Fond Memories of Holidays Past

As a child, Christmas was a time of joy for me. A time of togetherness, special songs, twinkling lights and, as a northerner, the anticipation of snow. Every holiday season still fills me with nostalgia, and I carry on many of the traditions of the past.

My dad was a Christmas fanatic. He loved decorating the tree – a 7 foot Douglas fir that filled the house with Christmas aroma. Dad checked the big 2” multicolored bulbs before putting them on the tree. Then came the ornaments. Our ornaments we an eclectic batch, ranging from the simple glass balls to a fancy collection of miniature hot air balloons in matte gold complete with tiny gold cables. They were part of a window decoration for his employer and the employer gave them to him after Christmas. And of course, the ornament I made in kindergarten by pasting two of last year's Christmas cards together and cutting them into a circle.

Dad meticulously placed each strand of tinsel (icicles) on the tree. It took hours. And being thrifty, he removed and stored the tinsel when we took the tree down. Back then the tinsel was aluminum and was easier to manipulate. At some point they started making it from plastic and static electricity caused the strands to cling to your clothes, the ornaments, the cat – anywhere but hanging nicely from the tree.

Mom decorated the rest of the house. She always put a bowl of ribbon candy on the end table. I don’t think anyone ate it. By New Years all the pieces would be stuck together. Try to pick up one and you’d get the whole bowl. One blogger said her mother wrapped the bowl each year and stored it with Christmas decorations for the next year. I think (hope) my mom bought new candy each year. It wouldn’t really matter since we didn’t eat it.

The wooden nut bowl with stainless steel nutcracker and picks was the centerpiece of our coffee table. We ate the nuts, but what a mess. Nutshell fragments everywhere. Our favorite was the Brazil nuts. Despite our best efforts to crack the shell, the nutshell shattered into fragments with the nut meat still attached. It seemed like it took hours to pry the nut goodness out of shell fragments. Back then we didn’t have the internet which would have given us dozens of suggestions on how to crack the shell without breaking the nut. My favorite is to put it into a vise sideways and slowly squeeze the vise. Yeah – that’s a great idea, really practical. Another ideas include putting the nut in a towel and using a hammer and hitting it on the end. Imagine the accidents that could happen if you use that technique. More practical are the suggestions like freezing the nuts overnight or to boiling them. Or you could just buy the nut mix at the store.

Mom baked cookies. We loved decorating the sugar cookies. My favorite cookie was the Mexican Wedding Cookies (Russian Tea Cakes). The final step in making the cookies was dusting them with powdered sugar. By the time we finished it looked like the powdered sugar bag had exploded on us and our fingers were glued together with sugar. They were messy when you ate them, too, but small sacrifice for such a delicious morsel

Christmas morning, dad wore his Santa hat and distributed the gifts, much like the dad in the Christmas story. “Let’s see what this is? Oh! it’s a gift for Sue from Santa.” We ripped the wrapping paper and ribbon off the gifts and tossed it into a pile. The cat pounced on the pile with each new addition of paper and drug the ribbon throughout the house. Some families save the paper and ribbon for next year. When we went to my aunt’s, we’d have to carefully peel the tape off the paper so it wouldn’t tear and fold it. Same with the ribbon.

Later that day, we feasted on turkey, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green bean casserole and a cranberry jelly, slid onto the plate intact from the can. Most people didn’t eat the cranberry jelly.

After decades of the traditional dinner of turkey and stuffing, my dad switched to ham. His employer gave hams to employees for Christmas. That switch caused a family feud that lasted for years. Several family members were delighted with the switch, while others, me included, longed for the turkey, stuffing and gravy. Don’t forget the gravy; everything smothered in gravy. With the ham, mom made red eye gravy (ham drippings and coffee). Mom’s gravy was more like pink eye gravy because she didn’t add the coffee. I hated it. And with ham you don’t get stuffing, my favorite holiday food. My poor mom, tired of all the mealtime moans and groans, relented and made both turkey and ham. By then we were grown and could help her with the extra cooking.

Red eye grave - named because after it sits and the grease floats to the top it looks like a red eye.

As the years passed, holiday traditions morphed. Dad no longer put tinsel on the tree. Mom no longer bought ribbon candy and the nut bowl disappeared. Some of the sides for the holiday feast were replaced with store bought items. Somehow that included Coleslaw. We didn’t complain, we liked Coleslaw. Mom died in 2006 and dad sold his house, our family gathering place. Family schedules and long distances make it hard for us to celebrate together.

Though holiday celebrations are quite different than the holidays of yore, some of the traditions remain. Sometime during the holidays, we have turkey, dressing and gravy. I play Christmas music and decorate the tree. I still have the paper ornament I made in kindergarten. My ornaments are a collection of ornaments we bought on trips or that relatives and friends have given me. As I put each one on, I pause and remember the wonderful times I shared with that person. Though the holidays are quite different, they still hold those special memories that last a lifetime.

I hope your holiday memories are as sweet as mine. Let me know your favorite memory from the holidays.

Happy Holidays!