Wednesday, December 23, 2015

How Lucky I Am To Be A Baby Boomer - Christmas




Being a baby boomer gives me the opportunity to remember how magical Christmas can be. It has not always been the constant reminder of how many days are left to shop, stores staying open for hundreds of hours up until Christmas Eve or panic over whether that gift you ordered on the Internet will arrive in time.  Even with my slightly wacky family as a child, Christmas was not a mad rush but a time of simple gifts, cards sent in the mail and beautiful decorations.

When my brothers and I were small there were catalogs from local stores with all the latest toys.  We would pour over them for hours deciding which one was the one we each wanted Santa to bring.  That special item was circled and a letter sent off in hopes it would be under the tree on Christmas morning.  There were live trees for sale all over town and going to pick out the perfect tree was a big event. My Dad would spend hours getting every light and ornament in just the right place, Mother spent hours in the kitchen creating all those wonderful smells of Christmas goodies, and the three of us laid on the floor by the tree amazed at how beautiful it was.

On Christmas Eve the only presents under the tree were the ones that we purchased for each other.  Then it was off to the Midnight Candlelight service at the Episcopal church.  The church was completely draped in pine swags and lit entirely by candle light. I can still remember the smell of the pine and all the burning candles, all the families dressed up in their finest and the beauty of the service itself.

Of course, Santa came sometime that night after we were sound asleep, ate his cookies and left all the things we had carefully chosen from the catalogs. At the time I guess the arrival of Santa and the gifts was the most important thing to the three of us.  As I look back now the important part of Christmas was the decorations, the cards that came in the mail, Mother's baked goodies and going to the midnight service.  There was excitement about the big day but never a stressful mad dash to get everything done even when I got older and understood all the preparation my parents did to make Christmas perfect.

As an adult, a wife, a mother I tried to recreate the Christmas each year that I remembered.  Some years I was successful, some years not.  It was easy to fall into the artificial tree routine.  Wow, you just take it out of the box and stand it up.  I remember how much my boys hated the artificial tree decorated with the red velvet bows and apples. That ended when we moved to New Jersey and were shunned because we put up the artificial tree and lights on the house right after Thanksgiving. I learned real fast that you had to have a real tree and put it up on Christmas Eve. That way you can leave it up well into January and it makes the Holiday season last longer.

Have to tell the best of my Christmas stories.  When I was a single Mom with my son Wally in high school it was a little tough to make ends meet.  We were driving a wonderful 1965 Dodge in 1992 with it;s original faded red paint.  Of course we had to have a tree but all of them were out of our budget.  So we got a flashlight and a saw and headed out to "stalk" a tree.  Lots of quiet country roads with trees growing along the sides so surely we could find the perfect tree.

That particular night it looked like Dallas during rush hour or maybe all those cars were actually tree police looking for stalkers like us.  Well after dark, when we were about to give up, we happened upon a tree farm.  The man looked at us rather strangely but took us out into the lot to find a tree.  By flashlight we cut down a beautiful tree and put it in the backseat of the lovely Dodge.  The man must have felt sorry for us since he only charged us $25.00.  Presents were slim that year but the tree was spectacular. Many years later Wally and I went to son Wes's for Christmas.  He had decorations but no tree. All the stores had stopped selling their live trees since it was Christmas Eve.  Lucky for us we passed a dumpster behind a store where they had discarded the trees that did not sell. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve decorating our "trash picked" tree.

Part of the fun of Christmas for me has always been to make Christmas presents. That tradition came from a lack of money for buying presents for extended family members and friends.  In truth I probably spent more money making clothing, wooden toys, teddy bears and plates of goodies than I would have if I had gone shopping.  It is about the fun and the careful thought of making something special for the people you love.



If you think back about past Christmas times it is the funny or not so funny family interactions like the time someone told you Christmas dinner was two hours earlier than it was or the years spent in the emergency room or the year the dog ate the pumpkin pie or the cat knocked over the tree everyday. Few presents people rushed around and shopped for will be remembered.  The fun and family traditions are the ones that count.


It is three days before Christmas,  There is a beautiful live tree all decorated upstairs and an upside down tree twinkling downstairs.  The cards will get mailed on our way to do the only shopping we are going to do and the handmade presents are ready to go.  The building is a glow with all the outdoor lights.  This will be a wonderful, simple and joyous Christmas.


                                Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year

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