Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 24: Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve

How did you and your family spend Christmas Eve?

When I was a girl, Christmas Eve was spent getting ready for the next day. I don't really remember anything specific about the day or the evening, probably because the big excitement of St. Nicholas coming had already passed, on December 6th. That's not to say I wasn't excited; there were always large boxes full of presents from my grandparents and other relatives in Michigan, waiting to be opened the next morning.

While we had lived in Alaska, my parents had become friendly with the clergy from various denominations in the area, and we usually stayed at the Catholic rectory in Ketchikan whenever we had to stay overnight for business or medical appointments. Several times, my parents hosted ecumenical services with Catholics, Presbyterians, and Pentecostals, and we often attended mass at one of our Catholic friends' homes whenever the priest came over from Ketchikan. Once we moved to Washington, we "adopted" an elderly couple who were neighbors of ours as surrogate grandparents. Their children lived too far away to drive them into town for Midnight Mass, so we would always take "Grandma Anne" with us. I always loved the beautiful ritual of the mass, the carols of the choir in the loft behind us, and the light shining through the stained glass out into the snow. My favorite part was the finale with the Hallelujah Chorus as everyone exited the church, and it always seemed to echo through my head as we drove back home later that night, up the snowy mountain roads.


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 23: Christmas Sweetheart Memories

Christmas Sweetheart Memories

Do you have a special memory of a first Christmas present from a sweetheart? How did you spend your first Christmas together?

The first Christmas I spent with the man who is now my husband was Christmas 1986. We were not yet engaged, although we were pretty serious and had already discussed marriage. At the time, I had been living with his brother and sister-in-law for about a month, caring for their three young children while they worked evenings, cleaning offices. It was his brother's second job, as the income he received working for the social services department of The Salvation Army was not enough to support a growing family. I had met my future husband and his brother while working for the same department.

I don't remember exactly what day we first celebrated Christmas together. I think it was a few days before, because if memory serves me right, my future brother-in-law and his family were planning to go to Vancouver, Washington for Christmas to spend it with their parents. And I know that my parents had invited Norm to come up to Colville with me to meet them at Christmastime.

So our first celebration was at Norm's brother's home in Spokane, and he (Norm) bought me a boom box for Christmas. I don't at all remember what I got him. Our second celebration occurred at my parents' home, where he met them and my younger siblings. We were engaged near the end of the following January, and married in late May.


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 22: Christmas and Deceased Relatives

Christmas and Deceased Relatives

Did your family visit the cemetery at Christmas? How did your family honor deceased family members at Christmas?

We don't have many family buried in this area. My cousins, Chris and Carrie, and a few distant cousins of my husband are buried at the upper level of Greenwood Memorial Terrace. Notice the word "terrace." The road up to the top of the cemetery is narrow, windy, and in the winter, covered with snow and ice. In the warm months, traveling up it still makes me nervous as it's not quite wide enough for two vehicles, and I'm always a little anxious as to who might be flying down the hill. Suffice it to say, we don't visit the cemetery in the winter. I do enjoy going on Memorial Day weekend. I also drive by Holy Cross Cemetery frequently while doing errands, and during the holidays, one can see how beautifully decorated the graves are, especially with wreaths on tripods.

During the holidays, I often think of loved ones who've gone before us; my grandparents and cousins, especially. It's not a melancholy reflection, although I do miss them. Mostly, it's warm memories of times we spent together, or gifts that were sent to us from them across the miles while growing up.


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 21: Christmas Music

Christmas Music

What songs did your family listen to during Christmas? Did you ever go caroling? Did you have a favorite song?

There was a while there when our family did not have electricity on our little farm in Alaska. But before, when we lived in town, and after, when we did have electricity on the farm and later when we moved to Washington, we often would listen to a set of records that I believe came from Reader's Digest. There were a number of boxed sets of various types of music that my parents had purchased, and one of them was all Christmas music. Between listening to those records, frequent church attendance, and involvement in school music programs (choir and band), I was very familiar with the songs of Christmas.

When I moved to Spokane to attend college, I was very involved with The Salvation Army, and learned to play brass instruments (I had played clarinet in school). As a band, we would go caroling in quartets or quintets to the various kettle stands around town, both outside and inside malls and shopping centers. We would play a few numbers before moving on to the next location. This always helped to bring in more donations, and it was just plain fun!

