So many moments and memories flood back to me when I see the multi-colored and white lights lit on the houses in our Massachusetts neighborhood: the clock striking 12, the presents under the tree and the Christmas cookies from the grocery store (in the bag, likely baked last August, haha).
As a boy, Christmas time was always a happy time for me: a fun period over the many years after the calendar turned the page from November to December. For one thing, the opportunity to play hockey outdoors would usually have just started after Thanksgiving. Many of my happiest memories are of outdoor skating and outdoor games. Public skating veterans know this drill quite well, I'm sure: everyone skating clockwise until the ice started to get too snowy and then everyone skating counter-clockwise.
For another, I loved the sights of walking around in town. The store owners, the towns and villages would have put up the lights, the wreaths and the big tree on the Village green.
Christmas always makes me think about my late father, Bill Stewart Jr.
At this time of year, my dad would have been coaching and reffing with me about three feet behind him at The old Boston Arena. The smells, the sounds, the smiling faces, the anticipation that Santa was coming to town. I was busy playing my Hockey for Hyde Park, MA and Eddie Dalton, then onto The Town Team for Brookline, playing for Eddie Kirrane. Likely the ponds were just starting to freeze, long days there with tired legs walking home after the street lights turned on.
Dad even built a rink in the back yard, something I like to do for my own boys and any kids in the neighborhood who want to skate. To this very day, I can close my eyes and see my late father, Bill Stewart Jr., getting the garden hose out and flood the backyard rink. I will also say this: My 90X40 home rink is some of the best ice I ever skated on in my life.
This year has been an unusually warm December. It's not cold enough for our back yard rink.
It's a much, much more scenic place when we've got snow on the ground, like last year. See?
At any rate, every year growing up there was always The Christmas Tournament at Dartmouth College and a side trip with my dad to a local New Hampshire farm on the way to Hanover to buy a bundle of Christmas Trees; one for us and the others for our neighbors and friends. They were carefully tied on top of the car, a slight dusting of snow adding to the winter atmosphere then we were off to brave the cold of Davis Rink at Dartmouth. In more recent times, as much as a hobby as a business opportunity, I've operated my own Christmas tree farm. Here in tree in our home this year.
Before going to the rink, we stopped at Lou's on main St. for a pregame breakfast with real Vermont maple syrup and local bacon, and then onto the rink. We were always greeted with a warm hello from Dartmouth Coach Eddie Jeremiah. I always looked forward to seeing the Dartmouth trainer, Irv Fountain, defenseman Chuck Zeh and goalie Warren Cook. Being with Dad, I was greeted by Giles or Walter Fitz or Jimmy Edgeworth, Eddie Barry or whoever was working with him officating in that great holiday tournament.
Years later, as a college senior at the University of Pennsylvania, I left Penn and went to Binghamton on Dec 13th to try out for the Dusters; the weakest team in the North American Hockey League but a pro team nontheless. I made it just in time to prove my worth, get an assist and a fight in my first game. I went along to the team Christmas party, getting sucker punched and bitten by Bill "Goldie" Goldthorpe ("So this is pro hockey," I thought). I remember meeting Dusters owner, Jim Mathews and signing for a whopping $250 a week and feeling on top of the world. I then received my first Christmas present from the Dusters: a pair of Endicott Johnson shoes and a team logo tuque.
A few years later in Cincinnati of the WHA, owner Bill DeWitt signed me just before Christmas, giving me a team ring, a Stinger waste basket and some team autographed glasses. What a Christmas: the fantastic train display in Cincinnati at a tall building downtown, my first taste of Skyline chili, having a few glasses of holiday cheer with Pat "Whitey" Stapelton, Jamie Hislop and my roommate, Billy Gilligan.
The next year, I was with the AHL's Philadelphia Firebirds, arriving just in time for the team Christmas party. Five minutes after I arrived, miserly owner George Pizek said to me, "You don't expect a gift do you?" But I did get a present: a one-suit garment bag. It came in useful, too I was on the move a lot during my playing days, especially that season. Like that Willie Nelson song, going to 4 teams that year I seemed to be always "On the Road Again."
In each of the last three years before my amicable parting of way with the KHL, I'd be flying home from Russia just before Christmas, watching the MHL Red Stars playing teams all over the northeast, and finally seeing my wife and kids again after so many months in Moscow.
The other night at Bob Crocker's Lester Patrick Award induction, I had a conversation with one of my former bosses in the NHL; someone whom I still hold in high regard. I told him I only had one regret in my professional career and he nodded and said "well, that's just life."
Yes, You are right. It's just life, and it's my life. I can't complain. Actually, even with all the simple things that are making me so happy this Christmas, I do have one small complaint: Is it too much to ask for some "hockey weather" for the good of our backyard rink?!
God bless us, everyone, and Merry Christmas to all!!!!
************************************************************************ Paul Stewart holds the distinction of being the first U.S.-born citizen to make it to the NHL as both a player and referee. On March 15, 2003, he became the first American-born referee to officiate in 1,000 NHL games.
Today, Stewart serves as director of hockey officiating for the ECAC at both the Division 1 and Division 3 levels.
The longtime referee heads Officiating by Stewart, a consulting, training and evaluation service for officials. Stewart also maintains a busy schedule as a public speaker, fund raiser and master-of-ceremonies for a host of private, corporate and public events. As a non-hockey venture, he is the owner of Lest We Forget.
Blogger •Former NHL Referee • 
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