Decking the halls

I started my Christmas decorating today, and it got me thinking about Christmas memories.

Daddy loved to decorate the house, and took great pride in whatever he created.  When we were growing up, I remember him putting colored lights around the windows and doors, and always decorating the front door with paper and tinsel and other things, using a spotlight to show it off in all its glory.  Daddy usually had charge of decorations at the VFW and at the Olde State Tavern, and he had a lot of fun with those as well.

Later, in Maryland, Daddy and Mary Ann made an inspiring display of their outdoor Nativity scene, decorating it with lights and flowers.  Inside, they had a display of the stained glass Nativity set that Mary Ann’s dad had made, set off with white lights underneath a white snow blanket as well as with lights poked through a black background wrapped on the picture behind the buffet on which the Nativity scene sat.  It was a lovely scene, and perfectly balanced by the Hess truck collection!

Back to our growing-up years…  inside the house, we put up the tree on Christmas Eve and decorated it before Santa came.  Christmas Eve was the only night we left the Christmas lights on all night, and Daddy slept on the couch to keep curious little ones out of the living room until the big reveal Christmas morning.  We used colored lights that twinkled, and an eclectic mix of decorations – glass balls, beaded balls, home-made ornaments, icicles, glass bead strings, and tinsel.  We topped the tree with a lighted star.  

The tree was always a grand statement in the corner of the living room.  And we had a lovely manger scene complete with a three-sided wooden stable.  I don’t recall a lot of other decorations (the house was kind-of small for much more), but it was quite cozy and cheerful.

Leading up to the big events, we would keep an eye out for all the terrific Christmas specials on TV.  Back then, we didn’t have recorded shows, so you had to catch them when they came on… we watched for Rudolph, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town, and A Charlie Brown Christmas (“That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.”), and my all-time favorite, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (“Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”)  With all those fun shows, the decorations, the food, and occasionally, the snow storms – what a wonderful time of the year!

Our Christmas traditions included  a steak dinner for Mom’s birthday on Christmas Eve, visits from the Lombardozzi aunts and uncles, midnight services that actually started at midnight (for older kids, usually singing),  the aforementioned Daddy sleeping on the couch,opening gifts one at a time, a fabulous pancake breakfast, and making a gift display on our beds for a few days so we could easily show off what Santa had brought us.  Christmas often brought visitors as well, often Nana and Pop, and Mom’s friend Aunt Eileen.  (With six kids, Mom and Dad decided early on that if people wanted to see us on Christmas, they could come to us!)  Christmas dinner was the traditional turkey feast.

Going to Church at Christmas was very special, too.  The building was always beautifully decorated with a huge crèche scene surrounded by evergreen trees.  The music was joyous and spectacular, and it was the one time of year when everybody sang!  There is nothing quite so stirring as a church full of people singing Silent Night and Joy to the World – still brings tears to my eyes.  When I was in high school, we sang a Christmas Eve service at Sacred Heart – and I believe that was the night of the infamous ride with eight people in the front of Daddy’s truck!  (We sat three people deep, and Pat rode laying down across the back of the seat.  It wasn’t such a good idea then, and would be totally illegal now!)

The next best Christmas event was the annual Balzer family Christmas party, where we got exchanged gifts with our Balzer Godparents and usually got something from Uncle Mike.  Our aunts and uncles exchanged gifts, too, and everybody got Grandmom and Grandad gifts.  I remember Aunt Mary Christine made them a pair of huge (4 or 5 foot) Christmas stockings, which were stuffed for several years with smaller gifts and gag items because Grandmom and Grandad didn’t really need much.  The party was always a lot of fun playing with the cousins, and I remember hearing the adult party going on until late while we listened to the chatter from the bedroom in Grand-mom’s attic.  Another funny memory was the first time we were able to do live videotaping of the Christmas party — I remember Grandmom being so very impressed that Tad could tape the proceedings and show it back right away.

When I was growing up, Christmas was really the only time when you got gifts – especially toys (besides your birthday – a one-gift event).  We had years when Santa was very generous, and years when he brought mostly practical things.  But I always remember it being a very special time, looked forward to with great anticipation.  I remember getting my favorite dolls (one named Maryann with short curly hair; one whose name I can’t recall with long brown hair and a fur-trimmed coat and muff), and games, and clothes.  I remember a beautiful yell0w-and-black suit my dad picked out for me that I just loved.

Ah, Christmas!  Every year, to remind me of the true meaning of the season, I read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  I’ll leave you with the very end of that tale…

” And it was always said of him [the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge], that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge.  May that be truly said of us, and all of us!  And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!”