I can't think of a song that's an absolute favorite. I love all Christmas songs, and many are dear to my heart (I did blog about "White Christmas" here). I do have to say that as a choir and band member for many years in both school and church groups that I always enjoyed singing or playing "The Hallelujah Chorus," even though it technically is not a Christmas carol. It is traditionally played at many Christmas concerts, and has a powerful effect on both the audience and the performers.


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 20: Religious Services

Christmas Church Services

Did your family attend religious services during the Christmas season? What were the customs and traditions involved?

This is a beautiful nativity set I purchased a few years ago.
I've always wanted a nice one with all the traditional "players,"
and this was just perfect!

Because my parents were ministers for many years, every Christmas of my childhood was connected with church, and I grew up knowing the "reason for the season."

My very earliest Christmas church memory was of when I was not quite three years old, Christmas 1969. My mother wrote to her parents:

The Christmas program was held this morning at the Annette Protestant Chapel [at Annette Coast Guard Base in Southeast Alaska]. Miriam was one of 3 little angels and the smallest one; as she went out after singing her song, her halo and wings fell off! Bryan and I had a hard time to keep from laughing.

We angels had a song to sing and I used to remember what it was, but can't now for the life of me! I want to say it was "Angels We Have Heard On High," but I know that is not right. Too bad Mom didn't write down what it was!

As I got older, I loved to be in Christmas pageants that were held almost every year at The Salvation Army church I grew up in, and liked playing the part of Mary or the Angel.

One of the things we did after my brother was born was to have a birthday cake at home for the Baby Jesus as part of our Christmas celebration. Part of the reason of celebrating St. Nicholas Day was to have the emphasis on gifts be on a different day than the spiritual celebration.

For awhile we attended a Presbyterian church and we always had advent candles lit, another tradition I enjoy.

After we moved to Washington and I was a teen, we often attended Midnight Mass with our neighbor. I've always loved going to church around Christmas!


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 19: Christmas Shopping

Christmas Shopping

How did your family handle Christmas Shopping? Did anyone finish early or did anyone start on Christmas Eve?

Most of the Christmas shopping done when I was a girl was via Sears, Roebucks & Co., Montgomery Wards, or occasionally, Jafco. We always got catalogs for those companies, and my favorite were the Christmas Wish Books. I loved all the dolls and accessories: clothes and bottles, strollers and carriages, cribs, high chairs, clothes.

I suppose that my dad probably bought Mom her Christmas gifts whenever he had to go out of town on business trips for The Salvation Army.

When we moved to Washington, we still used catalogs a lot. In addition to the others, we also had J.C. Penney. Both Sears and Penney had stores in Colville, although the Sears store was more of a delivery and pickup location for the larger store in Spokane.

I always envied the two girls that appeared on the front of the Jafco Christmas catalogs; they were the granddaughters of the CEO, and it always looked like they got everything they wanted for Christmas!

Today, I'm not a big shopper. I don't like malls and crowded stores. My kids can attest that I get very crabby if I have to shop for long (I don't even like grocery shopping!). I try to do a lot of online shopping, and then get in and out of stores with a pre-made list ahead of time. Still, it seems like every year there's always one or two items we end up having to purchase on Christmas Eve!


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 18: Christmas Stockings

Christmas Stockings

Did you have one? Where did you hang it? What did you get in it?

While I may have had a stocking when I was very little, I don't remember it. When I was in early elementary school, my parents started having us celebrate the Dutch tradition of putting out our klompen, wooden shoes, on St. Nicholas Eve, December 5th. In the morning, there would be candy and small gifts. I have continued this tradition with my own children. They use my old klompen. St. Nicholas ordered these from the wooden shoe factory in Holland, Michigan, and all of our family got them. We got several pair over the years. Some pair we received were plain, unvarnished ones, and they all have been worn out and discarded, as we would actually use them for walking around in the muddy barnyard. That was the original purpose of wooden shoes; the decorative ones are generally only used for St. Nicholas Day.

One year, St. Nicholas brought my brother and I Raggedy Andy and Ann dolls. He must have been about 18 months old, and I would have been almost 9. I think that a lot of the children's books I have about the Netherlands as well as fiction books by Dutch authors were brought by the good saint, too. When I was a teenager, St. Nicholas brought me a makeup kit, and another time he brought me a favorite aerobic dance album. For years, he brought Mom a delft Christmas plate, always featuring a handpainted Dutch church on it. One year, he brought my family a beautiful chiming wall clock with a delft face and brass hands, complete with weights and pendulum. We always felt so proud of our Dutch heritage on St. Nicholas Day!


