Dear Mary,
I don't have too much in the way of Christmas stories. We were all born during the depression and even after the depression was over, there was the war and things were rationed. The economy was focused on the war effort, so all the factories were churning out war material and it was hard to find luxury items and toys.
In Ireland Christmas was a religious holiday. My parents didn't get presents and they didn't expect any. The day after Christmas, Stephens day, the boys would try to capture a wren. If they couldn't, they would make one out of clay and feathers. they would put the wren in a box and go house to house and sing a verse.
The people they visited would give them small coins or treats. The girls were not part of it. The boys didn't have much regard for the wren because it was considered a "traitor" bird. It's singing had revealed the hiding place of rebels and priest on more than one occasion.
So, because Christmas was not a gift giving occasion in Ireland, my father was not very much into the commercial Christmas spirit. I don't remember, but one year when we still lived in Cleveland, he decided to buy a landscape tree instead of a cut tree. So it wouldn't die from the heat, he put it out on the front porch and decorated it there. James told me the story and how really angry he was about it.
Christmas giving was pretty much up to my mom. I remember how I found out that there was no Santa. Some time before Christmas, we all went up to the second floor (this was on the farm). There was a room under the eaves that was not finished and had no light. I suppose my mother thought that it was a good hiding place because it was so dark. But my sibs were very resourceful. They managed to find all their presents and look them over. They even showed me mine, which confused me because I still believed Santa was going to bring them on Christmas Eve!
Huntington school always had a nice pageant. I think I was an elf in one. I remember something about a green cap. We had a little percussion band. I never did get the good instruments. I wanted a triangle but all I got was a wood block to tap.
One year we got a bag of oranges in the mail. That was a special treat. I thought the mailman was a really wonderful person to bring us a bag of oranges.
In Elyria we had a live tree which we usually bought from the boy scouts. We didn't have any special traditions like your mother's family. On Christmas eve, it was the custom in Ireland to put a candle in the window and we had a electric candelabra for the bay window. My mom was Irish and you know they're not famous for their cooking but she did put on great a spread on Thanksgiving and Christmas. We would have either roast chicken or turkey. Her stuffing was delicious. We had the usual, mashed potatoes, gravy, squash, peas, homemade soda biscuits. We had the cranberries that came in a can and when you served it, it looked like a fat red firecracker on it's side. It was served in Grandma's cut glass dish. We always had pickles too; sweet pickles not dill served in the divided cut glass dish. I still have that dish.
Grandma would make a suet pudding. She would wrap the pudding mixture with it's dried fruit and spices in cheese cloth and suspend it on two sticks over a pot of boiling water. It seemed like it took hours to cook. It did, Ellen wanted one when she came home from Ireland, but when I looked up the recipe, it looked like it would take a couple of days to cook. I found one at the Scottish store.
We didn't have a midnight mass at our church. We had only one priest at our parish. He had a 5:00 mass for people who working, because during the war, people often worked on Sundays, an 8:00 mass and a 10:00 mass. Poor father Bristell was too overworked to put on a big Christmas Eve ceremony.
I'm sorry I don't have any warm fuzzy Christmas traditions I can tell you to pass on. But we were poor as were our neighbors. Most of my friends got one or two toys, maybe a doll or a game and some clothes. I remember my next door friend being very excited about getting a book. I remember the name - "The Secret Garden". I think I got "Heidi" that year. One year your dad got a be be gun.
So there was no "Miracle on 34th Street". We had nice neighbors, we were all in the same boat, we managed. Christmas wasn't as commercial then. The decorations didn't go up until well after Thanksgiving. People usually didn't have outdoor lights. We put our tree in the bay window so all our neighbors could enjoy it. All the other neighbors did likewise.
During vacation, if it snowed, we'd go sledding at Cascade park. Someone usually made a fire in a barrel. The hill we used had a dip in it. It was pretty scary. Climbing back up was pretty tiring, so two or three trips was enough. There was always the movies. Sunday matinees were the time all the neighborhood kids would go. We didn't need a ride or our parents to escort us. We'd walk to save money for treat. Sometimes after, if we were flush ( had an extra quarter) we would stop and buy a bag of fries to eat on the way home.
Can't think of anything else. These memories are fading anyhow. Maybe when Alzheimer's sets in, I'll start remembering the really old days. Isn't that how it works?
If you have any questions, just ask, I'll try to clear things up.
Have a great Christmas,
Aunt Kay