With strains of “The Little Drummer Boy” wafting on the holiday air, it’s reasonable to take a break from the normal drumbeat of editorial commentary. Instead, here are some seasonal reflections from members of the editorial board:

When my godchildren, Kallie and Peter Huss, were 4 and 6, we started a tradition. On the Saturday before Christmas, they picked out a toy each at Toys ‘R’ Us, and then we ate at McDonald’s. As they grew into adolescents, a computer-games store substituted for the toy store, and we ate in mall food courts. Now Kallie is a junior at Mead High School, and Peter is a University of Washington freshman. Cash has replaced the toys, and we eat together in grown-up restaurants.

Every year at our pre-Christmas dinner, we reminisce about the first toys – an orange blow-up action figure for Peter, a miniature car wash for Kallie. I tell them they were once so shy they spoke in whispers. They never seem tired of hearing the old stories, nor do I ever tire of telling them.

– Rebecca Nappi, associate editor

It’s always risky trying to draw larger messages from the everyday push and pull of the newspaper business. As journalists, generally we go where the stories take us.

But, as I told The Spokesman-Review news staff in a holiday letter, I do draw lessons from this year, particularly when I view what we did in the context of a struggling newspaper industry where so many of the basics are being lost to corporate consolidation and technological change.

In 2005, we did our best to pursue truth, insofar as truth could be determined. And I believe, though I respect those who disagree, that our reporting was consistently comprehensive, accurate and fair even while it was undeniably aggressive. I am enormously proud of the newsroom staff.

I believe this year has been about a return to our values and a reconnection with the principles of our craft.

Journalists don’t exist to serve each other, the news establishment’s graybeards or the prize committees. We don’t exist to serve stockholders or business interests, chamber leaders, politicians or clergy; not even our owners, though they have shown us unflagging support in a difficult year.

Journalists exist to serve citizens. I’ve always believed that. I believe it now more than ever.

In 2006, I expect this staff to continue to stand up for the little guy, to give voice to those who have no voice, to the disenfranchised and the victims, and especially to the children of our community. We’ll continue to fight for open, accessible government that serves citizen interests.

In 2006 as in 2005, we’ll do our very best to tell people what we know when we know it, without fear or favor. That’s a New Year’s pledge.

– Steve Smith, editor

Jesus is called the Prince of Peace.

Yet his disciples are in full battle mode this holiday season against secularists who are trying to stomp the Christ part out of Christmas.

Do you wonder what Jesus would do if a harried store clerk wished him a “Happy Holidays”? He’d probably say, “Thank you.” And maybe: “God bless you.” Unquestionably, there’s a war on Christmas as nonbelievers, nervous officials, schools and misguided retail corporations try in the name of tolerance to please everyone – and wind up offending the largest religious group in this country – with Christless holiday greetings and neutral holiday pageants.

Unfortunately, Christians lose their whimsical appeal as lovers of Christ and their fellow man when they engage in trench warfare against those they see as rivals and, perhaps, enemies: the American Civil Liberties Union, Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Planned Parenthood, and other liberal groups. Indeed, Christians should use their opportunity in a free society to defend Ten Commandments monuments and religious speech in the public square.

However, it’s hard to separate the sin from the sinner and the Christian from the sin that’s always lurking nearby to trip him up.

I know. I’m a hypocrite like every other believer in Christ. One who didn’t deserve God’s favor or Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and who, despite more than three decades as a follower, still struggles with the biblical basics of loving God with all of my being and my neighbor as myself.

Lord, help me to be more like you, rather than to try to persuade people to my way of thinking for the sake of winning an argument.

– D.F. Oliveria, associate editor

Looking at the big stories of 2005, it appears that our lives were dominated by war, weather disasters, sexual abuse, government malfeasance and political scandal. The opposite is really the case, especially in our region.

The real story is not the tragedies and scandals over which we have so little control, but the mostly successful way our democratic institutions, and all of us involved in them, are coping with these challenges.

