When we (my generation) were growing up, things were a little different than they are today. Just like any other family, we had traditions that we carried over year to year, but it seemed like Christmases then were much simpler focusing more on togetherness, peacefulness, simplicity and the reason for the season, as opposed to today’s more boisterous, “bigger than life” celebrations of the holiday.

When we were kids, rarely did you see Christmas decorations until after Thanksgiving was over. In our home, we usually decorated about a week before Christmas. We always had a real tree and bought it about a week before the holiday. When we decorated it, it was with the larger (not largest) screw in old-fashioned Christmas bulb lights, then we’d add the old-fashioned matching ornaments (often silver or gold ones) that you could get by the dozen in local department stores (Noah’s Ark, Jamesway, Big N, etc.). The last applications were the silver “icicles” which would often fall off the tree to the floor, often needing to be picked up and re-applied to the tree. Atop our tree was a star, though it was probably about 50-50 percent of homes with stars vs. angels on top of family trees back then. That was about it for the tree. We also put up our Nativity Scene (including the stable, which Dad constructed from branches from our cut down, back yard, pear tree, (the very same stable I put up at our home each year). (Dad wouldn’t put Baby Jesus in the stable until after Midnight Mass, Christmas Eve/Day, the official date of December 25th.) We didn’t put lights out front, but Dad bought enough artificial wreaths with electric candles in the center which we hug in all the windows which could be seen from the front of our house. We also had a large mirror in the first room people entered through our front door, which Dad would decorate using Christmas stencils and canned snow you could get in the stores. I do remember we often decorated on the night Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol was on television, so Dad put the TV on that and after that was over, he put on, what you might call, our Official Christmas album, “The Old Sweet Songs of Christmas,” performed by the Rainbow Strings Orchestra, under the direction of Frank DeVol, and really, that was pretty much the night of Christmas decorating our house in a nutshell.

Other memories I have of Christmases gone by, was driving around neighborhoods and seeing other’s homes decorated, especially during the time of WJTN Radio’s Annual Christmas Decorating Contest.

I remember being an Altar Boy and if I, and/or my brother Lou, had to serve Midnight Mass at St. James Church, we had rehearsals to attend with Father Welker and all the other “Knights of the Altar” who were scheduled to serve Midnight Mass. Father Welker put everything into Midnight Mass. If you were chosen to serve you were one of 18 servers that night which included, the Master, two acolytes, an Incense Bearer, what was called The Incense Boat, the Book, and twelve Torches. We always wore red cassocks, as opposed to traditional black ones, with our white surplices and they had to be perfectly washed and ironed and brought to the church on hangers before we put them on before Mass.

I remember going to my Great Uncle Joe’s and Great Aunt Mary’s home to celebrate Christmas Eve. We’d often have Korv and Italian Sausage (Aunt Mary’s heritage and Uncle Joe’s heritage), Diced Cheesy Potatoes a vegetable or two, bread, and Aunt Mary made some wonderful cookies for dessert. [There was always a relish type dish on the table too, but it always included Inlagd Sill (pickled herring) on it, so I respectfully passed on that.] After dinner, we kids would find a game to play. My cousins Anne and Christine would play the piano for us sometimes, there was an exchange of gifts and since my cousins Greg and Jim were Altar Servers in Frewsburg, and often signed up to serve Midnight Mass, so about 10:00 pm, we left their house so we could get home, freshen up, get dressed in our Sunday Best clothes, and go through Mom’s inspection of teeth, clean faces, noses wiped, handkerchief in pockets, hair (I had some then) combed, cowlick (had one) down, shoes shined, and getting the talk about hands folded, don’t touch your face up on the altar, sit still when seated, do not look around the church, and do not look (stare) out at the congregation.

After Mass, there were some years Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe, and their family might come to our house for a very early breakfast, leaving somewhere around 2:00 pm (maybe a bit later) and we all went off to bed, only to be back up at the crack of dawn to see what Santa left us under the tree.

Gifts included one big present, not necessarily size-wise, but excitement-wise. There were a few smaller things too. Included yearly, for my brothers and me anyway, one was a neatly wrapped box that contained socks and underwear. My sister, foster sister, and/or my aunt (Dad’s much younger sister, who lived with us for a while), got the female version of socks and underwear.

Sometimes Mom would get up around 4:00 am and put the turkey in the oven, as she did at Thanksgiving, and another amazing memory I have was the smell of that turkey cooking for about 5 or 6 hours before we ate dinner on both of those holidays.

Dinner was a feast! Great food, the whole family around the table, lots of conversation, maybe a game of sette e mezzo (seven and a half, played much like Blackjack) while munching on delicacies from the fruit and nut bowl before the chestnuts came out of the oven.

With so many families living long distances from home due to having their own families, or job location, whatever, it’s hard to have everyone together for major holidays. When our kids were home, we had our Christmas traditions and yearly rituals (ask my kids about the smell of cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning which they loved, or my Black and White Christmas videos which they loved to watch…NOT!). They have their own families now and we can’t always get together, but we still try to celebrate together near or in-between holidays.

Here’s hoping/wishing we all can still make new and wonderful memories in our Christmas celebrations. Merry Christmas!!