For most people Christmas means brightly wrapped packages, Santa Claus, eating too much food, visiting too many relatives, decorating a 6 foot balsam, or attending midnight mass. Today we debate whether Christmas trees should be displayed on public property, whether we should wish people a Happy Holidays or a Merry Christmas and whether kids should have a Christmas party at school. We complain about the commercialism, the need to buy the best toy, to decorate the house, and to attend every holiday function. The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is a blur as we race to the store, to the airport, to the post office.

For many seniors their memories hold cherished images of a time when the holidays meant more than presents. A time when the holidays stood for faith and family and fun not the latest must have toy or the newest digital gadget at the local big box store. Many seniors insists that the holidays use to be a much simpler time, a time when people enjoyed the small pleasures of the holiday and looked forward to coming together and appreciating what they had. That Christmas was a time when a homemade gift, a home cooked meal, and attending church added up to happy holiday.

For Liz, 89, of St. Albans the holidays use to be a small family affair. There was never a lot of money so gifts were not the focus. As Liz said “Maybe we would get a gift, maybe the three of us would share a doll.” When Liz was a girl it was tough to travel in the deep snow. Roads were not plowed ,so often times cars were parked until the spring and families would rely on horse drawn sleighs to get them to church .Each Christmas her family would travel over 30 minutes by horse drawn sleigh through pastures and unplowed roads weaving their way into the village of Fairfax to attend church. As Liz said “I can see the horse trotting, to this day.”

Christmas has always been a holiday for children and some of Liz’s fondest memories were sledding on their new homemade sled with her brothers and sisters. Liz recalls her brother making a “jack jumper” sled built for one.

It seems hard to imagine that before big box stores and online shopping that people use to buy gifts from door to door peddlers. For Liz she remembers Claude Allen going door to door in Fairfax with his sleigh loaded down with groceries and toys. When Allen arrived in the driveway it was always a big event. During the winter months it was hard to get to St. Albans to shop so this peddler was their connection to the world outside.

Christmas in the countryside may have included horse drawn sleighs and door to door peddlers but for Betty, 86, of South Burlington she remembers what Christmas was like in the big city during the 1940’s. Betty becomes animated as she talks about her 21st Christmas a time when the world was under attack. It was Christmas 1941 and Pearl Harbor had just been bombed and the US was preparing to ship out young soldiers to the European front. For Betty a young secretary alone in New York City it was a time to remember. She remembers the streets being filled with people in uniform and that all of the nightclubs and restaurants let anyone in a uniform in for free. That people drove to Mitchell Field to leave off wrapped presents for soldiers and that civilians volunteered to scan the skies for enemy planes. It was a Christmas that for Betty and millions of other Americans brought some joy to a scary time and a holiday that was celebrated like it was their last. As Betty said, “you lived every moment to the fullest knowing that just around the corner was a scary unknown.”

For each of us we hold a special holiday memory. Whether it be a special gift, your first Christmas with someone you love, or creating family tradition. For many Christmas is a series of images and the ghost of Christmas Past is a familiar friend of a simpler time. Christmas was about community and wishing your neighbors well. It was a time to give thanks for the ones you loved and to hold fast to the belief in the goodwill of men.

Sarah Lemnah writes on senior issues for the Champlain Valley Agency on Aging. This article originally appeared in the Burlington Free Press.