Duncan is in the process of being brought to justice for his alleged crimes against the Groene family. City government still functions in Spokane despite the recall of our troubled but accomplished mayor. City, county and state officials, along with industry and representatives of the environmental community, have all but finalized a plan to address the seemingly intractable problem of improving water quality in the Spokane River while sustaining municipal and industrial growth along its banks.

Even in New Orleans, where the recovery and mop-up have been far from perfect, hundreds of thousands of people have been relocated, re-housed and fed in the five months since Hurricane Katrina hit. So on Christmas, let’s recognize that despite the often gloomy headlines, there is plenty of evidence that hope endures, the human spirit triumphs and the democratic system we all help nurture still works.

– Stacey Cowles, publisher

Last year at this time, I wrote that I’d like to see the words “torture” and “secret detention” disappear from news accounts about the U.S. government. But that was before I learned of the profitable practice of paid-for punditry. What was I thinking by giving aid and comfort to the enemy? I’d like to make amends.

We have many gifts to be thankful for this holiday season, but the best one of all is the simple veil. Have something to hide? Can’t stand those prying eyes? Cover up! That’s what efficient governments in the Middle East do. Why should they get all the benefits?

Search warrants, formal charges, defense attorneys and public scrutiny are so time-consuming. Plus, you don’t see the media in those countries blabbing!

Freedom-huggers have it all wrong. Why weigh down the new government of Iraq with the albatross of democracy? A veil is much lighter. It is the United States that needs to change, preferably without telling anyone first. Fortunately, our forward-looking president gets it.

This time next year, we’ll know we’ve made progress when media traitors have been jailed and the flag is replaced with a veil. But until then, we must be vigilant against the lily-livered lovers of liberty.

(Note to White House: Please deposit my check in the usual account.)

– Gary Crooks, associate editor

While the editorial board members get to reminisce about a whole year, I am limited to six months’ worth. But thanks to four months in the newsroom and two at the Roundtable, I’ve got enough memories stacked up to last a lifetime.

I am new to Spokane, having moved here in May. I can’t think of a better way to learn a city than to work at its newspaper. And did I have a lot to learn! Somewhere between Mayor West and Joseph Duncan I was educated on the correct pronunciation of Cheney. The city, not the man.

“It’s Cheeney, not Chainey,” instructed my Spokane-native co-worker shortly after I started working at the S-R in June. (I also butchered “Manito” for quite a while before getting another linguistic counseling. Hey, blame all that college Spanish.) I was doing well with it, too, until I began working with letters to the editor, many of which (not so fondly) reference Vice President Dick Cheeney. Oops, Chainey. I mean Cheney.

Every morning I am welcomed by new opinions, thoughts, ideas, perspectives, advice, dissent, criticism and complaints. It goes without saying there is never a dull moment in my Pepsi-teeming cubicle.

I do my best to keep my neurons neutral while perusing the day’s work. Some letters I agree with, some I don’t. Some get printed, some don’t.

But every letter receives my attention. And the ones that are 200 words or less and contain a name, address and phone number get moved closer to their final destination: newsprint.

So keep your letters coming. And don’t take it personally if, during my verification phone call, you hear me say, “This one sentence doesn’t quite flow; can we reword it?”

I’m only trying to help.

Happy 2006 and beyond!

– Lisa Wolverton, copy editor and letters coordinator

For the first time in 31 years, my wife and I are spending the Christmas season without the immediate company of either our kids – or grandkids. They are off in other states with other in-laws, and, from what we can make of their comments, they are worried about whether we can handle it.

“Will you guys be OK?” they both have asked in the tone grown children use when they start envisioning themselves as our overseers.

We don’t want to depress them and say no. We don’t want to crush their self-esteem and say yes.

They will be missed, of course, but we remember what it was like to be a young couple struggling to spread ourselves and our children around among doting families. Talk about tension. “Have a good time. Enjoy yourselves,” we tell our attentive offspring. “We’ll be fine.”

And we will. These will be relaxing holidays, comfortably paced but not truly kidless.

I’m emotionally immature, after all, and my wife still believes in Santa Claus (who’s bringing her a doll). Our Christmases will always involve at least two children.

– Doug Floyd, editorial page editor