- Narrator: [narration as John 'John Boy' Walton, Jr. reading from his journal] My own memories of that Christmas in 1943 are vague and clouded, but those of my family remain vivid in the extreme. For the first time ever my mother would not be home for that most special holiday. She, who'd taught all of us the meaning and spirit of Christmas, would spend it at the hospital with me. And though they all agreed her place was there, it put the season in a strange light. How strange, how unique and unreal it would become, no one could even imagine.