It’s the first Christmas I can remember. It arrived just seven weeks after the deaths of my father and baby sister. To make matters worse, it was in the heart of the Great Depression. Things were tough. All of us children who were older made what income contributions we could, but the truth was my mother had eight of her eleven remaining children still living at home, and six were too young to work. Understandably, the Ziglar kids were concerned about what kind of Christmas it would be!



The good news is that though our grief was fresh, we still celebrated Christmas. We received no toys that year, but much to my delight in my gift box I found three English walnuts and something I had never tasted before—raisins! They were absolutely delicious. Mama prepared her wonderful molasses candy and we had a small cedar tree. And my mother read the Christmas story, like she always did.

My sixth Christmas will always have great meaning to me. We celebrated the birth of Christ even in hard times because we believed in Christmas.


With all of the rush and stress associated with the Christmas season, Shelby Systems would like to encourage everyone to find the same joy of Christmas that the Ziglar family did by taking time to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, this Christmas day.

“She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Matthew 1:21