Growing up, the Christmas tree was always put up on the day after Thanksgiving and always stayed up until my parents anniversary on January 7. We had a moderatly non-realistic artificial tree. Among my early Christmas memories was that it was my job to sort out the branches by the color of paint on the end of the wire so they'd be put in the correct row of holes on the pole that formed the trunk. The branches would be inserted, the green "tribbles" would be wrapped around the trunk to hide the fact that it was a green-painted pole, and then my dad would start swearing at, er, working on making the mini-lights work. Once the lights were on (of course they were the type that if one bulb blew the whole string went out) we'd put on tinsel (later garland when my mom got tired of finding tinsel in the cat's litterbox), then the ornaments (mostly glass). I also recall a stand my dad made out of 2x4's because he got tired of the old stand tipping over.
Christmas morning was as magic as for most kids. Often there would be a set of toy trains under the tree (the beginnings of a hobby for me). Thinking back I'm amazed at what my mother accomplished on a limited income (Dad was disabled at work when I was ten). She'd start shopping for Christmas around May or so, getting an item or two each time.
Christmas Eve was a family thing at my house. I'm the youngest of my family, my brothers and sister are quite a bit older than I am (I have a nephew who's six months younger than I am). Early on (before I was aware of such things) my parents old me they'd have the family get-together on Christmas Day, but found out that (a) my nieces and nephews didn't like being away from their new toys on Christmas Day and (b) they'd express that by breaking MY new toys. So the party was moved to Christmas Eve. My father and brothers would spend the evening getting tipsy on cheap beer and solving all the world's problems in the living room. My mother and sisters-in-law would share the latest gossip in the kitchen. The kids would be playing with whatever presents we got on that day and anticipating what Santa would bring. And of course there was always a big supply of my mother's cookies and cakes.
One year as my mother was preparing for the festivities she was putting stuff out on the dining room table. She had to be careful what she put out, she didn't want to leave anything unattended where the cat (Jeremiah) could get it, but she thought she was safe leaving the olives out. It turned out that Jerry liked olives, he ate the entire jar.
OK, stop reading my blog and get to work on memories for yourself and your kids. Merry Christmas!
1 comment:
Mark,
Our tree went up on Christmas Eve (until I was about 7 years old, I thought Santa brought the tree). It came down on the morning of New Year's Day. Everyone in the community where I grew up would bring their dried out tree to the beach at the lake around which the community was built. We'd have a huge bonfire on the beach, ice skating, a father/son hockey game, and an ice-fishing tournament. It was the last gasp of the holiday season; the next day, everyone had to go back to work or school.
MorningGlory
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