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Memories No. 17: Christmas Grab Bag

Christmas Grab Bag

Author’s choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!

On December 15, 1985, I received a phone call from my dad. I was living with my pastor's family in Spokane, attending college and employed at our church's day care. My parents had been discussing going out of town during Christmas and visiting some friends on the west side of the state for several days, and so there was a possibility that I would not be able to go home for Christmas that year, since I could not get the time off of work.

"Miriam, this is your dad," he said. "I have some bad news for you." Oh, great. They are going out of town and I won't be able to go up to Colville after all, I thought.

The words he spoke next I will never forget: "Your cousin Chris died in his sleep this morning in his dorm at Gonzaga University."

I can still see myself in the kitchen with the phone to my ear, my body bent over as if someone had sucker punched me. I could hear my voice, sounding as if it were very far away, crying out and asking, "How? Why?"

Only earlier that week, Chris had come to visit me at my workplace, located just a few blocks away from his campus. We were the same age--he was three months younger--but had been in different grades because I had started school a year early. He had met my co-workers and we had gone out to lunch. We'd discuss our busy lives as college students. A bright student, he'd gotten a scholarship to GU and was studying engineering. He was excited to be going on a retreat that coming weekend.

Sunday morning after the retreat, one of his roommates had gotten up to use the bathroom. When he returned to the room, he noticed that Chris had passed away. "Did he have sleep apnea?" the coroner asked my aunt, who replied that he had.

Some friends drove me out to my aunt and uncle's place. I hugged my aunt and my cousins Carrie and Chuck. Chuck answered the phone whenever it rang. It was bizarre, hearing him say over and over, "My brother died this morning." Family friends of my aunt and uncle came over to stay with her. My uncle took my cousins and me to his work that evening, cleaning office buildings, and then we went to Denny's and sat without appetites, talking in that weird, other-worldly, disbelieving way that people do when someone close to them has passed away.

That night, Carrie--four years younger--and I slept fitfully on the living room floor in our sleeping bags. We kept waking up all night, and I don't think anyone else slept much, either.

The next few days are all a blur. Our grandparents came from Texas. There was a memorial mass at Gonzaga, the viewing at the funeral home, the funeral where I couldn't stop crying, and then the burial service in the frozen snow atop Greenwood Memorial Terrace.

See Chris's memorial page at Find A Grave here.

I don't think I remember Christmas that year. My parents didn't go out of town, and I suppose I went home to be with them.

There are questions that will never be answered to our satisfaction. A month later, after complaining of frequent headaches, Carrie was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Her oncologist ordered Chris's autopsy to see if perhaps he had had one, too. The autopsy report had disappeared. After a courageous 17-month-long battle, Carrie herself passed away, just days before my wedding.

I often wonder how Christmas and other family times would be different if Chris and Carrie had lived, married, and had children. I tell my kids about them, and we visit their graves on Memorial Day. Christmas time can be a sad time of memories, too, as nearly everyone can attest to. But it's also a good time to honor the memories of those who have gone before us.

 
This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Click on their names for the list of topics. To see what others have written, go here.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 16: Christmas at School

Christmas at School

What did you do to celebrate Christmas at school? Were you ever in a Christmas Pageant?

I've already shared how Santa came to my childhood hometown of Klawock, Alaska on his Cessna from Ketchikan, but before he arrived, we students had been busy decorating our classroom. Every classroom had a tree, which was gaily decorated with lights, ornaments, and red-and-green paper chains (no political correctness and sanitized holidays in those days!). The ornaments were often pictures we had cut out, colored and covered with glitter, hung on the tree with yarn or unbent paper clips. As the school custodian, there was nothing Dad hated more than glitter! Those little metallic bits would have drops of glue on them before accidentally getting brushed to the floor, laid with those rubber-backed carpet tiles. No matter how well he vacuumed during the holidays, the carpet would be littered with glue-encrusted bits of glitter that never really came free as they embedded themselves in the fibers. But we kids never worried our little heads about that! We listened to Mitch Miller and Alvin and the Chipmunks sing Christmas songs on the record player, and I remember our teacher getting out a book of classic Christmas songs and teaching us The Twelve Days of Christmas, as we giggled our way through what seemed to us very silly lyrics.

