Article December 14, 1998 Issue

398 more days until Christmas

How to celebrate Christmas wherever you are

By Robert West Hodges

Will there be a Christmas for you this year? One year I thought there wasn't going to be one for me. Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be one of my best.

I was in Vietnam with a battalion of marines. Christmas was a little over a month away, and the countdown had begun. Each day, signs made by marines were one digit lower: 408 days till Christmas, 407 days till Christmas, 406 days till Christmas, and so on. Since I wasn't feeling the Christmas spirit myself, I decided the countdown signs were probably right—there wasn't going to be a Christmas this year. Christmas would come next year when I was back home with my wife and two young sons.

But a few countdown days later, it dawned on me that as December 25 drew nearer, some of the men might expect me to contribute a little more positive slant and substance to the celebration. You see, I was the chaplain.

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