"families and friends across America will join together in caroling parties and Christmas Eve services. Together," he said imparting his usual optimism, "we'll renew that spirit of faith, peace, and giving which has always marked the character of our people."
"Christmas has always been a very special day for as long back as I can remember," Ronald Reagan once reminisced in a letter. "Maybe this was due to my mother and her joyous spirit about the day."
Although President Reagan could have spent his White House Christmases with family at his beloved ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif., he instead stayed in Washington, D.C. This way, his sacrifice allowed Secret Service agents and other aides to spend Christmas at home with their families. He was a thoughtful person.
Reagan grew up in a desperately poor family. His father was a shoe sales clerk who had trouble keeping a job, partly because he was an alcoholic. "There were very few decorated trees in the years of my growing up," Reagan said when recalling his childhood. "But never defeated, my mother would with ribbon and crepe paper decorate a table or create a cardboard fireplace out of a packing box. And she always remembered whose birthday it was and made sure we knew the meaning of Christmas."
His mother, Nelle, was an optimistic Christian woman who always looked for the positive side in every situation. President Reagan explained, no matter how bad things were for their family, his mother was always finding someone worse off than them. Reagan's most vivid early memory of his mother was of her taking a covered dish to a needy family. Nelle was always gladly helping others.
Perhaps those lean years are one reason why Ronald Reagan once said a particular Christmas gift was especially memorable for him, calling it "a gift truly in keeping with the spirit of the day." It became his favorite gift. His older brother, Neil, gave it to him after struggling to find a suitable gift for his brother. At the time, they both were middle-aged adults with successful careers. http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=119890