Merry Christmas! The Memories of Christmas Past

This is the time of year to celebrate the season by spending time with our families and friends. Many Christmas parties, dinners, gift exchanges, and gatherings. Although, this year will be another adjustment phase for us. We will surely miss our family and friends this year, since we are in deep south Texas for the winter season. So, this year my thoughts go to the years past…

Early Childhood Christmas

My earliest memories from Christmas include a few diverse things. I remember waking up early one Christmas morning in about 1961 while dad had the new 8 mm movie camera and the intensely bright light bar. That monster had four large spot light bulbs that would absolutely blind you and to make matters worse, my brother and I were just awakened. Those early cameras must have had a terrible low light capability.

With the camera recording, we would scramble to the well decorated Christmas tree and begin the process of ripping open our gifts. My parents were hard working middle class folks who always provided a very nice Christmas for me and my brother Keith in the central Indiana town of Terre Haute.

I do not ever remember going to see Santa Claus myself, but suppose that my parents did take me, just was not old enough to remember. I do remember my parents taking me and Keith who must have been three at the time, while I was seven. Keith was not at all pleased with the idea of being held by a smelly mall Santa. The required photo showed an unhappy, squalling three year old, while I was smiling and standing alongside.

Then one year we went to Santa Claus Land somewhere in Indiana. A small amusement park of sorts. The small scale train was fun to ride. I think that my cousin Sandy joined us that year. I wonder if they still have this Hoosier legend anymore, or has it been turned into another strip mall.

Probably, the most memorable holiday event was the Christmas dinner at my Grandparent’s home on South 4th street in Terre Haute. The Shake family was all there and some years we had a gift exchange of some sort. Everyone had a name drawn from the hat. My father had three other brothers and a sister at that time. Plus many cousins. The house was full of people and the smells coming from the kitchen.

The wives were all in the large country kitchen preparing the feast and discussing the latest in their lives, while the men were lounging in the living room watching the football game and discussing politics. Mine was a very Democrat family background at that time. I have since changed parties.

Many memories of our large family together including Uncle Joe taking the family photos, Uncle Stan saying grace just after telling a politically incorrect story and Uncle Bob telling of his latest events of working in the railroad yards in Gary Indiana. And then our sweet Grandma Shake trying to make sure that everyone got along and had plenty to eat.

Then we would ride out to Farmersburg, Indiana and have a pitch in dinner and spend time with mom’s relatives. I remember sometimes the festivities would be held in the firehouse where Uncle Austin was the volunteer fire chief. Pretty cool being able to climb over the 1950’s model fire trucks when the parents were not looking.

Christmas in the 1980’s

Moving along to the era now when Trish and I were married and had two boys, Bryan and Ross. I had worked full-time at Federal-Mogul (FM) in Mooresville, Indiana while attending college part-time at IU during the 70’s. The college years were always quite lean as I was mostly paying my own way. Once I graduated and moved into an accounting position at FM, there were no more tuition bills, and we could splurge a little more on the boys.

We would usually pack up our gifts and drive to both of our parents to enjoy the holiday. The drive became more of a chore once I took a promotion to the Malden Missouri plant, although we always did the drive.

I remember one memorable year when all of the kids and grandkids came to the Little’s home for a Christmas Eve sleepover. I have no idea where everyone stayed with eight siblings and the maybe six grandkids at that time.

The highlight was my father-in-law, Ray, all dressed up as Santa one morning, making one hell of a racket with bells ringing and clanging. The little ones all woke up and were shepherded into the family room just in time to see the Jolly One leaving presents and exiting stage left. Yep, that was a classic.

We would always make it to both sides of the family for some quality time before leaving late into the evening for the six hour drive back to Missouri from Indiana.

Christmas in the 1990’s and 2000’s

Fast forward now to our move back to Indiana. We were much closer to family up until the time when both of our parents retired from working. My folks moved to Florida and Pat’s began going to Texas for the winters. At this point we would make the drive down to Florida at Christmas (about 14 hour drive) to spend several days.

My brothers Keith and Kevin would also make this trip and for maybe 3-4 years, all of us would be there in our parents 3 bedroom waterfront home. It was a little tight, but we made it work somehow.

That was when we decided that a Florida Christmas was alright. Christmas lights around the palm trees and warm temps while our families got caught up with each other.

We also had the delightful arrival of our only daughter Audrey in 1995. This made the holidays even more enjoyable as we had another excited youngster to have in the mix. She would love to dress up in a tutu and hand out gifts from under the tree. I would include a picture here, but not brave enough.

Into the 2010’s

During this decade our Christmastimes were more focused at our home in Virginia with our three kids, Bryan’s fiance Jen and her mother Linda. It was great having a houseful and having four bedrooms and three full bathrooms.

With our family together in the snowy Virginia mountains, we would have a couple of large home cooked meals, a few times out catching the local brewery, playing games, and attending a movie. One year, it was nice enough to go for a hike at a local nature preserve.

At our Virginia home, we would also go out in the country to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a fresh live tree. This soon became an annual tradition. Two feet of snow or 60 and sunny. We would search the hillsides finding the perfect tree for our family room.

Once it was cut down, the owner would shake all the little critters out, tie it up and lash it down to the top of the old Explorer. Yes, this was every year. When the teenaged boys were not that thrilled about the task, we had young Audrey who picked up the slack. It was all good.

Last year was the big change for us. Retirement, selling the home, and taking off in the RV. Being mobile meant going south for the winters. Last year it was Florida and helping my mom downsize and sell her waterfront home. And this year to winter in Texas, away from family.

We both miss seeing our kids and mothers at this time of year. Pat made cookies and treats and stuffed some other items into a box and shipped to our Christiansburg kids.

In the future, we may catch a flight back “up north” to spend time with them at the holiday. But for now, we will just have a few Facetime calls and enjoy the sunny 80 degree days down here as “winter Texans.” I do miss all of the family times from years past, but also enjoying this new phase in our lives. We both have many great memories.

Have a Merry Christmas, build some lasting family memories, and remember the reason for our celebration is the birth of our savior, Jesus.