I grew up in the small rural town
of Navarre, Ohio.
The type of town where children could walk from one end to the other and
not be afraid. Someone would watch out
for us.
In my memory, we always had snow
for Christmas. Actually, in my memory,
we always had snow from Thanksgiving until Easter some years, but that is
another story! On Thanksgiving Day we
always made a green and red paper chain to count down the days to
Christmas. If we didn’t have
construction paper, we colored the lines on a page of our school tablets and
cut strips from there. What fun to watch
the chain get shorter and shorter!
The Kiwanis Club always sold
Christmas trees at the closed-for-the-Winter ice cream stand. Mom and I did not have a car until I was old
enough to learn to drive, so we would pull my sled up the hill (again the
snow!), buy our tree and tie it on and slide it back down the hill. Mom always picked out a tree with little pine
cones on it. When we got it inside the
pine cones would pop and crackle as they opened up. That entertained Louie, our orange tabby cat.
We never saw decorations or
really thought about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving. That was the day of the parade in Massillon
ushering Santa to town. And that evening
the lights over the street would be lit.
Mom and I would sometimes make a day of it and ride the bus to
Massillon. What a treat!
On the Sunday before Christmas,
Mom and I, and my sister and her family, would all go to my Grandma’s for
“Sunday Christmas”. My nieces and I were always excited at the prospect of
having two Christmases. Mom always said
it’s nice to spread out the good times.
My Grandma always liked to have
“angel hair” on her tree along with small lights that got so hot they would
burn your fingers if you touched them. I
am pretty sure that that “angel hair” was really fiberglass and it’s a wonder
we didn’t burn the house down with the lights and/or catch some horrible
disease. But we didn’t and we didn’t
know any better at the time either!
People from the Church would
bundle up and walk all over town one evening singing carols and enjoying
looking at decorations and lighted trees in our neighbors’ homes. The evening would end with hot cocoa and
cookies.
We always had a Christmas
exchange at school, too. I seem to
remember the price limit being something like twenty-five cents. Back then that would buy a “Golden” story
book, a ball, jacks, and other fun things!
The teacher always had a couple back-up gifts in case someone couldn’t
afford to participate or forgot, so everyone was included.
In school we always had a
Nativity pageant and heard the wondrous story of baby Jesus coming. We did not worry about being politically
correct or religiously biased. We all
celebrated together and sang those wonderful carols. In Church, we always ended our Christmas
service with Santa coming to hand out candy or fruit. He would tell us about Baby Jesus, too. I think it is sad that today’s children can
not have this joy of the blending of Christmas.
For us it all fit together very well.
It was “right”. It was “joy”.
Stay safe and have a very Merry
Christmas!