Every year, there was a Christmas play--or actually a series of plays--usually based on a theme, performed by each classroom. One year, it was old classic tales, with "The Bremen Town Musicians" and "Bartholomew and His 500 hats." I think our class did "Puss in Boots." Another year, each class did a play based on a Christmas song. I was the title character in our Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer skit. Someone was very clever, and took old, clean, dry bleach bottles, cut a large hole in one side, painted them brown, colored the lid end black and somehow added eyes and antlers. This was a "hat" that each of the reindeer actors wore. My "nose" was a red plastic Kool-aid mug, I think, that was taped on to the lid end. I also narrated the Frosty the Snowman play for another class that year. Still another year (I think this was 1973 - second grade) we acted out fairy tales. Our class performed Little Red Riding Hood, and I was the star. I loved acting and being the center of attention, probably not helped any by being an only child for the first seven years of my life! The reason I was given many starring and narrating roles was probably because 1) I was a good reader and could memorize my lines quickly; and 2) I wasn't bashful onstage and didn't mind speaking in front of an audience, which is not the Native way. Most of the students in my classes were naturally shy and soft-spoken.

The plays were first performed in the ANB/ANS hall until the school district built a gymnasium that had a stage at one end. Unfortunately, the only photograph I have is the following, which I believe was Christmas 1971 (Kindergarten). I am the smallest one in the front row dressed in a native Tlinget dress with two salmon on the front, because a group of us had performed a native dance just before our class sang a carol. We must have been singing "Jingle Bells," because many of us have hand-held sleigh bells. It was either this year or the following year when each class presented a different country in the "Christmas Around the World" theme. The finale of that particular evening was a piñata that was broken. How we students scrambled to grab the candy that fell! Believe me, it was a free-for-all!

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 15: The Holiday Happenings!

The Holiday Happenings!

Often times December to mid-January birthdays and anniversaries get over shadowed by the Christmas/Hanukkah/New Year holidays. So we're going to shine a spotlight on those family members and ancestors this time around. Select one or more December to mid-January birthdays and/or anniversaries on your family tree. Write a short tribute to or memory of those birthday guys and gals and write a toast to the anniversary couples.

As a family historian, have you ever noticed any of your ancestors who were born, married, or died on Christmas? I have quite a number of family members in both my husband's and my genealogical databases with Christmas Day events, but I picked out only direct ancestors to share with you.

Christmas Day births:

My 4th-great-grandmother: Amanda (WESTBROOK) KIMBALL (1816 - New York State)

Norm's 2nd-great-grandmother: Senna "Senie" (COLLINS) TOLLIVER (1870 - Grayson Co., Virginia)

Christmas Day marriages:

My 10th-great-grandparents: Nathaniel DICKINSON and Hannah BEARDSLEY (1662 - Hatfield, Hampshire Co., Massachusetts)

My great-grandparents: William Bryan ROBBINS and Marie LEWIS (1919 - Muskegon Heights, Muskegon Co., Michigan)

Christmas Day deaths:

My 7th-great-grandfather: Daniel ENNES (1838 - Oswasco, Cayuga Co., New York)

Norm's 5th-great-grandmother: Gudlaug Nilsdotter (1831 - Norway)

Norm's 9th-great-grandfather: Thomas KILBOURN (1640 - England or Massachusetts?)

Norm's 10th-great-grandfather: Henry SQUIRE (1649 - Charlton Mackrell, England)

Of course, there are all those Christmas Eve events, as well as other major holidays. It's also fun to find out who else in your ancestry shares your birthday. Most genealogical software has search features which can easily find this information.

Because I try to keep my family members' personal information private, I won't name names for this post, but will wish a Happy Birthday and a Happy Anniversary to all those in my family whose special days fall during the months of December and early January!

 
This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 14: Fruitcake - Friend or Foe?

Fruitcake--Friend or Foe

Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

I love fruitcake! The moist, rich kind is a favorite. I have tasted some that were dry and not so great, and probably most people who dislike fruitcake have had the same misfortune. I've never re-gifted a fruitcake, and in my opinion, there's only one good purpose for it: eating it!


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 13: Holiday Travel

Holiday Travel

Did you travel anywhere for Christmas? How did you travel and who traveled with you? Do you remember any special trips?

