Christmas
Traditions
by
by
Connie Goulding
My
very first memory is of Christmastime. I was living with my parents
and my younger sisters in a small two room house in Glendale. The
little house didn't even have the luxury of an indoor bathroom. The
nearest bathroom was the men's and women's restrooms next door at the
old service station, where my dad worked, on the north end of
Glendale.
I
was probably about three years old and my first memory is of crawling
under the Christmas tree that was set up in the front room that
served as the living room and kitchen of the little house.
I
was intent on bringing out from under the tree a little green elf
doll. The doll had a funny rubber face and long skinny arms and legs.
Except for the face, the elf was made of green felt and was filled
with sawdust. The doll was for my baby sister Donna. I can remember
thinking that the doll was wonderful and I was happy to give it to my
sister.
A
couple of years later our family moved into small three roomed house
that my dad had built, in Orderville. We would live there until my
dad could build a house that was big enough for all of us. At least there we had an indoor bathroom.
The neighbors across the street didn't have one until I was in
seventh grade.
In
that little house we looked forward to Christmastime. We could hardly
wait for the Montgomery Wards Catalog to come in the mail. We would
pour over it for hours and hours, deciding what we wanted Santa to
bring. Mother told us to pick out the one thing that we wanted
most, then we had to pass it by her so that she could help us write
our letters to Santa. After we had almost rubbed off the ink and worn
out the pages of the catalog we took the scissors and cut out the
people and furniture to make paper-dolls.
One
day after hours of play with cutout paper-dolls in the middle of the
front room floor we had quite a pile of paper scraps. Mother told us
to sweep up the paper and burn it. So we did. She was at the kitchen
sink washing the dishes when a whiff of smoke curled around her nose.
You should have seen her face when she turned around and saw our neat
little fire in the middle of the floor. I still don't see what all of
the fuss was about. We just did what she told us to do and the floor
was cement.
When
dad brought a tree home we found a place in front of the window. The
Christmas tree was almost always a Blue Spruce, because dad thought
they were the prettiest. He built a wooden tree stand and we made
paper chains and strings of popcorn for decorations. The finished
tree was topped with a star cut from cardboard and covered with
Tinfoil.
When
we were older, we brought home paper decorations we made in school.
Mother thought they were beautiful and hung them on the tree. Many of
our creations were still pinned to her bedroom curtains many years
after all of of us had grown and left to make homes of their own.
By
the time we grew out of that tiny house there were six of us kids.
There was a set of bunk-beds in the front room and in the bedroom
there was a bed for my parents, another set of bunk-beds, a crib for
the one-year-old and a bassinet for the baby.
Waiting
for Christmas was almost unbearable at times. As Christmas drew
nearer, the excitement would build, as we waited for the word to go
out that Toy Land had arrived at the H&R Shopping Center on main
street (where Soup Town Cafe' is located today). The shop owner, Gene
Russell and the ladies who worked for him, Lasca Chamberlain, Carol
Lamb, and Nan Johnson cleared the hardware items from the shelves in
the basement and replaced them with toys. Rows of toys, baby-dolls,
trucks and cars, all kinds of toys, just waiting for Santa Clause to
come and pick them up for the kids in Orderville.
Christmas
then was so different than it is now. There was no Wal-Mart or Target
stores. No Mall or shopping online. There were no computers or cell
phones. In fact we didn't get a phone in our house until I was almost
sixteen. Then I pestered my parents to get a phone because I would
soon be of dating age and how could a boy call and ask me on a date
if we didn't have a phone?
There
was no television in the Valley until I was about 12 years old, and
we didn't have a television in our house until I was about 14. The
kids in Orderville didn't see the millions of commercials for the
latest and most fantastic toys, every other minute, on made for kids
televisions shows that promoted even more toys.
Even
though we looked forward to Santa coming, we knew that Christmas Eve
was baby Jesus' birthday. We learned that from our parents and from
attending church. In primary we spent a couple of months learning the
Christmas Hymns and practicing for the Primary Christmas Eve Program.
All
of the girls hoped that they would be chosen to play Mary as we
reenacted the story of the Nativity. I don't think the boys cared as
much who they played, they were happy to be a shepherd, especially if
they had a staff that they could use to poke each other with during
the program.
