Christmas Memories

I'm feeling nostalgic today. Looking at old family pictures will do that to a person. But the whole Christmas season lends itself to reflection and memories, I think. So I was contemplating some of the things that I remember from my childhood regarding Christmas. Here are a few of them.

Being the second to the youngest in the family made waiting for Christmas morning hard. After all everybody had to be up before the whole gift unwrapping thing could take place. And I had four older teenage sisters and brothers who went out on Christmas Eve caroling with the youth group - and yes, that was in the old days, caroling didn't start until late which meant they didn't get home until midnight or later, so of course they didn't want to get up early on Christmas morning. To a child it seemed like forever before they got up - looking back I know it probably wasn't; after all we did live on a farm!

Hot chocolate and Christmas cookies for breakfast on Christmas morning! After all, one needed to have something in the tummy before the serious business of gifts took place. And it was the one time of the year when we were allowed to have more than two cookies. (The normal two cookies only rule was, I'm sure, born of necessity - with 8 kids in the house can you imagine how fast a batch of cookies could be eaten.)

Gifts lovingly made by Mother. If I got a doll for Christmas, it wasn't just the doll, but a doll with a complete wardrobe. This wardrobe usually included coat and hat, a dress or two, and a nightgown, usually matching dresses and/or pajamas that I had. American girl dolls with the matching dresses for the doll's owner have nothing over my mother's creations. I also remember the year bride dolls were all the rage and I wanted one. My mother crafted a beautiful bride's dress and veil for my doll that year. I think I still have it in the attic somewhere.

No doll is complete without a bed to sleep in or a carriage to ride in. Mother made a mattress, pillow, and embroidered quilt for the bed and again for the carriage when I received those as Christmas gifts. Another special gift I remember (I think I was probably 9 or 10) was a beautiful dollhouse, complete with a doorbell and "electric" light, and all the furnishings. I had to wait patiently while my older brothers assembled the dollhouse so I could play with it.

One of the other treasured gifts from my childhood that I remember was from Grandma (I think Dombach). She used to give us a little trinket or something and I remember the year I received a gift similar to the "big" girls. Mine was a little ceramic watering can flower pot. I don't think it was really big enough to plant anything in - it was more cute than functional, but I had that little pot well into my married life. It may still be packed away with other collectibles that I no longer have room to display. Grandma also gave me one year a little puppy dog pincushion - with a tongue that pulled out to be a tape measure and a thimble for the tale. It went into my sewing kit for junior high home ec and I used it for many years.

Christmas was and still is a time for celebrating the birth of our Saviour with family and friends. The memories only make those celebrations sweeter.