For my very first Christmas when I was nine months old, my parents and I traveled from Fairbanks, Alaska to Grand Rapids, Michigan to celebrate Christmas. It would be the first of only two Christmases spent in Michigan with my extended family. Nearly a year ago, I blogged about the second trip:

When I was 11 years old, we went back to Michigan for a month, to celebrate Christmas with the family. It had been nearly seven years since we had been "home." Both sets of grandparents and an occasional aunt or uncle had come to Alaska to visit us, but none in the past 4 or 5 years since my little brother and sister had been born. To prepare us ahead of time so that we would know who all the family members were, Dad created a poster with the relatives' photos arranged in family groups, and hung it in the living room. We'd go over the names of the aunts and uncles and cousins...how old the kids were, and what cities they lived in. And when we arrived at the Grand Rapids airport that December morning, there was a crowd of 30 or so people waiting to meet us...the ultimate family reunion! For the first time in my memory, I felt connected to a people who, although I did not know them well, seemed to know and love me.

Normally, we spend Christmas either at our home or my sister's home here in the Spokane area, or else up north of Colville at my parents' home. My brother travels every year from the west side of the state to be with us, wherever we meet. It's difficult to get to my parents' place in the winter, as they live off an old logging road up in the mountains, miles from town, and usually have many inches of snow. You usually need a four-wheel-drive or a front-wheel-drive with chains to get in and out, and it's quite the production, making the trip up there!

My brother-in-law's family lives here in town, and so we usually spend Christmas Eve or the day after Christmas with them, so no major travels there. Two years ago, my husband, our kids, and I traveled across the state to the west side to spend Christmas with the rest of my in-laws, the first time in our married life. It was strange having Christmas without snow (just rain).

I really prefer not to have to travel with the all the busy-ness of the holidays, plus the snowy roads, and the possibility of meeting other drivers who may have been "celebrating" too much before getting into their vehicle. It's much more cozy at home where we can enjoy the beautiful winter weather from the safety and comfort of home!


This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 12: Charitable/Volunteer Work

(Originally written in December 2007)

Charitable/Volunteer Work

Did your family ever volunteer with a charity such as a soup kitchen, homeless or battered women’s shelter during the holidays? Were you able to make the holidays special for someone less fortunate?

Growing up as I did as a child of parents who worked for The Salvation Army, I think I always knew that there were people who were not as blessed as I was. I grew up around poverty. Even though there were many times when my parents did not have much, we always had food on the table, clothes to wear, a warm and comfortable shelter, and much love. There were always extended family members that made sure we had the things we needed as well, especially since we lived in Alaska and some necessities were not available up there. But I knew that most children in the small village where I grew up were not so fortunate.

After we moved to Washington State, and I had moved out of my parents' home to live in Spokane and attend college, I myself worked for The Salvation Army, in various departments. While I was attending college (mornings), I worked for the Preschool/Day Care/Kindergarten department in the afternoon. When the college quarter ended for the holiday season, my mornings were free for several weeks, and I got a job standing kettles. I did this for two or three years.

Those who stand kettles fall into two categories: those working a minimum-wage, seasonal job; and those volunteering as part of a community service project (you may see members of a Rotary or Kiwanis club take turns ringing the bells, for instance). Most of the people you see fall under the first category. They can be those who are hard up and desperately need a job to provide for themselves and/or a family, or hey can be simply students on break or people working a second job to make a little extra Christmas money. The donations received go into The Salvation Army's general fund, and stay within that community, even if there is not a corps (church) in that community. The Army works with social service organizations within small communities if they themselves do not have a corps there. Monies are used year-round for a variety of social services, including--but not limited to--alcohol and drug rehabilitation programs, food and clothing banks, family shelters, emergency financial services (rent, utilites, etc.), summer and day camp opportunities for low-income children, etc. This Army fights against poverty 365 days a year, not just at Christmastime. As a branch of the Christian church, they also go beyond meeting the physical need by providing spiritual comfort and counseling as well.

Standing kettles outside in the snowy northern states is no picnic, believe me, you. I don't know which was worse: working downtown on a north-south street where the wind from the river came knifing through, or standing in front of K-Mart in North Spokane, where the cold would come over the plain full-blast. I would wear my ski suit and move around as much as possible to keep warm. At night, my neck and upper back would be so sore from hunching up for four hours straight, all morning long, and I would hear the bell ringing in my head as I fell asleep.

These days I try to drop some money in a kettle whenever I see one; however, since I don't tend to carry cash with me, it's not always possible. I know from experience just how encouraging it is when someone donates. The next time you see a Salvation Army kettle, I hope you will give, too.

