12-4-09...SIMPLE IS THE BEST
With Christmas so near how I long for the old time Christmas' like we used to have. When Richard was growing up we kept Christmas just the way it had always been to us. It's all we knew.
Our Christmas tree didn't go up the day after Thanksgiving either. We had a live cedar tree. I just thought that was the way it was, and by golly it was. Since the tree was fresh from the outdoors of course it had to be far away from the open flame of our little heater.
On the 23rd of December We went and got a cedar tree. Did you ever smell cedar inside your house? I still associate that smell with Christmas. Daddy brought it to the front porch and trimmed it up nice. Cut the base of the tree with an angle he said. That way it can have a drink of water and not dry out. Then Daddy set the tree down in a 3 gallon lard bucket and filled more rocks in to make the tree stand up sturdy. Of course we were 'helping' all we could. Dirt was put in on top of the rocks and tamped down. Norman and I would then scamper around to hold the screen door open while Daddy and Mamma carried the tree in and put it in the corner where it was always placed for trimming. Oh My Oh My what fun it was to trim the tree. No blinking lights and balls and fancy stuff like that. We had one string of lights with seven big bulbs. Red, green, blue, orange, yellow, another red. The 7th bulb was white. The white one was fitted into a silver star on top of the tree. We usually had decorations that Norman and I had made. Sometimes we had a package of silver 'icicles' and some stuff that felt and looked like spider webs that was, artificial snow. Mercy that stuff was messy. I can still see that tree.
We got to turn those lights on that night and again on Christmas eve night. By then it was starting to get dried out and shedding all over the place. Stepping on a cedar twig bare footed aint a good thing. Its like stickers. The tree was taken down on Christmas evening and all the mess cleaned up. The clean up was never as much fun of course.
Christmas eve night we all went to the little Church across the tracks and had our Christmas program. There was a huge cedar tree set up on the stage with lights. I remember it had some bubble lights. Oh how I loved those. I was just fascinated with that colored water bubbling up when it heated a bit. Santa was there and handed each of us a gift from under the tree plus our stocking with an orange, an apple, and some Christmas candy Our Parents had put the gift there of course. I remember one year I was so afraid that Santa would forget to come to my house after he had already been at church. But always when we got home 'Santa' had been there and we had gifts under the tree. There would be mixed nuts in a paper bag that Daddy would set down there and crack with a hammer on a rock for us. Daddy could sit with his feet flat on the for and his knees up under his chin for long times.
What we got was always practical things like clothes that we needed. I got a doll most years and Normans thing that I most remember was cap pistols. There is a picture of Norman and I setting on the ground with our legs stretched out. He was holding my little red purse and I had his cap pistol. We ate just what we always ate. Usually had Chicken and dressing. Nothing fancy, just nourishing food. Mamma made the best Southern Pecan Pie you ever wrapped your lips around!!! Yummy!
So there you have it. A Simple Christmas. The kind of Christmas I am longing for right now. YEP!
