When I was a little girl, there were two older brothers who were four and five years older than me. Christmas was a big time in our home. It began around November 1st when it was widely known by the children that the Christmas catalogs came in the mail. You see, when you live in a rural Arkansas town, most of Santa Claus’s workshop is cataloged in the Jc Penney and Sears and Ward’s catalog. Mom said it was to help Santa keep up with his stock. For weeks we poured over them and circled things in them. Our Mom and Dad believed in receiving 3 presents just as Jesus had. You could find 3 $25 dollar things or one “big” thing in stead. The list had to be turned in by Thanksgiving, for it took a long time to get gifts loaded in the sleigh…..coincedentally the same amount of time a mail order catalog took to process the orders!
My mother played the piano, and it wasn’t unusual for her to sit down during the evening to play Christmas songs or Henry Mancini songs. She read the yuletide Advent stories each week and we lite the candles. At Grandmother Geddie’s home in another town 40 miles away, Grandmother kept wrapped chocolate covered cherries by the front door, for she like to give anyone who came by something to take home, whether it be a friend, a worker, or a mailman. Christmas eve was the main event in our German heritage family. It seemed Santa not only uses jingle bells to mark his presence, but also a bell. One particular year, when a child was close to not believing in Santa, all of our family loaded up in the antique black Model A for a Christmas light viewing and she wondered how it would be that Santa could come, after all, Mom was in the car with Dad…..no one was at home, but when we arrived, low and behold, Santa had come while we were gone…..she hasn’t stopped believing since! The story was that on my first Christmas, at six months old, I was being held by my Pappy Nunnally watching the 4 and 5 year old boys open presents, my father said a big tear rolled down my eyes as I didn’t have a present to open, and that he didn’t think a six month old would be aware…..so I was handed a doll to open and apparently spent the rest of the evening holding it tightly in Pappy’s lap.
Christmas always marked paying attention to those around you who had less. I remember my father and Granddad Geddie buying canned hams in large silver tins with red draw string bags to take to Mr. Bill, who worked as a laborer and had many children. There were many men whom my Grandfather helped to employ or restart after bad decisions….and he liked to make sure everyone had good food at Christmas. His own parents had been ill and died in his youth, and he had many unhappy Christmas’s. It wasn’t unusual for us to make 7 or 8 such deliveries and to take Mrs. Ponder a basket of fruit….an older woman who was a close friend of my fathers…her husband had been a retired physician…..she lived in a home with a pump well sink water and made quilts, including one for my wedding.
Christmas eve was a dinner of steak , potatoe and salad followed by drives to see the lights. If one happened to be at Grandma Geddie’s that day, she would be having Kentucky Fried Chicken for her Oklahoma guests, with always the story of the Colonel meeting Grandad when he was beginning his chains asking if he wanted to invest in a new chicken restaurant chain. Grandad also had met Mr. Ray, of McDonald’s, as a startup businessman. After the Christmas light tour, arriving home Santa would have come while we were away. The next morning we awoke to load up and drive in shiny clothes to my Grandparent Geddie’s home in the next town. There family would gather and we’d have 24 or so folks for lunch that day and the grandchildren would play outside for the afternon. Food was like something out of Martha Stewart’s kitchen, two or three meats, vegetables, salads and many fine desserts all made or purchased by someone who made them for Grandmother….. Grandmother liked generous portions and eaters, and if you didn’t have but a helping of anything she’s say “but I thought you were the one who liked ______” if you only had one or two servings……and often dropped a piece of pie to your plate without your desire or consent as part of the natural refilling of your drink or noticing of what was needed….
The gaiety of the holidays always lasted through Jan 2, which was Grandad Geddie’s birthday. New Year’s day had nothing on me for his birthday was much more the main event. Often shared with the Sprow’s who also shared his birthday.
This year my grandparents, mother, and nephew are not with us. My children will be off in other directions this year as they have been for the last eight years, it is my gift to their other parents to share them with them without hassle and haggle over who has them when. I will most likely share Christmas at home with my husband alone…..but I remember a time when family thought nothing of always going to Grandmother’s for Christmas….it was the only choice! I hope someday our home is the same place, where family and those without family, have a place to come home to!
