Remembering Past Christmases
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| Aunt Paige and Luna making a new tradition. |
I grew up on a farm in Brock, Nebraska. When I was child, I never saw Christmas decorations up until two weeks or three weeks before Christmas. Store windows would have marvelous displays and streets would be decorated with wonderful colored lights.. Santa usually made his appearance into our community around the 18th or so of December. So the Christmas magic came alive and had not worn off long before Christmas Day. Always we went to church on Christmas eve, and heard the Christmas story and sang carols. The evening began early with a chili and oyster stew supper in the church basement. Then the children would perform a play about the birth of Jesus. The little ones would have little rhymes to say. My mother told me that when I was two, all the two year olds were to go to the front of the church to say, "I may be a baby, but I can say, I wish you a Merry Christmas day!" All the little ones refused to go except for me, so Mama said. I apparently not only said my little rhyme, but said so loudly that my Aunt Nene and Uncle Chet, who arrived late and had to stand at the back of the church, heard me quite well. Then I blew them a kiss and curtsied! I am certain my Mother taught me that. The Fuller family tends to ham it up a bit! The pastor would give to every child a paper sack and inside would be an orange, apple, and some candy. I always looked forward to receiving that sack.
On the way back to the farm, my father would have us sing Silent Night, and most of us were asleep before we reached the house. On Christmas morning, we found that Santa had left some of our toys at our neighbors, The Grotians, and some toys were at our home were for the Grotians! So we would drive to their house or they to ours to get the goodies straightened out. Such fun we had. Once , I found a trail of doll clothes going from the tree to the back door, and my Daddy would say, "Guess they must have dropped out of Santa's sack. My Dad liked to make everything fun!
Later in the day, we would have Christmas dinner with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our house was filled. Mama was an excellent cook and we had a lot traditional food that I still fix to this day, cranberry salad, fruit parfait salad. This year we added a new traditional food, carrots and onions fixed by our new daughter-in-law.
Times were quiet. There was no television to distract, although we had a television, on Christmas it was off. Christmas with my parents filled me with joy and gave me wonderful memories. I hope my children have wonderful memories too.
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