"I'll be home for Christmas..."

A home sick 16 year old college student Ben Ram penned the lyrics “I’ll be home for Christmas” that in 1943 Bing Crosby made famous. The lyrics recorded by Crosby were different and written by Kim Gannon and Walter Kent. That year it became number 11 on the charts.
It has become a favorite throughout the world. It was the middle of the Second World War and the song pulled at the heartstrings of parents whose sons were in service.
It continues to be a Christmas favorite of troops serving in the US military around the world
As I meet parents throughout the region the question most often asked is “ Will your kids be home for Christmas?” followed by “When do they arrive?”
I am not sure who is home sick and who misses their children more.
Christmas is that special time of the year where families gather to enjoy traditions that they have come to know. New couples will find themselves torn working the arrangements to be with both sets of families.
Our youngest arrived home Saturday. Like most parents we began watching the weather a day prior to his traveling and discovered that there was a blizzard in Calgary. Adam spent eight hours Friday afternoon and evening trying to get a taxi for an early morning trip to the airport. His mother fretted the entire evening that he wouldn’t make it out.
Our oldest will arrive on Christmas Eve.
We will begin watching the weather beginning on Sunday.
I know that we are not alone.
Countless other parents are expecting their children and families home from colleges, universities and jobs around the world.
Other parents are looking forward to their grandchildren arriving for Christmas. One new grandmother excitedly told me her two new grandchildren, one four, the other five months were arriving. That was her most exciting Christmas present.
Some children will be bringing home a significant other to meet their parents and both are nervous about the impending holiday.
Some parents will meet their children at the airport in the Fort or the Falls.
For the next week the highways to Winnipeg and Thunder Bay will be busy as parents travel to and from the airports of those large centres. They will be watching the forecasts hoping that the snow is held at bay and that the outside temperatures are not too severe. They’ll also be watching the weather in the cities that their
Some students will arrive home by bus and will be met at the bus depot. Parents will be waiting in warmed cars. Others will ride share home from Winnipeg and Thunder Bay with friends who have vehicles.
At the Times, we will be short handed through the Christmas season. Our young reporters too are traveling home for Christmas. They began making their travel plans at Thanksgiving.
Artists have rerecorded the tune, “I’ll be home for Christmas” year after year, but the message of the lyrics is as real today as it was in 1943.

–Jim Cumming,
Publisher