I always loved Christmas as a kid. We always had a beautiful tree. The decision always was whether we should get a tree that was flocked or natural. Dad strung the lights and we took turns putting the ornaments on the tree. At any given time one of us would be a butterfingers so we would lose several each year as the ornaments were pretty fragile and broke easily. Then it was putting that annoying tinsel on the tree. At first we did it meticulously, as if the silver strands fell from the sky, but as years went by, I think we threw them on the tree when Dad wasn’t looking. Dad always wanted the tinsel and he won.
I remember going downtown in SF first to the White House to see Santa with Mom and then on to the Emporium when the White House closed. Santa was kind of scary to kids because he was sitting there in that big throne with that red outfit and that long white curly hair, beard, and mustache. Santa asked if we were good. I never had a problem answering that because if I was not good, my Dad would take care of me and that would not be good.
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Santa asked what we wanted for Christmas. I was a simple kid and did not ask for much. As most little girls, when I was young, all I ever wanted was a new doll. I remember wanting one that was a pretty fashion doll that had a nice large white stand up closet with hangers that came with it. I liked the outfits I could put on her. These were the days when you could play for hours with your dolls without much interference. Life was simpler. If I didn’t play jacks, I played with my dolls.
When I was a little older I wanted a doll that wet its diapers. This was like having your own baby. I realized what trouble that was after I got it.
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And when I was older, about 11, it was clothes that I wanted for Christmas. One Christmas season we shopped at the Butler Brothers in Stonestown SF. I saw this beautiful beige all-weather coat which had a deep brown faux fur lining and a hood which was just perfect for those cold SF mornings and it was on sale. I got it for Christmas and I was so excited. This was my first new coat. I had other coats, but they were beautiful second hand coats from my parent’s friend. This was the first one that I got to choose.
Those were the days when you got presents from your Aunts and Uncles too. Mom and Dad wrapped all kinds of little stuff so when we counted our presents, we had quite a few.
I remember my Mom going to work for the Emporium during Christmas season so they could have money to buy Christmas presents for us and for the cousins. She was a stay-at-home mom so this was out of the ordinary for sure.
We always opened our presents on Christmas Eve. I always felt sorry for the kids who had to wait until Christmas Day to open theirs. On Christmas morning, we woke up to find that Santa filled our stockings with goodies after he ate all the cookies and milk we left for him the night before on the fireplace hearth. We tried to stay awake as long as we could in the hopes we could spot Santa eating his cookies but we always fell asleep and slept right through the sled and reindeer taking Santa to our home and depositing him in the fireplace.
When I was under twelve there were only three of us kids and I was the oldest. We took turns opening the presents, my youngest brother at the time got to open one of his first then the next brother with one of his and then it was my turn. We sure tore into the paper on the boxes like it was hot enough to burn our hands. As years went by, the other two brothers had their turns and it seemed like we would never get through the procedure of opening the presents one by one. But with getting older came less gifts too. The grandparents were gone and the gift exchange with the cousins stopped too.
My oldest brother and I were pretty sneaky and somehow we were able to open some of our presents to know what was inside and then wrap them up again so no one was any wiser. I guess all kids do that and we thought we were the only ones who did.
Dad always cooked Christmas dinners for the family so we always had big parties. He usually fixed homemade Raviolis and Prime Rib, with all the fixings to go along with them. With all the preparations on Christmas day, that meant we had to go to midnight mass the night before. Then it was up bright and early to set the table and make the last minute preparations. It was such fun to be with the cousins, aunts and uncles. It became sad as we got older, had boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, kids, that we just did not have a big place to gather any more because the family became so large. With five of us kids and our families and cousins with their families, aunts, uncles, and sometimes some close family friends, our group was huge. For several years we gathered at a cousin’s house in Burlingame until they divorced.
By about that time, Dad and Mom moved to a retirement community, and we rented the recreation room in their complex which had many tables and chairs for nice size parties and Bill and I brought all the food and drink from home and took them to their place in Fremont. I think we wheeled at least three full shopping carts of stuff into the recreation room which included big buffet servers with enough goodies for our group of from 50-60 people and another shopping cart just for gifts. All of the side dishes were already done at my house and Dad used the kitchen to cook the raviolis and the meat. We always had such fun. I really miss those days. But I realize how lucky we were and are that we have family to share these occasions with.
Now as we age, it is almost easier to go out to a restaurant to eat and gather so there is no clean-up which we have done with my brothers and their families for the past several years since our folks passed away. This year we will meet for dinner before Christmas as we all have made plans for the actual day of Christmas.
Our kids and grandkids will be with us on Christmas Day and I will cook. I used to be pretty good at it. We’ll see if I am out of practice. In any event, it is always special to celebrate the birth of Jesus with our family and we wish our folks were still here to join us. We know they are up in heaven looking down on us and wishing they were here with us too. And boy do we miss those homemade raviolis! No one made them like our Dad did.
You won’t be hearing the words “Happy Holidays” from me. I say “Merry Christmas” because I know why we celebrate this holiday.
A heartfelt Merry Christmas from our house to yours as we celebrate the reason for the season.