My Christmas Memories

My Early Christmases

One of my earliest and most treasured memories of Christmas is bubble lights on the Christmas tree. I can still see those beautiful little lights on the tree in our little house on Howard St. The tree was small, and it would have been real, as they didn’t have fake trees in the early 50’s. At least, not that I knew of. It is funny that I don’t remember much else about those Christmases. I don’t remember any of the presents. I don’t remember my Grandmother cooking or baking, although I know she must have. She baked a lot, but I don’t recall any specific memories in relationship to Christmas. I don’t remember gathering around the tree on Christmas morning to open gifts, or thinking about Santa Claus. In those days my Grandmother didn’t really believe in Santa Claus. Don’t get me wrong though. While I don’t remember any of those things, Christmas has always been and still is a joyous celebration in my mind and in my life. The feeling of love was there. And obviously all of those “things” are not really what makes Christmas special anyway. I didn’t miss them, nor do I have any feelings of being deprived.

And there would have been a manger, set out lovingly by my Grandmother, each figure unwrapped and placed just so. I don’t remember a specific manger, but we always had one, so I know there must have been one. When I was older, it became my job to set out the manger set. This was something I loved doing. The decorating was not complete until the manger set was put up. But that is part of a different chapter.

Surprisingly, there are no pictures from this era. I say that, because my Uncle Homer took pictures of everything all throughout our lives. But there doesn’t seem to be any pictures of those first six Christmases of my life.