For
me the Christmas Eve Program was the climax of all of the excitement
that had been building up for weeks. That night as we gathered at the
church, all of the children in town were dressed in their Sunday best
with shinny faces and freshly brushed hair. There seemed to be
electricity in the air. The kids all twitched with excitement. Still,
everyone was on their best behavior because we all knew that there
were elves still about, watching to see who was being naughty or
nice.
The
magic began when the lights went down in the room and the music began
to play. The children sang... Silent Night,....Holy Night, ...all is
calm all is bright. Then curtains parted and we would sit there
spellbound as the story of the birth of Baby Jesus began to unfold.
Some
of the children acted out the parts of Joseph and Mary, the wise-men,
shepherds and angels, and someone, preferably someone with a nice
voice, who was good at reading, read the story of the birth of the
Savior of the World, from the scriptures.
Even
though the baby Jesus on the stage was a rubber baby-doll wrapped up
in a blanket, our hearts were filled with love for the baby Jesus as
we sang the Hymns that we had been learning for weeks.
We
imagined the dark sky on that night so long ago, as it lit up with
angels singing “Peace on Earth”.
And
we wondered about how the shepherds must have felt as they saw the
angels from the fields below where they were tending their sheep.
We
listened as the narrator read from the scriptures about the star and
the wise men who followed it from a far-away country, until at last
they found the baby Jesus wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a
manger.
We
thought about Mary and wondered how it would be to stay in a stall
designed for the shelter of animals with her new-born baby.
After
the program was over and we had sang the last hymn, the excitement
built to a crescendo as we strained our ears listening for the sound
of far-away sleigh bells.
It
seemed like an eternity before Santa came bursting in to the room,
shouting HO, HO, HO, and jingling a handful of bells. The Primary
president ushered the Jolly Old Elf onto the stage and into a large
overstuffed chair where he could listen to all of the children's
Christmas wishes.
Although
teachers and parents tried to hold down the anticipation, there were
always a few breakaways that could not contain their excitement. They
would do cartwheels and just generally run a muck, punching each
other and jumping up and down, like bacon on a hot skillet. Finally
each child got their turn to sit on Santa's lap.
After
we gave our lists to Santa and he had given us a small treat like a
candy-cane or a chocolate covered marsh-mallow Santa Clause, we were
anxious to get home and into bed so that he would be sure to visit
our house as long as he was in town.
It
was on Christmas Eve we hung up our stocking for Santa to fill. We
looked through our chest of drawers to find to longest socks possible,
sometimes we used our dad's. Some years we tried to get away with
hanging up our tights but our mother told us that that was too
greedy.
On
the years that our parents had a little extra money we got a banana
or an orange, in our stocking otherwise it would be an apple that
suspiciously looked like the ones that Grandma kept in her cellar.
There were always nuts and hardtack candy. We treasured the pretty
ribbon candy that we sometimes found in the bottoms of our stockings.
My
parents eventually became parents to ten children and then they
adopted an eleventh. They continued to take us to the Christmas Eve
program every Christmas Eve for as long as I lived at home. The
Christmas Eve program became one of my cherished childhood memories.
I
have continued to make the Christmas Eve program part of my family's
Christmas celebrations, but my perspective of it has changed since I
was a child. Several years ago when it was decided that maybe we
didn't need to have a program on Christmas Eve, my sister and I
decided that it was so much a part of our family's Christmas
tradition that we wanted to do it for our families and those who
didn't have anyone else to share Christmas with.
At
the church as we gathered to watch the children as they sang their
songs and acted out their parts in the Nativity, we saw people that
we had not seen in a long time, people who only came to the church on
Christmas Eve. There were people who's families were far-away and
couldn't make it home that year to share Christmas with their parents
or grandparents. Those with no children who came just to see the
sparkle in the children's eyes. Friends and neighbors exchanging
small gifts, along with smiles and well wishes for the Christmas
Holidays. But most of all, people taking time out of a busy season to
mark the birth of the Savior.
Even
as hectic as it got sometimes when I tried to get my family to the
church in time for the program, the part of Christmas that I love the
most is taking a moment to remember the Savior. Meeting together on
the eve of his birth to remember Him, away from the hustle and
bustle of the season. Away from the shopping. Away from the wrapping.
Away from the cooking and cleaning. Away from the world. Happy Birthday Baby Jesus.
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