Advent Calendar - White Christmas programs at school

Do you remember “White Christmas” Concerts?  I was in the orchestra during elementary school and we would play at different schools for their program.  The children would bring cans of food wrapped in white tissue paper and put them under the tree, at the front of the auditorium.  The school chorus would sing, some of the classes would have a short skit, and the orchestra would play as the children walked up. 

My high school performed Handel’s Messiah every year.  The solos, chorus and orchestra were all high school students.  I don’t know how good we were, but the memories are great.  I played cello and even now I “hear” the cello part when I hear the Messiah, whether on CD or in person. 

In the 1950s and 1960s we weren’t very aware of non-Christian beliefs, and the children who would have been uncomfortable with the religious activities at school. 

Advent Calendar - Phoenix To Arcadia

For years we drove from Phoenix to the Los Angeles area for Christmas.  In the 1980s, with 2 children in the car, and Interstate 10 not completed, we drove through Wickenburg.  If you live, or have lived, in the Phoenix area, you’ll know what it’s like to travel rural desert roads.

Then, when the interstate was finally completed, EXCEPT for the interchange in Phoenix, we just drove I-10, day or night.   For a few years we would stopped at Griswold’s restaurant. It was always decorated so nicely for the holidays.  It was in Redlands on the south side of the interstate.  This smorgasbord restaurant had some great recipes and I still have two of their recipe books.  There was a gift shop also, and we really enjoyed walking through it.  Unfortunately, both the Redlands and the Claremont restaurants closed many years ago.

Sometimes we would stop in Blythe at the Courtesy Coffee Shop.  We haven’t been there for years, but it was something that our children expected, and it was about half way through the trip. 

So, for years we packed two children and gifts, and drove 7-9 hours to celebrate Christmas.  Because sometimes because Walt had to work the day we planned to travel, like Christmas Eve,  we’d arrive very late in Arcadia.  My parents were always up, even if they had napped before we arrived.  Then to get the four of us settled.  But this was the beginning of the family visit.

Advent Calendar - Child-Friendly Dinners

My mother started two special dinner traditions.  The first one certainly made the holidays easier for us as parents.  Because young children often need naps, especially with the excitement of the holidays, Mother started having dinner begin at 4:30 or 5 instead of 2 to 3.  This began with my two children, the first two grandchildren.  Oh, did this help.  The children could have their naps and wake up when they were rested.  AND they had time to wake up before sitting down to dinner.  So no grouchy, tired children.  This is still the tradition, as some of my other siblings had young children and came for dinner. 

The second tradition was that the youngest people were always served first and we went up in age.  This worked especially well when a parent, or parents, needed to fix plates for the young ones.  So, the children’s plates were fixed and the children sat down. They chose which table they wanted to sit at.  Then the adults served themselves and sat in empty seats.  This avoided a “children’s table” and an “adult table.”  And the adults who sat with the children enjoyed the time talking with nieces, nephews or younger cousins whom they hadn’t seen for a while.  The children learned to carry on conversations during dinner and had good examples as to table manners at a holiday dinner.  Also, there was an adult or two to help cut food, get seconds, etc.  And it was a lot of fun.  (I often chose the “children’s” table after my children were grown.)  After all, I could always talk with the adults, but to get a child to sit down and talk to me when there was lots to do and many things to play with was more difficult.

Even now, with all adults, the youngest at dinner serves himself first.   And now often the youngest adult is over 40.  We do this even when we visit and it’s not a holiday.

Advent Calendar - Gifts Given & Received

My Dad used to take all five of us children shopping for Christmas gifts for my Mother.  And, yes, he did it at the same time.  We each had $1 to spend.  Now, there is a 9 year age span, so we older children could help a little with the younger ones.  But we were all in the store together.  We went to J.C. Penney and Hinshaw’s in Arcadia, California.  Both of these stores were on Baldwin Avenue. 

Each of us children also bought gifts for each of our siblings.  That meant that Mother or Dad had to take us shopping so that we could each find four gifts.  Again, I believe we had a $1 limit for the gift.   Of course that meant that each of us children had 6 gifts to wrap:  one for each parent and one for each of our four siblings.  There were a lot of presents under the tree.  In many ways I think I was more excited about watching family members open the gifts that I bought than as in opening the gifts they bought me.  Christmas morning was exciting.

Christmas gifts from my parents were always clothes, or something very practical.  The gift from Santa was usually a toy or doll or something not as practical.  As children we usually opened the Santa gift before breakfast but all of the other gifts were opened after breakfast.

Now, we get our grandchildren a practical gift (something they can really use)  and a fun gift.  As practical gifts, one year we bought them new mattresses.  another time we bought each of them a suitcase to make it easier to pack when coming to visit us or their other grandparents. Another year we bought them new flannel sheets and last year they each received soft new bath towels.  This year they are getting extra warm, extra soft warm blankets.  It's amazing how many of these gifts are still being used.  And the grandchildren still remember that Walt and I gave them these gifts and how few of the "fun" gifts or toys are still around.

Advent Calendar - Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays OR...?

