From Staff Reports

Returning to his roots as a Baptist minister in Arkansas, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee reminisced about the first Christmas — and the Christmas he finally was given an electric guitar — during his Dec. 19 keynote speech at West Asheville’s Crowne Plaza Resort.

Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, spoke at the Charles Taylor Holiday Dinner, which included several speakers. The annual gathering, hosted by Taylor (the former congressman from Brevard) drew more than 400 people. Taylor is co-chairman of Huckabee’s campaign in North Carolina.

Speaking first was North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, who urged support for a Veterans Restoration Quarters, saying it goes with his efforts to make this the most military-friendly state in the union.

The VRQ, which is located in a former motel on Tunnel Road, serves formerly homeless veterans and is part of Asheville-Buncombe Community Christian Ministries.

“If you need a charity to give to, give to this shelter,” McCrory urged. “It’s one of the most impressive organizations I’ve ever seen.. We need to help those who can’t help themselves while encouraging those who can help themselves. Thre are people suffering right now.”

In addition, the governor touted legislation he signed in October, outlawing so-called “sanctuary cities.” He noted that he was proud to say Asheville is no longer a sanctuary city.

Meanwhile, Huckabee quipped that “if I were God and was going to announce myself to the world, I probably would have made sure that I came at a time when there was satellite television that could give coverage all over the world. I would make sure that it was such a big event that not a single person missed it. It would be bigger than the Super Bowl.”

Ironically, he said, “God showed up in a barn and was laid in its animals’ feeding trough.

“God wanted to remind us of something,” Huckabee noted. “There is no place on this earth so low that He can’t find and get to us. The God that owns everything gave up everything in order to come in the most humble of ways.”

At that point, Huckabee, 60, recalled his own personal sacrifice. 

Specifically, at age 8, Huckabee said he saw the Beatles on television and decided to become the “fifth Beatle.” To that end, he asked his parents for an electic guitar for Christmas, but they said they could not afford such a gift for him.

Huckabee continued to request an electric guitar each Christmas and, when he reached 11 years old, he told his parents firmly that he wanted an electric guitar for Christmas — or nothing at all. That is when he finally got one.

He later learned that his parents had been making monthly payments on the guitar — costing $99 — for more than a year.

“We were poor,” Huckabee said. “That was a huge amount of money for my family.” 

Becoming a musician jolted him out of his shyness and helped put him on his present path in life, he said. It was the second-greatest Christmas gift he ever received — after Christ’s birth. Huckabee said, prompting a standing ovation.