By Rick Houser-
It seems that Thanksgiving is hardly over before it all begins. Just look around your home and watch and listen. Over in a corner you will see a couple of your relatives whispering. If you keep looking you might see another couple exchanging information in a whisper. It doesn’t look all that incriminating but just keep watching. Before they are done talking you will see some money exchanged. To yourself you say, “Now just what is going on around here?”
The answer is really quite simple. After Thanksgiving we all have entered into the Christmas season. For about the next three weeks the behavior will continue until we make it to Christmas Eve. Looking back over all the years I’ve seen the trend all too well. The distance between these two holidays is the time for us to try to figure out and find the Christmas gift that a person would really want or at least you hope they want. When I was growing up I would watch my Mom and Dad and sister Peg and brother Ben asking each other just what they might think an individual would want fro Christmas. To keep this secret only made the event more exciting.
This period of time was quite possibly the best time of the year. All members of my family were included and involved in the preparation for Christmas and we are talking about one of the most important holidays of the year. First and foremost our savior Jesus Christ was born on Christmas. I always felt that once we all acknowledged this we could move forward with the commercial side of Christmas. I think my sister was the main person we all went to in preparing for the big day and helping each of us to find the gift we wanted to get someone. Peg had the ability to go shopping and get so much for the sale price which really helped deliver a bigger and better gift. Peg had the best poker face in the family. She could have bought all of your gifts and she looked at you as if she hadn’t heard a word on the topic.
With each day that passed, gifts began to be bought and hidden away. Ben would continue to drop what I called “little commercials” about the items he was wanting and to say he hinted was the understatement of the year. Peg would list the items she really wanted and list the cost and which stores they could be bought in. (Yep, shopping made easy was Peg.) In my case since I was the youngest by a large margin, I would just get a hold of one of the Wish Books and circle the items I was wanting and deliver it back to Mom. Peg was the smooth one and Ben would run ads but I knew that what money that was going to be spent on Christmas was all up to Mom. Let me point out that Mom liked Christmas as much as the next person but she and Dad had worked hard for that money and by golly she wasn’t going to let go of it until she was satisfied she had made the best deal for each item. (So much for that erector set.) I won’t say just how good Mom was at getting a full dollar out of one but my Dad never worried that his wife was going to blow up the back account.
When we got within the two-week range to Christmas, Ben and I would wrap up and get the ax and head to the woods where Dad had mowed around a well-shaped cedar tree and cut it down to bring to the house. After getting the base sized up and the tree made to stand straight, we would work next on picking the best side of the tree to be seen by guests. (We all know a cedar tree doesn’t have all of its sides nice to look at.) Once the tree was up we would place on our ornaments and spread some icicles. We would wrap the lights around the tree and when we plugged them in the tree was always the prettiest thing in our house. That was until a light bulb would blow and since it was the lights from years past we would work slowly and steadily checking one bulb at a time until we got the bad one and light reigned again. Sometimes Peg would pop some corn and we would string it and hang it on the tree. Now with the tree up, the countdown to Christmas was picking up speed and eveyone in the house was catching the spirit of the season. Even work almost seemed to be fun, well almost.
We had one extra luxury that other families didn’t- Peg was a piano player. She claimed to not be very good but she was asked a lot to play for Sunday School and church. To me that was a validation that Peg could play. When we were in the house and near the tree Peg would slide on to the piano bench and begin to play Christmas carols. She would start with “Jingle Bells” and move on to “Silent Night”. Sometimes she would play ”Santa Claus is Coming to Town”, followed by “Joy to the World”. Once she tried her hand at “Little Drummer Boy” and I must admit that Ben and myself along with Peg really didn’t do this carol any justice at all. It was so bad that all we could do was laugh and we had Peg hide that song in the piano bench to never be played again. It was so great to have Peg to play for us as it added much more to the season and our spirits. None of us could sing on tune but we did sing them loud. My Mom always said “if you can’t sing well sing loud”. Mom and her children all sang very loud.
When Christmas Eve and Christmas Day arrived we were more than ready to enjoy it. It seemed like on the morning of Christmas there was always an abundance of gifts under our tree. I don’t know where they hid them all but it was a sight to see them and I can still see my family all sitting around the tree as we did once upon a time a long time ago. It is good to remember them, even if it is only a thought.
These days I have to get ready to see my children and all my grandchildren. Christmas is eternal and we are only temporary. To me when I sit down by that old tree I get that feeling of family and next to the birthday of Jesus, I guess family is next. I really hope you enjoy your Christmas this year.