[Editor’s Note: One in a series on how personalities in the community remember and currently celebrate Christmas.]
[img]2177|right|Sue Robins||no_popup[/img]Since most of her relatives live on the East Coast, School Board member Sue Robins says Christmas celebrations are confined to her modest-sized family here.
That would be “my husband, my son who is 22 and my daughter who is 16.”
The Robinses will not be flying east. “We generally don’t travel during the holidays,” Ms. Robins says. We travel during the summer.”
December is a month of dual celebrations in their home.
“My husband was raised Jewish and I was raised Catholic, and so we do a little bit of both, Chanukah and Christmas. We light the Chanukah menorah in the dining room and we do Christmas in the living room.”
A tradition in the Robins home is to exchange gifts on Christmas morning. “Thankfully,” she laughed, “it’s much later now than when the children were young.”
For Ms. Robins, businesswoman and former teacher, is Christmas as much fun as the season was when she was growing up?
“I think so, but in a very different way,” said the second-year School Board member. “I have learned to enjoy Christmas through community-based events than just with my children.”
For a grownup, what is Ms. Robins’ favorite part of Christmas?
Inspecting the overflow crowd in Town Plaza almost two weeks ago for the lighting of the community Christmas tree, she said “it’s the happy little faces.” Swiveling to take in the jubilation of hundreds of young ones holding hands with their parents, Ms. Robins said that “I see the same kinds of happy faces when I am at the high school. These kids are little. At the high school, they’re not little but they are happy. The joy of sharing their happiness is infectious.”
What does Ms. Robins miss most about her childhood Christmases?
“Boxing Day (Dec. 26),” she said. “My mother is British. My grandparents are British. We always used to go to my grandmother’s and have Christmas again with a h-u-g-e Christmas dinner.”
