Mother Christmas Turns 90

     This weekend, Chesapeake Beach’s Mother Christmas celebrates a holiday of a different sort.

     Jo Finch, aka Mother Christmas, turns 90 on September 4. Finch, a former town councilwoman, is a mother and grandmother, great-grandmother, great-great-grandmother and great-great-great-grandmother. 

     “I think the children have something planned,” she surmises. “Any excuse to have a party; they take after their mother.”

     A party is indeed planned Saturday at the Holland Point Civic Association in North Beach.

     Finch served on the town council for 16 years, where she began her role as Mother Christmas.

     “Being Mother Christmas was a fun time in my life,” Finch says. “I love Christmas, and when I got the whole town to decorate, I just loved it. That’s a beautiful memory for me.”

     She enjoyed her public life, but says her family is her greatest blessing and success story, outshining even her 1998 invention of the town’s Brightest Beacon on the Bay competition.

     “Each one of my children was a miracle, and I couldn’t have more love than that which they give me,” she says. “I feel very blessed that I am still here to see all my grandchildren and great-grandchildren and know them,” Finch told Bay Weekly.

     Finch says her body may be slower but her mind is as sharp and active as ever.

     Her advice: “Love a lot, laugh a lot, dance a lot. Music is the best thing for the soul.”

     Hers has been a life with few regrets she says. Those she has “are infinitesimal compared to all the wonderful things that have happened. It’s a good life.”