Aww---

Christmas Past -- Christmas Morning

Charlotte awoke when she heard Daddy building the fire in the heater. She shook Wanda and crawled out of the warm bed into the cold air of the north room. She saw the new doll sticking out of her stocking before she got to the door.

"Oh, how pretty she is! Look Wanda, isn't she pretty?"

The doll didn't have glass eyes and shiny hair, and it didn't drink a bottle or wet its pants. It was just an ordinary doll with a pressed sawdust head and a stuffed cloth body. But it was new and clean and needed a little girl to love it. She hugged the doll close and took her stocking to the warmth of the heater to see what else was inside. There were some new barrettes for her hair, and rolled up inside was a book of the beautiful paper dolls. In the very bottom were dresses for her new doll.

Later in the morning Charlotte said to Mama, "I love my new doll! She's just right!"

"Someday, Santa will bring you a doll with glossy hair. I just know he will," said Mama.

There may not be time for me to post anything else until after Christmas, so I want to wish all who read my feeble attempts at writing, a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS with your families; may you be blessed with good health and happiness.

Blessings in Christ,

Charlotte

...The Christmas Program

...The program began, and for a while Charlotte forgot that she would be singing by herself. One by one the other little boys and girls went to the front of the room and recited the poems they had learned. Dane walked to the edge of the stage; he put his hands behind his back and began:

"Christmas is bright, Christmas is gay; all of us..." He looked at his mother. "All of us love..." she said quietly. "Oh yeah! All of us love Christmas Day!" Everyone clapped and he ran back to the bench and sat down.

"And now, Charlotte is going to sing 'Up on the Housetop' for us," said Mr. Sears.
Charlotte swallowed hard and walked to the stage. She clasped her hands together tightly behind her back and opened her mouth. Only a faint "Up on the housetop, reindeer pause" came out. She cleared her throat and started again:

"Up on the housetop reindeer pause,
Out jumps good old Santa Claus;
Down thro' the chimney with lots of toys,
All for the little ones' Christmas joys.
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn't go!
Ho, ho, ho! Who wouldn't go!
Up on the housetop, click, click, click,
Down thro' the chimney with good Saint Nick."

She paused and swallowed. She looked at Mama, who gave her a smile and a nod to sing more, so she continued with the second verse. Again she paused; no one was laughing at her, but rather the people seemed to be enjoying her song, so she started the last verse with her clear little voice more confident now:

"Next comes the stocking of little Will;
Oh, just see what a glorious fill;
Here is a hammer and lots of tacks,
Also a ball and a whip that cracks!"

She brought her hands around in front and slapped them together to make a sound for the "whip that cracks!" The audience clapped loudly! She had done it! Now she could sit back and enjoy the rest of the program.

After the older children presented their play, some of them passed out the gifts. Charlotte got a present wrapped in red tissue paper and tied with a white ribbon. She opened it carefully so Mama could save the paper. Inside was a box of eight crayons and a coloring book. "Look, Mama," she said. "Real colors that aren't broken!"

Next, bags of candy and fruit were passed out to the children. There was a big red apple, an orange, English walnuts and hard candy with designs swirling through the middle, inside each bag. Humidity had made the candy sticky and smudges of sweet color were on the peelings of the apple and the orange.

Charlotte was tired when she got home. Wanda reminded her to hang her stocking, so she put it on the doorknob near the Christmas tree. After they snuggled down into the feather bed, she listened for reindeer paws on the housetop. And then she thought about the switches the boy had told Santa to bring to her.

"Wanda," she whispered, "does Santa really bring switches to little girls?"
"I don't think so; I never got any," she said.....

More on Christmas Past

Now the night for the program at church was only one day away. Mama was baking in the kitchen. Christmas music came from the radio; little boys and girls were singing Joy to the World. Charlotte pulled a chair up to the radio table, climbed up and turned the radio around to one side so she could look into the back.
"Mama! Charlotte's playing with the radio!" called Wanda. "She's about to pull it off the table!"
Mama hurried from the kitchen, wiping flour on her apron. "What are you doing?" she asked Charlotte.
"I'm trying to see the boys and girls in the radio. Do you hear them?" She leaned close to the radio and tried to look inside. Mama laughed and said they would have to be very tiny to fit in there.
The next day passed slowly for Charlotte. She snooped around under the Christmas tree that she and Wanda had decorated. It was an ordinary cedar tree, taken from a fence row, a little flat on one side, but when scooted up against the wall, it looked fine. They didn't have much to put on the tree: a few old colored glass balls, a wrinkled tinsel garland, and icicles saved from years gone by. Mama had put a piece of cotton quilt batting around the base of the tree to look like it was standing in snow. Several times during the day Wanda threatened Charlotte by reminding her of the switches the boy had told Santa to bring.
Mama fixed an early supper and they all dressed warmly before walking to the church for the program. Charlotte wore her best pair of corduroy pants to keep her warm.
She had never seen such a tall Christmas tree! It actually touched the ceiling and was covered from top to bottom with beautiful glass balls, popcorn garland, and paper chains. Every branch had new, glistening icicles, and underneath the tree were packages wrapped in pretty tissue papers and tied with crinkled ribbons....

Do you remember the anticipation you felt as a child while waiting for Christmas? Did you snoop and peek?

Just a Little Touch of Christmas Memories

Another re post:

The following is an excerpt from my book, In the Shade of the White Oak ...

"Up on the house top, reindeers' paws,Out jumps good ol' Santy Claus!"Charlotte was learning the words of a song to sing at the church Christmas program.

"It's not 'reindeers' paws'!" said Wanda. "It's reindeer pause! That means the reindeer are stopping on the housetop. Now try again."
There was excitement everywhere! Today Mama and the girls were going to town with Daddy as he went to work at the cream station. Wanda said Santa Claus would be at the courthouse. Charlotte had never seen Santa Claus in person, just in pictures.