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 11: Other Traditions

(Originally written in December 2007)

Other Traditions

Did your family or friends also celebrate other traditions during the holidays such as Hanukkah or Kwanzaa? Did your immigrant ancestors have holiday traditions form their native country which they retained or perhaps abandoned?

If you haven't read them already, I invite you to read "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 6: Santa Claus" and "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 2: Holiday Foods" to see how our family incorporated the Festival of St. Nicholas into our holiday celebrations. Also, stay tuned for "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 18: Christmas Stockings."

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 10: Christmas Gifts

(Originally written in December 2007)

Christmas Gifts

What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give?

I have been blessed to receive many special Christmas gifts from family members and friends over the years. The first Christmas that I remember was in 1970, when I was three-and-a-half years old, and we lived in Kake, Alaska. The gifts from family in Michigan had arrived after Christmas (packages always arrived on a slooooow boat from Seattle), and we didn't open them until after Dad returned on January 4th from a business trip for The Salvation Army. Reading Mom's thank-you letter to my Grandma and Grandpa DeVries helped bring back more memories:

Miriam has had me read "Sparky" a few times already and is now working on her spirograph. She also liked the modeling clay and her 2 pretty nightgowns. She has not looked at "The Magic Clothesbasket." (not yet anyhow.) She also was excited over the pictures you sent and showed them to us several times. [1]

I absolutely loved these books, and had them for years! Someplace for Sparky was about a little engine who was constantly told he was too small to do anything useful. He found a place where he was just right for the job, pulling the children's train at a fair. I'm sure my grandmother thought this was a great story for me, and it was, as I was always the tiniest child around (even as an adult, I'm still a "shorty" at 5' 1/4"!). The Magic Clothesbasket was about a boy named Paul who used his imagination to turn his mother's clothesbasket into a train, plane, boat, and a myriad of other things. In the end, his mother finds him fast asleep in the basket, tuckered out from his adventures. I don't have these Whitman Tell-A-Tale books anymore, but I remember them vividly!

I also remember my spirograph. It was an original 401 as shown in the link above, and I used it for many years. I especially loved having pens of different colors: black, blue, red, and green. Do you remember the smell of modeling clay (not Play-doh)? I sure do! It came in long tubes of various colors, and I enjoyed playing with it for quite a while.

I have many, wonderful memories of gifts I received in subsequent years. I can also remember playing with other gifts that I received in earlier years, but I don't actually remember opening them at the time. For instance, I remember dolls that I played with and loved for many years that I received as gifts at earlier Christmases. One of these was Mattel's Drowsy doll. In this link here, I had an African-American version of the second doll pictured. The reason I had a black baby and not a white one is that with her jet-black long hair and dark complexion, she looked more like the Native American babies I was in contact with than the Caucasian one did. I called her "Mimi" because she said, "I'm sleepy," and I thought she was saying, "I'm Mimi."

My favorite memories of giving have been the ones involving my own children. When they were little, we always tried to find toys that were both educational and fun, like Legos and Tinkertoys. We also picked out their favorite Disney or other classic children's movies on VHS. Now as teenagers, they enjoy gift certificates so that they can pick out their own gifts (my daughter especially likes clothes shopping); or as my son likes to do since his birthday is two weeks after Christmas, combine his Christmas and birthday certificates and money and buy himself something big (like a Ninendo Wii, etc.). The looks on their faces when they're opening their gifts or gift cards are always priceless!

[1] Letter from Faith (Valk) Robbins (P. O. Box 427, Kake, Alaska 99830) to Adrian and Ruth (Hoekstra) DeVries (464 Kenwood St., NE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505) 6 January 1971; held in 2007 by Robbins, [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Colville, Washington.

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 9: Grab Bag

(Originally written in December 2007)

Christmas Grab Bag

This is an all-time favorite photo of my children, Christmas or no. I believe it was taken in early December 1996, the first Christmas season in our current home. My son was nearly three, and my daughter was six years old. They'd been watching a favorite video when they both fell asleep. My daughter has graduated high school, is gainfully employed, engaged to her fiance', and has her own rented home. She is making her own adult Christmas memories now. My son is a junior in high school. I really miss the days when cuddling them could resolve most of their problems, and I look forward to the days when there will someday be little ones in the Midkiff home at Christmas time once again!

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 8: Christmas Cookies

(Originally written in December 2007)

Christmas Cookies

Did your family make Christmas Cookies? How did you help? Did you have a favorite cookie?

