CHRISTMAS MEMORIES

I am a baby boomer, born in 1946. My Mom was a stay at home mom, like most mom's of that era, and my Dad worked for the same company, Western Electric, until he retired after 35 years at the age of 55. My brother and I attended St. Rita's Parochial School and along with reading, writing and arithmetic we got a heavy dose of religion. That was a different time and place compared to today and calls to mind many fond memories. Spending our first Christmas on Bainbridge Island after almost 30 years on Kings Mountain brought these memories into sharp focus.

Christmas was a big deal at St. Rita's with both secular and religious activities. Sometime after Thanksgiving the entire school assembled in the parish auditorium and watched The Miracle on 34th Street. We also practiced Christmas Carols which we would sing at the 9:00 AM Children's Mass. In the 50's and 60's St. Rita's was a big parish. On Sundays Masses were held at 6:30 AM, 7:15, 8:15, 9:00 (the children's Mass) 10:00, 11:00 and 12:15 PM. We were expected to sit with our class and the nun that taught us for this 9:00 AM Mass.

Unlike today with the Christmas Season starting after Halloween our Christmas season began after Thanksgiving and then it was a slow start. My family put Christmas lights in the windows and hung a wreath on the front door; but the tree was a different story. I think my brother and I truly believed, as did all our friends, in Santa Claus until probably the 3rd grade. Prior to Christmas my Mom would be busy baking cookies; but the house was not really decorated. However; on Christmas morning my brother and I woke up to a decorated house, a tree trimmed and sparkling with lights and tinsel and our Christmas Garden with our American Flyer trains and of course, piles of presents. How did Santa do all this?

Years later our parents shared with us how "Santa" accomplished so much at our house. On Christmas Eve after my brother and I hung our stockings and put out milk and cookies for Santa we promptly went to bed as Santa did not visit homes where children were still awake. This was when our parents went to work. The Christmas Garden, a 4 by 8 foot winter village scene complete with houses, snow, and the American Flyer trains was assembled, wired and set up by my father. My mother trimmed the tree and wrapped all the presents. My parents shared that on some occasions they would just be finishing everything and it would almost be daylight. On one Christmas morning they heard me and my brother about to leave our bedroom and they told us that Santa had not yet been to our house and we better go back to sleep ! Hearing these stories I understood why my parents liked to just sit around on Christmas Day and relax .... they were tired having gotten little or no sleep on Christmas Eve!

After Sunday Mass my brother and I spent the day emptying our Christmas stockings and playing with our gifts and trains. By early evening we had Christmas dinner. Since we always had a roast turkey at Thanksgiving on Christmas it would be a baked ham with mashed potatoes, vegetable side dishes and dinner rolls. Of course desert would be an assortment of Christmas cookies that my Mom had baked and maybe a homemade fruit cake. It was always a most enjoyable day.

The days immediately after Christmas we visited family, especially our grandparents. My brother and I always enjoyed these visits because it meant more presents and more cookies and candy. My paternal grandmother made excellent Russian Tea cookies and kept our glasses full of Pepsi Cola. My maternal grandfather introduced us to the tangy taste of ginger ale as he used ginger ale in his high ball cocktails. These visits also gave my brother and me the opportunity to visit with aunts, uncles and our cousins. At my Grandmother's the adults would sit around the dining room table and us kids would gather in the living room and watch television, share comic books and stuff ourselves with treats and sweets. These were good times that I will always remember.

Merry Christmas Everyone,

bob