by Noella Noelophile®
(Royalty-free image by Marjon Besteman from Pixabay.)
What does your Christmas taste like? Sound like? Smell like?
It’s interesting how sense memories take us back to other times and other Christmases.
The scent of pine. a faint tang of wood smoke and perhaps a waft of bayberry mean “Christmas” to me.
The latter will always take me back to a funny little store in the small New York town where I grew up.
We had a candle factory, of all things, about six blocks from our apartment.
(Royalty–free image by Susanne Jutzeler, Schweiz, from Pixabay.)
And completely unexpectedly, there was an enchanting small room–barely bigger than my first apartment’s kitchen (and that was tiny!), which served as a shop for the general public.
One favorite purchase, from there, was a green glass votive with “Merry Christmas” written on it in silver. (We still have that today–decades later.)
The sounds
(Royalty-free image by Gerald Friedrich from Pixabay.)
Carols, conversation and laughter come to mind, in the “audio” department. But for me, the sound of a busy train station is “Christmas”.
Every Christmas, my family traveled from our home in Queens to my grandmother’s house in Wilmington, Delaware, to spend Christmas. We’d arrive at bustling Penn Station, with travelers hurrying for their trains, loudspeaker announcements of arrivals and departures, and festive Christmas music throughout the station.
During the trip, of course, there was the “rail rhythm” that seemed to provide a background for any song–Christmas or otherwise–that we could hum to pass the time. The sounds merged with the sights we’d always look to see–Christmas lights through the small town, a lighted Christmas star on the Bethlehem Steel plant and the announcement that “TRENTON MAKES, THE WORLD TAKES” as the train reached that halfway point.
(Royalty-free image by Justin Carlson from Pixabay.)
Can’t help but remember, too, the year the train got stuck in heavy snow.
We’d just left Newark, New Jersey, and were traveling south when the train stopped abruptly. And stayed there, as the snow fell, for at least forty-five minutes.
Fast-forwarding to 2022, and keeping a good thought for the travelers headed for Christmas celebrations in a historic winter storm. That long-ago train stall was small, by comparison. But none of the passengers knew if we’d be arriving at our Christmas destinations or not, at that point.
We finally began moving again, and no one ever explained what had caused the delay. But it was good to be on our way and headed for Christmas.
Trains are a lifelong love for me now, and will always be as much a part of my favorite Christmas memories as that conductor calling, “Wiiilllmington!”
(Want a fun Christmas read, chock-full of cool facts about Amtrak? One of only two romances I’ve ever recommended in my book reviews is David Baldacci’s The Christmas Train.)
The taste of Christmas
The first taste that comes to mind? My grandmother’s peanut-butter fudge.
Of course, there are dozens of others. But for some reason–despite the amazing meringues and stuffed dates that were always a part of our Christmas at her house–this comes to mind first.
And invariably, that sense memory is intertwined with–cold.
Grandmom kept all her cookies, homemade candy and other goodies in her pantry. If a child were to sneak in there during the afternoon to surreptitiously secure a couple of pieces of fudge or some tollhouse cookies (speaking purely theoretically, of course!), it was c-o-l-d in there! (But worth it!)
Decades later, a taste of Christmas in our house is gingerbread. And a quick tip that you may have known but we discovered by accident? Adding half the amount of molasses called for (i.e. half a cup, not a cup) results in more of a “bread”-type cake that’s lightly sweet and is our preference. Not that anyone’s ever declined the standard variety, baked in a Christmastime mold and sticky sweet!
Now–what are the scents, sounds and tastes that will become part of your favorite memories of Christmas, 2022?
Merry Christmas! May it be absolutely magical.