They were beautiful: large, soft sugar cookies, cut out in Christmas shapes such as bells, snowman, candy canes, and Santas. Well-frosted and covered with colored red or green sprinkles, they begged me to bite into them! Closing my eyes to savor the moment, I sank my teeth into the sweet holiday treat...and nearly gagged. Something was wrong, dreadfully so! The first sense of taste was all I could hope for, but it was overpowered by something...smoky, and sour, and nauseous: cigarette smoke. And not just any kind of cigarette; it must have been the strongest, unfiltered brand out there.

They were gifts, those cookies; Christmas gifts from the neighbors, whose last name, ironically, is an adjective for sugar, honey, and cookies (I'm refraining from writing it here; experience has taught me that the last people you'd expect to read your blog, do!). We rarely visited their home, because the interior always was clouded by a heavy pervasive fog of smoke. The cook of the house surely made those delicious-looking cookies while a cigarette hung from her lips. How disappointed I was!

The following year, the event was repeated. And, I believe for the five years I lived in that neighborhood, it occurred every holiday season. I always took one hopeful bite. "Maybe this year..." I would silently pray, only to be let down once more. While we occasionally made Christmas cookies at home, we usually didn't make sugar cookies, so to be given them was a treat--a terribly dissatisfying tease, in this case. To this day, I can't look at a sugar cookie without thinking of those neighbors! Then I sink my teeth into a sweet, well-frosted cookie, ever so grateful that I'm not tasting nicotine!

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 7: Holiday Parties

(Originally written in December 2007)

Holiday Parties

Did your family throw a holiday party each year? Do you remember attending any holiday parties?

Our family did not have a holiday party every year; Christmas was a mainly a family affair. I believe my classroom always had a party (more on that upcoming in Advent Memories No. 16). Occasionally, my parents would invite someone over to share Christmas dinner, but it was not a "party," per se. We lived too far away from family to have regular holiday gatherings, too; in Advent Memories No. 13, I'll tell about a special Christmas with family in Michigan that we enjoyed one year.

When I moved away from my parents' home in Northeast Washington to the "big city" of Spokane in the fall of 1984 to attend college, work for my church, and live with my pastor's family, I attended several holiday parties each year. Our youth group of high school and college-age kids had a party, and a girlfriend and I somehow ended up as hostesses. We went out shopping and bought matching dresses. The mall we shopped at was a new big thing in town at that time. Originally, it had been a strip mall, and had only recently been enclosed. Now it sports three stories and is nearly surrounded by multi-level parking garages.

At work, we always had a whole-staff party, as well as a department staff party. I worked for The Salvation Army Kindergarten/Pre-school/Day Care, and we ladies would always go out for a nice luncheon. It seems to me we would exchange cards and/or little gifts (maybe we had a name exchange; I don't remember). Then the whole Salvation Army staff would get together as well. The only whole-staff party I can remember was probably in 1984. We had dinner at a nearby buffet house. Besides the Day Care staff, there were staff from Administration, the Community Center, the Thrift Store and Warehouse, the Booth Care Center (rehab), and Family Services. I remember seeing the Family Services staff, because there were these guys there with that weird last name--Midkiff. I had met one of them, Mike, down at the main building. He was the department head, but I didn't know any of the other staff from that department. One of them--the other Midkiff--had long, curly dark hair, but I really didn't notice him much. It wasn't until a year and a half later when I transferred to that department that Mike introduced his older brother, Norm, to me. The rest, as they say, is history. Twenty-five years later, Norm's long, curly hair has gone the way of memories and photographs, as he likes to say, and all of us have long moved on to other employers.

Now that I work for the local school district, there are several holiday parties thrown each year, some department, and always a whole-staff, party. The staff in my classroom likes to go to breakfast early one morning at a European breakfast house. Just like in my day care days, we bring little gifts and enjoy our time away from the students. The whole staff is usually invited to the principal's home, but I haven't attended so far.

The name tag is courtesy of Thomas at Destination: Austin Family. This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 6: Santa Claus

(Originally written in December 2007)

Santa Claus

Did you ever send a letter to Santa? Did you ever visit Santa and “make a list?” Do you still believe in Santa Claus?

