Stars recall 'my best Christmas ever.'

Jet, Dec 29, 1997

Christmas always holds fond and lasting memories for all of us. It is a time and a season of family and loved ones, gift sharing and holiday music.

JET contacted several celebrities to find out their best Christmas ever. They say the joy of that one special Christmas still lives within them as they celebrate the holiday season this year.

Eartha Kitt

Internationally acclaimed entertainer Eartha Kitt, who grew up in South Carolina and whose '50s sassy Christmas record, Santa Baby is a hit with music lovers each year, recalls: "My most memorable Christmas was my first Christmas in New York. I had never seen snow or even a Christmas tree before. It was also the first time I had ever received a doll."

Aretha Franklin

Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin says last year was her best Christmas ever: "My favorite Christmas was last '96 when I hosted a gospel Christmas service at my dad's church. I participated as well as other artists: Bobby Jones & New Life, Jackson Southernaires, Vanessa Bell Armstrong and Reverend James Moore. It was the best and at the same time the worst because I was given the wrong capacity information, and there were people unable to get into the church. I sang songs from my albums Amazing Grace and One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism What a great time we had But a best Christmas for me is also anytime my family is together, well and happy. "

Lena Horne

Legendary star Lena Horne, whose renditions of such Christmas songs as Winter Wonderland and Let It Snow!, Let It Snow! Let It Snow! remain favorites every year, says her best Christmas ever was spent with her grandmother. She can still remember the exact day and place of her favorite Christmas: "My happiest Christmas ever was when I was 4 years old in my grandmother's house at 183 Chauncey Street, Brooklyn, NY."

Cicely Tyson

Famed actress Cicely Tyson, who recently starred in the USA Network movie, Ms. Scrooge, says she can still recall her most memorable Christmas: "I must have been 4 or 5 years old. Needless to say, I come from a very, very poor family--my mother always referred to it as "lowly circumstances." My parents could not afford the luxury of buying us toys I remember my father taking us Christmas morning to some organization--I don't remember what it was--where they gave us each a bag of toys. On the way home, he found a tree in the street and he took it home and dressed it and put the toys around it. To me, that's the most memorable one. I never forgot it because I thought we weren't going to have anything."

Sean "Puffy" Combs

Multiplatinum-selling rapper-producer Sean "Puffy" Combs says his best Christmas happened just last year with his 4-year-old son, Justin: "That was my son's first Christmas where he was able to understand what Christmas was about. To see his reaction the next day, when he came down and opened up all of the Christmas presents under the tree was a nice feeling."

Heavy D

Heavy D, hit rapper, whose latest album is Water Bed Hev, says his best Christmas ever was about seven years ago when he surprised his parents with gifts that made them cry happy tears: "It was about seven years ago when I really started making a decent amount of money in the music business. I was able to send them on a 10-day cruise through the Caribbean, which was really a distraction because the real was while they were away I was able to hire decorators to completely remodel their home. And my father likes to play the piano, so I bought him a white baby grand piano...When they came home from the cruise they started crying happy tears. It was something to give back to them, just a small token."

Juwan Howard

Juwan Howard, Washington Wizards star forward, recalls: "The best Christmas I ever had was in 1995. I had to fly home from Washington on Christmas to visit my mother, who was in the hospital with pneumonia She was hospitalized several days and it was touch-and-go for awhile. Thank God she pulled through a few days, later. As long as I live, this Christmas will always be special to me."

Jeffrey Osborne

Jeffrey Osborne, famed singer who is making the holiday season merry with his new album, Something Warm For Christmas, remembers: "Growing up in Providence, RI, I remember those wonderful, cold snowy Christmas mornings. My fondest memory is when we received a sled and a bike, my first bicycle. . I'll never forget that. Now that That I live in sunny, southern California in Los Angeles, I never thought I would miss those snowy, cold Christmases."

Karen Clark-Sheard

Popular gospel songstress Karen Clark-Sheard of the famed Clark Sisters, whose solo album is Finally Karen, recalls how her mother, the late acclaimed gospel vocalist and minister of music Dr. Mattie Moss Clark, surprised her with a most memorable Christmas: "My best Christmas was when I was around 16 years old and asked my mom for a pantsuit. She would not let us wear pants. She told me, "No I'm not buying you pants." She was against women wearing pants by her being in the church. So when I opened my present and I got the pantsuit that I wanted, I was so happy and surprised."