PAT BOONE is the number ten all-time top recording artist according to Billboard magazine. From the 1950s forward, he has sold nearly 50 million records and had 38 Top Ten hits, Gold and Platinum records.
Christmas is so much more than a “tradition”, a “family event”, looking for Santa Claus and presents given and received, all that so many look forward to and defines the day for them and their kids.It is fundamentally and essentially a day to worship the Savior of all mankind and to thank God for loving all of us enough to allow His Son..Himself in human form..to be born as human, one of us in every way, to live 33 years without one sin, be crucified inhumanly on a cross and rise from the dead to bring the opportunity of eternal life with Him..for each and all of us, if we believe and will receive what He did for us, beginning with His birth in a stable in Bethlehem.
If a family doesn’t recognize this and build their day around these truths in worship of the Babe of Bethlehem (as we always did and do in our family)–it’s not CHRISTMAS–it’s just a “happy holiday’, meaning very little of lasting consequence. Santa Claus can’t save your soul.
2. How does your family plan to celebrate Christmas this year with the pandemic restrictions?We’ll regretfully limit our gatherings, in number and closeness, as the scientists prescribe. Two of my daughters and their families are in other states, and I’ll divide my time between Lindy and hers in Orange County, and Debby and hers in Lake Balboa. It will lamentably be strange and less free and joyous–but we’ll be thankful together and express our ongoing love and devotion to our Lord for all our countless blessings. We’ll laugh and eat and share gifts..and always spend time thanking God for His greatest gift to all of us..HIMSELF IN THE PERSON OF JESUS.
And we’re already planning a 5 way Zoom together the next day!
3. What is your favorite Christmas recording of all time that you didn’t perform on?
Perry Como’s O Holy Night (though I made a very good recording of it myself)
–in fact, I’ve recorded more Christmas songs than either Bing or Perry, including a recent CD of 21 new Christmas songs, including a couple I wrote myself. I love Christmas and its music!!
4. What is one of your most memorable and fun moments ( I’m sure there must be many) at Christmas time with family? 
Wow, that’s difficult, so many memories. But the first Shirley and shared as newly weds (we married and moved to Denton, Texas at 19!) is perhaps the most touching. And real.
We had almost no money, I was in college as a sophomore at North Texas State and we had just discovered we were expecting our first child. We couldn’t afford any “gifts”–but Shirley got a free copy of a song I had recorded with the Texas Boy’s Choir, wrapped it and surprised me with it.
The best I could come up with was a big box Christmas wrapped, with a smaller wrapped box inside–with an even smaller wrapped box inside that one–and when Shirley opened that smaller box she found a note from me saying simply “I love and thank God for you, dear wife. Merry Christmas”.
I think it was our sweetest and most moving Christmas ever.
5. What would you like to say to our readers to offer them comfort and joy at this time of the year?
We need, every last one of us, to put aside all the other joys of Christmas (though we enjoy them too)–and read slowly and aloud, together, The Lord’s Prayer and The 23rd Psalm. A couple of lines jump up powerfully (“yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me”—-and “Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven”
—and “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age”.
No matter what our other circumstances are, if we together experience the Presence and Power and Love of Jesus in our midst, and in our hearts, it will be a wonderful and unforgettable Christmas. It’s His day, isn’t it?