I don't know if Thomas and Jasia knew this when they picked December 6th to be the day to write about Santa Claus, but today is St. Nicholas Day. The Dutch brought the feast of Sinterklaas (St. Nicholas) to America when they settled New Netherlands (modern-day New York state and New Jersey) in the 1600s. St. Nicholas Day was a day of feasting and gift giving for children and sweethearts, and little ones would put out their klompen (wooden shoes) by the hearth filled with hay for the saint's white horse, with hopes that morning would find them refilled with chocolates and little gifts. Naughty children could be expected to find a switch, instead, with a arning that if they were not good, Zwarte Pieter (Black Peter, the good saint's Moor servant) would whisk them away in his large sack, never to be seen or heard from again! Christmas Day was not celebrated as we know it now, but was a solemn, religious day. Over time, with help from Thomas Nast and whoever really wrote "A Visit of St. Nicholas" (a.k.a. "The Night Before Christmas"), the character of the personality we know as Santa Claus developed and evolved.

I don't ever remember sending a letter to Santa Claus. I do know that Santa never flew a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer and one red-nosed one...I know, because I have seen what he really flies in! Since I don't know my aircraft makes and models real well, I'm going to venture to guess that what I've seen Santa arrive in at the city dock of our Southeast Alaskan village was a six-passenger Cessna 180 Skywagon fitted with floats. And he comes from Ketchikan, not the North Pole! Besides, everyone in Alaska knows North Pole is just a village near Fairbanks, and not near the North Pole at all!

Like I said, Santa would arrive from Ketchikan in the Cessna, and all of us schoolkids would have our noses glued to the windows on the bay-side of the classroom, watching him come up the hill. Then we would line up in our hats and coats and head for the ANB - ANS hall, about the distance of a block or so from the school (there were no blocks, or aved roads, for that matter, in Klawock at that time). The Alaskan Native Brotherhood and Alaskan Native Sisterhood is a fraternal organization. Non-natives could be invited to join, but could not vote. The organization's hall was used as gym for basketball tournaments, a funeral chapel for the three-day wakes, and community center for events such as school plays or Santa's visits.

Class by class, we gathered around Santa as he handed out little toys from his bag and gave us plastic netting stockings filled with nuts and oranges. I remember watching Santa have a little problem with his beard. It seemed to not quite stay in place. Interesting!

I don't know how many years Santa came to visit the schoolchildren of Klawock, but I do know that in the mid-1970s, my parents starting incorporating St. Nicholas Day as our main day of celebration. Dad ordered us klompen from the wooden shoe factory in Holland, Michigan, and we put those out and on the hearth of the woodstove that heated our home. St. Nicholas always enjoyed the sandwich I made for him, and his horse loved the sweet marsh grass that Dad had cut and cured the summer before. We were always well rewarded with chocolates, Dutch cheese, and gifts--often books about the Netherlands, or in my mom's case, a Delft Christmas plate to add to her collection.

I still have the two pair of klompen from my childhood, and my children--even as teenagers--enjoy placing them under the tree (we don't have a hearth) on the evening of December 5th, waiting to see what St. Nicholas brings.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, or St. Nicholas, or Sinterklaas. Whatever you call him, however you celebrate him, he is the Spirit of Giving that lives in all of us, if ever we let him.

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories No. 5: Outdoor Decorations

(Originally written in December 2007)

Outdoor Decorations

Did people in your neighborhood decorate with lights? Did some people really go “all out” when decorating?

Considering that the Southeast Alaskan neighborhood I grew up with did not have public electricity, the answers to those questions are "no"! There was a restaurant and lodge to the north of us that had its own generator. Our neighbors to the south that had a sporting goods rental and gift shop also had a small generator they used during the evening. In 1977, we finally got electricity to the neighborhood, but no one had outdoor Christmas lights.

In 1979, we moved to a log home up in the mountains of Eastern Washington. While we had electricity, our neighbors were "hid" by the ravines and hills around us. Outdoor lights were limited to a string here and there, from what I can remember.

Here in the city, there are quite a few neighborhoods that go "all out," and each year the city transit system has a tour where you can see all the best ones. We have our favorite neighborhoods that we visit during this season, in our family car. Our favorite years are those when there's been just enough snow to cover the lights strung on bushes, so that the colors glow through the snow. In one of these neighborhoods, we often see a covered sleigh pulled by draft horses touring around. One of these times, we'll have to try that!

This post is a part of the "Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories" meme created in 2007 by Thomas and Jasia. You, too, can write your own Christmas memories, either for your personal journal or blog. Visit Geneabloggers to participate and to read others' posts on these topics.