I love the prompts that I have been using for these blogs.  I know this blog may be somewhat controversial.  I wrote it a couple of months ago, and it’s been sitting in my “draft” file since then.  Please understand that I am not trying to anger anyone but it’s a topic that I strongly feel needs to be considered.

Many people seem to be getting irritated every year when they are being told “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.  Why?  Are you one of those?  Have you considered some of the reasons behind the change? 

After all, the United States was not organized to be a Christian nation.  Studying our founding fathers, many of them were not traditional Christians, but Deists.  They knew about religious intolerance and they didn’t want the United States to be formed based on one religion.  So, people of all religious beliefs were supposed to be welcome and accepted here.  Are we doing that now? 

Please let me tell you a brief, personal story.  In 8^th grade I became friends with Diane who was in orchestra class with me.  She was Jewish.  How did I know?  Because in the 1950s and 1960s all of the Jewish students missed a couple of days of class in September, right after school started.  Well, that year was the first year I sent out Christmas cards to my friends, probably only 5 or 6 that year.  But, I didn’t feel that I could send a card to Diane, because I knew that she wasn’t Christian.  My mother suggested sending Diane a Hanukah card.  I did.  Then, for the next 4 years, I sent a Hanukah card to Diane and she sent a Christmas card to me.  Even though we often rode together to orchestra practices because our parents took turns driving, we never spoke about it.  It just “wasn’t done.”

I realize that the majority of the U.S. population is Christian.  However, is that any reason for us to “push” our holidays onto everyone else?  How would we feel if we, individually, were no longer in the majority?  Permanently?  

So now, when we hear Happy Holidays, should we be insulted or should we consider that the speaker is trying to make sure not to “push” his religious belief on to us?  Since we all look similar, how are they supposed to know what our religious preferences are?  And should we be more considerate to those we meet and wish them a Happy Holiday, since we can’t be positive which holiday they may celebrate during the month of December?  So, please wish people a Happy Holiday or Merry Christmas, or some other special term, and let’s all have a great peaceful December.

Advent Calendar - Baking & Baking & Baking

Oh, do I love Christmas cookies.  Lots of them.  And all kinds.  I probably have more than 200 recipe cards with cookies.  And then I have cookie cookbooks.  I used to have even more, but I gave about half away. 

What’s really funny is that I love making the cookies, but I usually don’t eat many of them.  While Walt was working, his group would have holiday foods brought in for two weeks during December.  Because I loved to bake, I always made a variety of “goodies”.  Then by keeping just a few for us, the rest were enjoyed by the people Walt worked with. 

This may be a holdover from my childhood.  We made plates and plates of cookies to give to friends and neighbors (and anyone else who came by) during the holiday season.  Some years we probably had 25-30 plates of cookies and brown bread.  You can imagine how many cookies it took, since each plate probably had almost two dozen cookies on it, sometimes even more if the family had lots of children.  Of course, with five children in the family we ate a lot of them also.

Every year I baked Russian Tea Cakes, also called Mexican Wedding Cookies among other names.  Last year I helped my three youngest grandchildren bake them.  Sometimes I made peanut brittle.  I have a recipe for cream cheese lemon bars that were good.  The recipe for chocolate balls with cherries in the center is a messy recipe to make.  (Make sure the dough is COLD before making the balls;  there is lots of butter and warm hands make the dough very sticky.)

For a couple of years, when I was about 11 or 12, I made rolled cookies and cut them into circles.  My aunt had taken a cake decorating class and we then decorated each of these 3-4 inch round cookies with stockings, Santa faces, wreaths, trees, bells, and stars.  Aunt Jo taught me how to make a pastry tube out of parchment paper and one year she gave me my own set of decorating tips.  I still have those tips, even though I seldom use them.  (I’d rather store them that get rid of them.  And they don’t take much room.)  This is still a special memory.  Perhaps I can teach my grandchildren to decorate this year.

Advent Calendar - 59 Cent Santas & More

I don’t remember ever sending a letter to Santa.  I do remember looking through the Sears and Montgomery Ward catalogs for toys.  But we really didn’t expect to get any of those things we found.  

Our children visited Santa a couple of times.  About the time they started not believing in Santa, we had them “play” Santa to my sister and her husband.  We bought small gifts, put them in a stocking, and on Christmas Eve, hung the stocking on the door of their apartment.  We explained that Santa Claus was the spirit of giving.  They loved this and still remember doing it. 

Our children still hang stockings.  Our married daughter and son-in-law have cross-stitched stockings that they fill for each other, in secret.

Our five grandchildren have handmade stitched stockings with appliqued snowmen.   Some of them are still young enough to believe totally.  Two of them are teenagers but they still want stocking stuff.  Of course, one of them didn't go to sleep last Christmas Eve and didn't get her stocking filled.   

I have a Santa Claus collection.  Some were purchased in a set by mail; some were purchased in a set at a department store (Dillards).  I have some little special ones that I was given.  I have some large hand-carved Santas made by friends.  (He carves them and she paints them.)  I also still have 6 “international” Santas that I bought at Pic ‘n’ Sav, one of the predecessors to Big Lots.  There is still the 59 cent price tag on them.  I finally sold or gave away about 300
Santas because I ran out of room to display them and I wasn’t as attached to them as I am to those I kept.