Christmases Long, Long Ago... in the 60's

Christmas is a great time for reminiscing - remembering those Christmases long, long ago. My childhood memories of Christmas are now 40-50 years old, but some are still rather vivid.

Christmases in my childhood included:

• making lots of paper ornaments and decorations in school. One year we all took in a Reader's Digest magazine. We had to fold each page of paper very precisely. By then it stood in a circle and we painted it. One year we made them into trees and another year it was an angel (different magazines because of the size). We made a wreath from a coat hanger one year and there were always the paper stars, angels, and balls. These were all taken home from school on the last day of school land hung on the tree. 
• the Christmas pageant at Portage Park Elementary School. (I wrote about this in an earlier post in December 2011.)
• the church choir cantata and children's choir concert. Children's choir sang at church on a Sunday morning. We also sang at the mental health facility one Sunday afternoon and in the window at Sears at Six Corners. It was always fun to get situated on the risers up there and then they would pull the curtain and we would sing. It was in a second story window that overlooked the intersection and the music was piped out to the people shopping on the street.
• vacation from school. Attending a Chicago public school, we had one of the longest school years in the nation. We never got out for Christmas until a day or two before Christmas and always returned the 2nd of January. Our break time was usually 6 or 7 school days. We never had much time before Christmas and so we didn't get bored. The time between the holidays was filled with playing with new toys, reading new books, and being with friends. 
• anticipation of Christmas Eve dinner and presents with Gramma and Grampa Kolenburg. (I also wrote about this in December 2011.)
• On Christmas morning we got up early, woke Mom and Dad up, and went downstairs to the basement to see what Santa left for us. We took turns opening gifts and made the excitement last as long as we could. But there was dinner to make so Mom had to go work on getting things ready for the company that came (probably) around noon. While she was preparing food (I don't ever remember helping), I would set up all my gifts on half of the workbench so Gramma and Grampa and the Aunts and Uncles could see all that we got. Then I would climb up and sit in a corner and read a book or play with a doll. One year I got a music box and I remember standing at the window watching down the street for company and winding that over and over again.
• Christmas Day the aunts and uncles came. They were brothers and sisters of my grandparents so they were old. The only "cousins" were actually my Dad's cousins (boys) and, although they were closer to our ages than Daddy's, they were much older than we were and were probably bored with coming to our house for Christmas. The only thing I really remember about them was them taking us for a walk around the block after dinner (while the ladies cleaned up the dishes and the men talked). This was to give us something to do before we got to open gifts. 
• Mom made lots of things for Christmas. She was always making crafty things for gifts and we usually had something around the house each year that she made. She sewed dresses for Pam and I and clothes for our dolls - usually not finishing things until the night before Christmas. I used to think she was a last-minute person, but I wonder now if she was so busy taking care of the family that she put off the "fun" things when she had so many other things to do...
• Our Christmas tree was always so special. I loved going to get it, putting it up, putting the lights on, putting tinsel on piece by piece, watering it, and plugging in the lights every day. 
• Mom decorated the front window of the house with lights and "snow." She always put some sort of "wax" on the windows so it looked like snow. It wiped off and cleaned the windows when she took it off. One year we talked Mom and Dad into letting us get a string of outdoor lights and stringing them up outside on our little evergreen bushes and on the railing and around the door. We were so disappointed one morning to find that someone had unscrewed our bulbs and smashed them on the sidewalks. We replaced them but never did really quite enjoy them in the same way again. 
• our downtown trip. The first Friday in December Mom picked us up from school and we went to the Ravenswood El station and took a train downtown. We ended up underground and I always loved the feeling of walking up the stairs and out into a winter wonderland of lights. We watched the city tree being lit, saw Santa at Carson and Fields, looked at all the windows, ate supper, shopped on State ST. and headed home tired and excited. That was the only time we went downtown in all the years of growing up in Chicago.
• packing boxes for the State Hospital. We took boxes from church (all standard size) and filled them with the things on the list - apple, orange, nuts, candy, and a tract. Then we would wrap them fancy. The church went caroling there on a Sunday and delivered the boxes. They always looked so pretty. I always think of this when I hear of Mr. Magoo because I remember watching that on TV while filling 12-18 boxes on the folding table in the basement - walking around the table and filling them production style.
• One evening around Christmas we would go down to the Wilkins and exchange gifts. I remember eating so many cashews one year at their house that I was sick all night. 
• visiting Aunt Lila and Uncle Dom. The Franklins lived just 2-1/2 blocks west of us and we went to their house one evening - usually before Christmas. We would take gifts and cookies and they would give us gifts and cookies. We loved to see their tree because it was different than ours - more old-fashioned, if I remember. They had the lights that bubbled. Uncle Dom always had a train running around the tree and a little village and we thought that was so fun. Pam and I would get down on our stomachs and watch the train go around and around. Uncle Dom had a teddy bear that he would dress and tuck somewhere around the house. He loved us girls but we were afraid of him because of his voice. He had a gravelly voice and it was deep; we usually couldn't understand him and that scared us. 
• snow! I remember there being snow on the ground or falling almost every Christmas when I was growing up. Some years it was a problem because we didn't even know if we'd get to go where we were supposed to go - but I don't remember missing anything. 

It's hard to believe that I'm old enough to talk about "when I was young," but I realize with the grandkids that the stories I can tell them are to them like the stories my grandparents told me.