GALION — Is there a holiday that evokes more memories that Christmas?

I think not.

So, if you are willing, share a Christmas story with me and other readers of the Galion Inquirer.

Post your memory on the Galion Inquirer Facebook page, in the ‘comment’ section below this story.

This store also will be posted on my own personal Facebook page, and you can comment there, too.

Or you can email a memory to me at [email protected].

If you have some photos you can share, post them too. I’ll need the by 9 a.m. on Dec. 20. I hope to use some of your memories in a story that will appear in the Christmas Dec. 25 edition of the Galion Inquirer.

I’d love to hear them, whether they are funny, poignant, life-changing … whatever.

I’ll start the ball rolling with two of my first Christmas memories.

They come from Florida. I don’t know how old I was, maybe 5, but my grandparents and aunts and uncles owned a small house in St. Cloud. A couple days before Christmas — this was maybe 1964 or 1965 — my mom and dad packed up the old Chevy with four kids and wrapped gifts they hid in the luggage carrier atop the station wagon and headed out for the Sunshine State. I think we left early evening because, well, that was how we did things back in the day.

Consequently, it was early evening the next day when we entered Florida via Interstate 71. Dad had the car radio on and the radio station was relaying updates every 30 minutes or so about the progress of Santa Clause and his sleigh and those reindeer, who were just entering Florida airspace as we drove across the Georgia/Florida state line. NORAD or some other government agency was providing updates that seemed to match our travel itinerary.

Actually I think this happened. I’ve heard this story dozens of times. It could be that mom and dad made it up, so we would go right to bed upon or arrival at that crowded, little tw0-bedroom cottage on Carolina Avenue in St. Cloud. But truly, it doesn’t matter if it actually happened. To me it did. And it’s a great memory. I love telling this story to others. It always makes me smile.

Now, the next memory, I do remember. It was the next morning and the Kent kids were up bright and early and amazed at the number of wrapped gifts around our little Christmas tree. I don’t remember much else about that trip, but I remember getting for Christmas a box that contained a small grocery cart and food items I could purchase at the store. There were plastic fruits and vegetables and bread and milk and steaks and ham and more that fit into that little cart.

I happily spent Christmas Day and the three or four days after that shopping and delivery the groceries for mom or Grandma Bowman or one of my aunts to cook. Perhaps that is why to this day, I still love grocery shopping.

Anyway, you get the drift. If you’d like to share a holiday story, respond in the comment portion on the Inquire Facebook page or my own Facebook page, or email me at [email protected]. Photos are welcome, too.