by Noella Noelophile®
(Royalty-free image by Christel from Pixabay.)
“What’s your all-time-favorite Christmas memory?”
That’s a question I always like to ask.
This Christmas morning, I’ll try to answer it.
Christmases at my Grandmother Todd’s house come to mind immediately,
Christmas mornings started with a breakfast on which all the adults insisted, before the tree (and which seemed interminable!). Looking out the kitchen window, we’d see a beautiful and wintry sight.
(Royalty-free image by Zanna from Pixabay.)
Fresh snow often covered my grandmom’s big backyard, her tall pine tree and the holly tree from which we’d gathered leaves for the front-door wreath.
The local radio station played Christmas music all day (which was rare back then!) and the conversation was all about catching up on neighbors’ and friends’ recent activities.
Then–finally! It was time to go see the tree in the living room.
Decked out with the old-time 1950s huge lights no one dared leave on for long, it was a magical sight.
(Royalty-free image by Jason Gillman from Pixabay.)
At the top was a silver-tinsel star, with a blue light in the center, that my mom remembered from her childhood.
The “Santa” gifts, when I was small, were always unwrapped and displayed under the tree with the wrapped packages.
Then it was time to open presents. The mysterious, tantalizing shapes that had been sitting under the tree for the past week revealed themselves, as sweaters, scarf sets, aftershave for my dad (do you remember $1 aftershave that was the perfect gift for kids to buy male relatives?), costume jewelry and books.
“Let’s wrap them up and do it all over again!” my mother would joke, after the last gift was opened.
Royalty-free image by Wolfgang Eckert from Pixabay.)
And she’d make that joke just before disappearing into the kitchen, along with my grandmother. Company was coming!
Our big family Christmas dinners happened early in the day, with aunts, uncles, cousins and family friends around the big dining-room table with its lacy tablecloth. Roast turkey, marshmallow yams, bacon-flavored stringbeans and fluffy rolls were passed around. And everyone was going to be too full, in just a few minutes, to even think about the pumpkin and mince pies waiting in the pantry.
Which was fine, because no one wanted to leave anyway–and we didn’t want anyone to.
(Royalty-free image by Silvia from Pixabay.)
Afternoons were visiting time, in my grandmother’s parlor.
Out came the cameras. “Let me get a picture!” Thankfully, some of those came out (it was the Sixties–no one knew, until we took the film to the drugstore a week later, how they looked!).
Grandmother would pass around plates of homemade fudge, stuffed dates and peanut-butter fondant candy. Plates of cookies and hard candy sat on the coffee table. I especially remember the bowl of mixed nuts, with a small hammer for cracking. (Hazelnuts were great–Brazil nuts almost impossible to crack!)
The day would seem to go by on wings.
A couple of hours later, Grandmother would cut the pies and put the coffee on. We’d all have our Christmas dessert, and relatives would begin saying, “Well, guess we’d better get going.” (Christmas night was my least favorite time of the year–because it was the furthest point from the next Christmas!)
(Royalty-free image by Reijo Teleranta from Pixabay.)
Goodbyes were said, in a flurry of kisses and hugs.
It’s decades later, and thousands of miles away from those long-ago Christmases. But Christmas was special then, is special now, and I treasure those memories.
What memories are you creating, for Christmas 2023?
Merry Christmas.