The streets of Clarksville were bustling with shoppers. There were many little children, clutching their mothers' hands, waiting for a chance to tell Santa what they wanted for Christmas. Charlotte wasn't sure she wanted to talk to him. "I don't think he knows me," she said. Mama took Wanda and Charlotte inside the Ben Franklin store to wait until time for Santa to come. Charlotte was speechless when she saw so many shelves covered with dolls of all sizes. She had looked at the dolls in the Sears catalog until the pages were frayed, but somehow it was different seeing them here on the shelves. She reached out to touch the soft, silky hair on one of the dolls. "Don't touch the dolls, little girl!" She quickly pulled her hand back and looked up. A salesclerk was standing over her, looking sternly. Mama took Charlotte's hand and led her around the end of the shelves to look at something else.
At ten o'clock people started gathering in front of the courthouse. Mama took Wanda and Charlotte across the street. "Wanda, you take Charlotte by the hand and go with her."
The line moved slowly; a few children were stopping to sit in Santa's lap. Charlotte decided she wouldn't do that! Some boys and girls looked too old to sit on his lap, and some were crying babies, too young to know why they were there.
Now Charlotte was standing in front of Santa. "Well, hello there, little girl," he said. "Ho! Ho! Ho! What would you like for Christmas? Maybe a baby doll or a tricycle?"
She turned from him and put her hand across her face.
"Maybe she wants a bundle of switches!" laughed a big boy.
Wanda frowned at him and said to Santa, "She wants a doll and some paper dolls, please." She tugged at Charlotte's sleeve and started to leave.
"Wait a minute," said Santa, "here is a bag of candy for you."
They walked quickly on through the courthouse and met Mama outside. "Well, what did you think of Santa Claus?" she asked.
"She wouldn't talk to him," said Wanda. "I guess that means she won't get anything in her stocking.".......

Do you remember having a visit with Santa?

'Twas the Night Before Christmas ,,,

"The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."

Well, here I am again, playing with my dolls! Their tree is my tree this year. We were so tied down with the chickens, up until the last couple of days, there wasn't much time to put up a big tree. So I cut this little cedar and made the dolls completely happy. I have a big artificial tree; who likes to put on all those stiff "limbs" and then fluff them out, only to have to take them all off and compress them into their box in a few days? I like the smell of real cedar and it always reminds me of the big tree at the church building when I was a kid.

While the children were all at school, some of the adults would gather to put up the tree and fix sacks of candy and fruit and nuts. On Christmas Eve there would be a program of singing, maybe a skit by the older boys and girls, and short poems by the little ones. We got a lot of those little poems from the Wee Wisdom and Jack and Jill magazines for children. I can remember singing "Up on the Housetop" one year, and when little Will got his 'whip that cracks', I slapped my hands together to make the snapping sound of a whip. After the entertainment, the gifts were passed around; we had drawn names earlier. Something like 25-50 cents was the limit we were to spend on the gifts. We removed the paper wrapping as carefully as possible, folded it and saved it to use the next Christmas, and we collected the icicles from off the tree to save for our own tree at home. Then as soon as everyone had had enough time to open his or her present, the sacks of candy were passed around, and oh! what a treat: a big red apple, an orange, English walnuts, and hard candy with swirled designs running all through the centers. And no one could ever forget the way the candy had sweated inside the cellophane bag, leaving sweet stickiness on the fruit and nuts. Then it was time to walk home in the cold, moonlit night, hang our stockings on the door knob, make a dash into the cold north room and snuggle down into the feather bed. I had one last question, "Does Santa bring switches to little girls?" Daddy had told us that he and his brothers got switches in their stockings.

So now I hold on to those memories and feel a little sad; what kind of memories will my grandchildren have? They have candy all through the year, fresh fruit, electronic toys, new clothes, fake trees, and bright lights. Maybe it is true, to appreciate something, you have to do without first. My dolls help me remember.

The Christmas Doll

I don't consider myself as being a pioneer, but I was raised in the early "40's -50's" when things were much simpler than today. As children, we had to use our imagination in our play and be creative with what was around us. I don't remember getting toys from town too often so Christmas was special. Our tree was a cedar cut from some fence row, decorated with a few glass balls and icicles, kept from year to year and probably taken from the discarded tree used at the church program. Mama usually allowed $5.00 each for the limit on what she could spend on her two children's gifts. My gifts might have included "store bought" paper dolls, a jigsaw puzzle, and a baby doll. Dolls she could afford in those days usually had heads made of compressed sawdust so it was no wonder that I longed for a prettier doll; however, I don't remember ever not liking what Santa brought to me.

The following is an excerpt from my book, In the Shade of the White Oak:

Outside the theater, Charlotte waited in line to get on the school bus. She turned around, and there, in a window next to the theater, was the most beautiful doll she had ever seen! She was wearing a white satin wedding gown. Spread out all around her were clothes of every kind: pants and shirts, a coat with a fur collar, flannel pajamas, and a red taffeta evening dress. The doll had silky blonde hair and blue eyes with long lashes
Charlotte tugged at Wanda Sue's hand. "Oh look at that beautiful doll! Wouldn't you love to have a doll like that?"
A sign near the doll had these words: Win this beautiful doll! Buy a chance on her today! 25 cents per chance!...
Charlotte thought about nothing else but the doll the rest of the afternoon. She told Mama how pretty it had looked...Whenever Mama had seen the doll, she said to Charlotte, "You didn't tell me someone is selling chances on the pretty doll. We don't buy chances on things. If we spend money we have to make sure we're getting something for it."...

Have a wonderful day, and stay warm!