Christmas Past

Christmas is almost here. I love Christmas. I have so many great memories from my own childhood about this time of year. I remember we used to go out and get our own Christmas tree. One year mom had us decorate ceramic ornaments to hang on our tree. We also had a cookie tree that I remember decorating cookies to hang on it. Mom also made each one of us our own stocking. I had a little angel in a green dress that had my name on it so Mom could make sure to not confuse mine and my little sisters stockings since she had an angel too. We hung up the stockings according to birth order. Dad would start pulling out the lights to get ready to put around the house. I loved going through the light strands, trying to find out the burnt out bulb so that we could replace it with a working one. I always felt so important helping him out with that although I bet at times I was more of a hindrance then a help.
In Salina you could tell when Santa was in town as the fire department always loaded him on the back of the fire engine and drove through the town with sirens blaring letting us know that Santa was ready for us to go tell him what we wanted that year. I remember one year for our elementary school Christmas program I got to play Blitzen. We had brown paper bags that were cut out in the front so you could see our faces and antlers were attached to the top. I felt so honored to play that part, even though I was the last reindeer on the stage.
Every Christmas Eve our family made the trip out to Emery to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I loved Grandma's tree. It always had lights on there that you could tell were the ones that she's had forever as some of the paint was scratched in various places from use. We would have dinner then go to the town celebration at the church where they had singing and Santa Claus at the end. At the end of the program Santa Claus would show up and they would call the children to come up by families. I always was surprised that they had our families name there as we didn't live in Emery. It wasn't until later that I found out that they had planned it that way. Once we got up the stage and told Santa what we wanted we were given a brown paper bag that was full of chocolate covered jellies, taffy and tons of peanuts. There were more peanuts then anything else. I think it was from here I learned to hate chocolate covered jellies. Even to this day my stomach churns at the thought of those particular treats. After that we would head back to the house and open the presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Then we would pile into our green station wagon with the fake wood paneling on the side and start our drive home to Salina. Occasionally we would get a radio station that was playing Christmas music for the drive back. I remember looking out the window as we would drive home, hoping to see Rudolph's red nose shining through the night letting me know that Santa was en route to our house. Once home Mom and Dad would hurry us all to get ready for bed so that Santa could come to our house.
Christmas morning would arrive and Mom would have to wake us up. No joke. Most parents couldn't keep their kids in bed, but for some unknown reason Mom had the unfortunate luck of having kids still sleeping even though the night before we had shown signs that we were never going to sleep. The older kids had paper routes that needed to be done before Mom would allow us to go downstairs. Mom always herded those of us who weren't doing the paper route that year in mine and my little sister's room to wait until they returned. I remember sitting in anticipation on my bed that I shared with my little sister, wishing that those out delivering papers could go really fast. Once they got back they had to come upstairs too. Mom would then give us the okay and we'd all rush out of the room and down the stairs to find our stocking and gifts from Santa. For some reason Santa liked to give us oranges, toothbrushes and other useful stuff. But we also got cool presents too. I remember getting my blossom baby which was an alternative version of the cabbage patch kids that were so popular that year. I named her Betty Brown as she had reddish brown hair and brown eyes. I still have her. Another year I got a white kitty with plaid ears and a plaid ribbon where everyone else that year got a bear. After we got our stockings we were required to eat our oranges and then some breakfast before we could start on the presents. When that was done someone would play Santa and had out presents one at a time so that we could each see what the others received. It would take us most of the morning and once in a while part of the afternoon. Then Grandma and Grandpa usually drove over to visit us and we'd show them what we had gotten that day.
There are just so many wonderful things that were part of my childhood. I hope to be able to have traditions like these so that when my child is older he'll be able to reflect back like I have to many wonderful memories.