COG: Christmas past, present, and future
Karen K | Wednesday, December 28, 2011 This is my first time participating in the Carnival of Genealogy; January's topic really looked like fun:
... A Charles Dickens Christmas. We're going to borrow Charles Dickens' idea and have some visits from the ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future. First show us a photo from a Christmas/Hanuka/Kwanzaa past and tell us what you know about it (or just share a story about a past holiday if you don't have a photo to share). Then share a photo from your Christmas/Hanuka/Kwanzaa celebration this year (it can be a photo of holiday lights, a tree, etc., it doesn't have to have people in it) and tell us something about how you'll be celebrating the holiday this year. And lastly, write about a future Christmas and how you'd like to celebrate it.
Christmas Past: 1992
In my family, the highlight of the season is Christmas Eve night. It is then that we open our gifts; my parents had five kids, and I think it was just easier that way.
For me as a child, it was always the most magical night of the whole year.
Adulthood unfortunately takes much of that magic out of the holiday, but in December of 1992, it hadn't yet worn off for my seventeen-year-old high school senior self.
That year, gathered in our living room, were my parents, me, my two older brothers, my dad's best friend, and a couple who were also good friends who lived right across the street.
Along one entire wall of the room, was a miniature Christmas village my mom had set up with the Department 56 pieces she collected: houses and churches and stores that were lit from within. Little streetlights that worked. A mixture of pulled cotton balls and white flakes served as "snow", while Mom created a skating pond with a simple mirror. There was even a train with tracks, complete with a station for it.
I got mostly clothes that year, but my big gift-- one that everyone played with and enjoyed that night-- was a karaoke machine.
It wasn't a professional one, of course, but consisted of two tape decks-- one to play the music, and the other for recording-- and a microphone. The tape that came with it included five songs ("Mac The Knife" and "Crazy" were among them, I remember); one side of the tape had the songs with vocals and the other side had instrumental versions. You could adjust the amount of echo you wanted, as well as the key of the song (unfortunately, this also changed the tempo of the song, so if you wanted the song in a higher key, this meant the song would be faster).
It was a very fun evening, with people taking turns singing and everyone having a wonderful time.
Christmas Present: 2011
19 years later, after some years of going to my brother's house for Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day dinner, we spent both days at home. It was the first year in a few years that we've had a house rather than an apartment, so we wanted to host.
This year we had a real tree, as opposed to either an artificial tree or the 3-foot table toppers that we used in the apartment. I had forgotten how wonderful a real Christmas tree smells, and it took me back to the Christmases of my childhood.
How blessed I am to have been able to have most of my family around me this year, with the exception of my mother, who passed away in 1999, and my eldest sister, who lives overseas. There was the traditional Christmas Eve menu for us: chicken drumettes, "pigs in blankets" (miniature hot dogs wrapped in dough and baked), deviled eggs, and various other munchies.
Usually we have grilled tenderloin roast sandwiches with horseradish sauce as well, but we decided this year to have that for Christmas dinner instead.
Christmas Future: 20??
Some year I would really like to go to New England for Christmas with my family. Having lived in Florida since I was seven, and in southern California three years before that, I have no memories of a "white Christmas."
But I'll confess what I would really like for a future Christmas in my heart of hearts, even though it might sound childish and silly: a dream of mine is to someday buy back the house that I grew up in, which holds so many warm and wonderful memories for me, and host Christmas there. It might be strange, though, especially without my mother.
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year, and probably always will be. It's not about presents anymore; I get more pleasure out of watching family and friends open my gifts to them than I do in opening my own.
May we all have many more happy Christmases and new years.