Christmas at Church
Chahta Elder Stories: Rose BillyPublished December 11, 2025
When I was a child, my household members always went to Church. We went to a methodist church named Bokchito. So, when Christmas day came, everyone was feeling good. That is how we used to live. And on Christmas Eve the men would go to the church early in the morning and together they went looking for a cedar tree. When they found one, they cut it down and brought it to the church and put it up.
After they finished that, it was about noon time so we all ate at noon time. When we finished that, they had to go inside the church to decorate the tree. And they all went in, just a few of them and they closed the door so no one could get in. So that no one could see in, they covered the windows and no one could see.
We could not see on the inside. And when they were through and came out, by that time it was eating time. And at that time, it was cold. And we were at the camp and there were many of us. The young men went out and found some broken and dry twigs and branches and started a fire and it was warm as we all sat there.
By that time, they were ready and at six o’clock they opened the Church. When we went in, the cedar tree stood there decorated so pretty. My father was kind of in charge and they had made out a program that he was following. And he said that we were going to do whatever we could do until it was twelve o’clock and we were going to meet Christmas Day.
They talked, they sang and that’s what we did. When it was the middle of the night, he said now we have met Christmas. Everyone shouted, they all shouted Merry Christmas. When they finished with that then they handed out the gifts. That’s what we did and when we finished with that, we retired. It used to be good.