It’s the Holiday Season!

Do you ever get the feeling that you grew up in an alternate reality or something? The Holiday season makes me aware of so many things other people take for granted that were never part of my life. Maybe it’s because I’m from a different generation or something, but I don’t seem to have a common footing sometimes.

For instance, the other day I overheard a co-worker talking about her family’s tradition of getting Santa photos with all the children, which they have done since she was a little girl. I never had a photo taken with Santa, though I do remember one Christmas when Santa came to our little town (La Grande, Oregon), and I got to meet the reindeer. That was pretty special, because they were really cute little guys, and I didn’t know reindeer were so small. Santa smelled funny too. He’d had a few nips of Jim Beam to keep warm (that was before I knew what Jim Beam was).

When I was a kid, everybody in the family gave gifts to everyone else. We didn’t draw names, but then nobody expected to get expensive gifts either. We knew we’d get clothes from Mom and Dad, and maybe a new doll or board game, and our stockings “hung by the chimney with care” would be filled with oranges, candy, and nuts. An iPad, plasma HDTV, or Lexus would have been things that movie stars wished for, but not us, and most gifts I remember were made by the people giving them. As a kid, I usually made candy and cookies as gifts until I learned to sew and crochet (I didn’t learn to knit until after I went to college), though my folks would always give me ten or twenty dollars (a fortune in those days) to buy presents for family members. Grandma and I would go downtown to Falk’s (the local department store), and I roamed the aisles looking for just the perfect gifts. One year (I couldn’t have been more than five) I remember buying Grandma a bottle of cologne and listening to the store loudspeaker playing “Silver Bells.” It was snowing outside and seemed a most magical day. Grandma loved the cologne so much she never used it but kept it on display in a prominent spot in the bathroom, so after that, I found out what KIND of perfume she liked before making a purchase.

Back in the days when watching your waistline was not yet in fashion, Christmas was a time of frantic baking. I remember spending days in Grandma’s kitchen making sugar and candy cane cookies, fudge, peanut brittle, and fruitcakes. Grandma made pies, and on Christmas Day we always had a huge turkey, because Christmas dinner was always at her house. People sat around in the living room before and after dinner (there wasn’t room in the kitchen for more than three people) and TALKED. Yes, I know—that was in the era before TV, but my family was never into football games, and I can’t remember even hearing one on the radio. We listened to Christmas carols instead.

We went to church Christmas morning and then to Grandma’s for dinner. I always got to help Grandma cook, and I loved being her little helper, so I was the one who set the table with the damask linen tablecloth, china, and silver. Most of all, however—and I’m sure this is true for all of you reading this—the best part of Christmas was being with the ones I loved. Christmas is a time for sharing that love with everyone else too, so I wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a most happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year!