly, I think - that we remember many events from our childhood, but our emotions at the time are eventually dimmed.The author noted how much living in the middle of a vast flat prairie affected his outlook on life: "To stand along the prairie's rim was to understand the clean, impatient truth that where human beings are, God is not - to know that the divine always lives apart from people." But then when he recalled all the warm memories, including celebrating Christmas with his own children, he concluded, "I sometimes grasp a little of the other truth, as well: Where people are, there God calls us to be."