It is the week before Christmas and people are rushing to make sure their holiday plans are complete. Those who make lists are checking them twice. Final dinner plans are made and pies, and cookies are stored in holiday tins ready for guests. Children are sneaking looks and shaking packages under the tree to try and guess what is in them.
I often hear people say they wish Christmas was celebrated the way it used to be. Should we reexamine and define Christmas? In the past Christmas was celebrated very simply. This is my Christmas story.
When I was growing we looked forward to Christmas. We believed that Santa kept a list of who was naughty or nice and especially after Thanksgiving we were on our best behavior. If we saw something we wanted at Sears or Penney’s we would promise to be good and ask for the item for Christmas.
Times were difficult financially for many families during the ’40s and ’50s. We did not enjoy the luxuries of today. Many people did not even own a TV set. We were encouraged to play board games or entertain ourselves with our dolls or our marbles. Christmas was not tied to the commercialism of shopping or the competition of keeping up with the Joneses. Instead sugar cookies were made and decorated as we listened to Christmas songs on the radio.
Live Christmas trees were decorated with shiny glass ornaments and stringing popcorn and cranberries to wrap around the tree or making homemade ornaments at school to bring home was our fun. Who did not enjoy seeing a Christmas tree decorated in all of its splendor with an angel gracing the top branch? I remember the first time my mother brought home an artificial tree. It was an aluminum tree with a rotating color wheel. We thought it was so cool!
All too soon it was Christmas Eve! We would spend it with our aunts, uncles and cousins having fun and enjoying family. We could open one present. Our mom would help us pick out our clothes for midnight mass. During mass we would try not to fall asleep as we heard the story of baby Jesus and His birth.
When I went to bed, I remember lying awake listening for Santa and his sleigh bells and wondering if I would get what I wished for. Christmas morning we would open our stocking from Santa first. We would usually get an orange, nuts, candy cane and a toy. We did not receive a lot of gifts. What we did receive we were happy for. Perhaps we knew times were hard and our gifts were given from the heart and of good will.
This is Elsie’s story:
Elsie was born in 1922. One year she told me her Christmas story. When she was 7 years old, she said, her father Virgillio worked for U.S. Steel in Elwood City, Pennsylvania, and during Christmas time the owners would invite the children of the steel workers to the community hall to see Santa Claus. Each child would receive a stocking filled with a popcorn ball, hard tack candy, pretzels and a box of Cracker Jacks. Santa would ask each child what she/he wanted for Christmas.
When Elsie spoke to Santa she said she wanted a doll and a carriage. Santa said to her “if you are very good you will get what you ask for.” The week before Christmas Elsie would pray for snow so Santa’s sleigh and reindeers could come to her house.
On Christmas morning she woke up and looked for her present behind the chair in her living room as they did not have a Christmas tree. Instead of her baby doll and carriage she found an orange, a dime and a box of Italian candy terone. She said she was so disappointed that she would never again ask Santa for a Christmas gift.
A few years ago Elsie opened her Christmas present from Santa early and what she found there was a baby doll dressed in pink in her carriage. She was so excited and happy and said “ I got my baby doll!”
A Christmas dream fulfilled. Merry Christmas to all!
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