Christmas Memories... Part 1

Part 1

               I’m sure you have many Christmas memories from your childhood, and perhaps like me, you also have the memories of your children’s Christmases. Today I want to talk about the Christmas memories from when I was a Child.

              Maybe I should title this post as “The Ghost of Christmas Past” like the familiar story, A Christmas Carol, except his was a sad past.  My childhood Christmas past was full of delight and wonder.

I remember driving with my parents to buy our Christmas tree, and we would walk around pointing at the ones we thought might be nice. My father would stand it up, give it a shake and my mother would inspect it, after all it had to be perfect and could only be as tall as my father!  Once we got home with our tree, my father would always take it to the basement and set in in a bucket of water and fasten it to the rafters to keep it standing up, until we were ready to decorate it. Unlike now, where people begin to put up their decorations as soon as Thanksgiving is over, we didn’t put the tree up until 1 week before Christmas.  I still remember sitting on the basement steps to keep the tree company; it looked so sad, waiting to be decorated and the center of our delight!

  I remember when I still believed in Santa Claus, and how I would struggle to fall asleep on Christmas Eve because I was worried that Santa would arrive and find me awake… like the song informed us, “He sees you when you’re sleeping and he knows when you’re awake, he knows when you are bad or good so be good for goodness sake!”  

Did I mention that I had 2 older sisters? They were 4 & 5 years older than me. It’s probably a reflection of being the baby of the family or my own self-centeredness… but I don’t remember my sisters being involved in much of the Christmas doings when I was real young, except decorating the tree and of course Christmas morning!

I remember hanging our stockings. We didn’t have a fireplace; instead my parents had a cardboard fireplace.

Yes, it probably was a little cheesy, but my dad had reinforced it with wood, and it had fake fire logs glowing in it (they even placed it where the heating duct came into the living room so it felt like heat from a fire). We decorated the mantle with little figurines, and candles. Each of us girls had a little brass bell, each one shaped differently from the other, we carefully placed our little bell over where out stocking hung.I still have mine.

 My fondest memory is when my parents took me to the Boston Store to visit Santa Claus! I remember being in awe and wonder at the decorations and all the people. It was a huge department store in downtown Erie (huge to me anyway). It was 6 stories high, and it practically took up an entire city block; on one of the upper floors was the toy department. I stood in line waiting for my turn to sit on Santa’s lap in total fear. Yep, fear, and while I waited for my turn I wondered if I had been good enough this year for him to bring me presents (oh the worry in my little life!). Going to the Boston Store was as much a part of Christmas as decorating the tree and baking cookies!. 

 On Christmas Eve my mother’s family would come over which consisted of her sister and husband and their 2 boys (Yuck!), and my great Aunt Em. There might have been others, but I can't  remember. What I do remember is the food! Mom went all out for Christmas! She even dyed the pear halves green and red, and rolled balls of cream cheese in crushed pecans to place in the center of each pear half.  There was cheese balls, assorted crackers, ham & turkey slices, and of course that famous Jell-O salad with crushed pineapple and grated carrots in it and so much more yummy stuff.

And I cannot forget to mention the Christmas cookies! Butter balls, fruit cookies, chocolate chip, peanut butter, almond bars, cut out cookies all frosted perfectly, and many more.  Christmas truly was a wonderful time of the year!

My oldest sister and me.

Next post… Christmas morning!