Personal Christmas Memories

By Edith Herrington

We all have our own cherished Christmas memories, widely diverse yet all brought together with common themes and bonds. Please permit me a moment to share my personal Christmas memories with you.

Who doesn't love to decorate the Christmas tree? This is one of the activities I look forward to most each and every year, and usually I cannot hold myself back from doing so more than one day after Thanksgiving passes. I just never tire of watching the twinkling lights.

Personally I prefer to use an artificial tree rather than a real one, because I cannot see the point in wasting a real tree for just the sake of a couple weeks. Each year we drag the old battered box where the tree is stored in down from the attic, and as I am fluffing the branches and putting the limbs together there are soft and soothing sounds of Christmas music playing in the background.

Once the tree is up we're ready for the next step, so we next dig up the storage container filled with strings of Christmas lights. Before placing them upon the tree we check for burnt bulbs and replace any that we find, then it's on to stringing them around the tree one strand at a time. The trick, of course, is to begin at the bottom nearest the pole and gradually wind your way up the front before moving up to the next level.

Plugging the strand of lights into the power outlet is always a rush… the tree seems to glow from within! With that step out of the way it's time to find the plastic container that holds all of the ornaments. Anyone can slap an ornament on a tree at random, but placing the ornaments so that they catch the light of the bulbs and shine takes a little time and careful planning. Luckily the time seems to speed on by as the Christmas songs emanate in the background, and before you know it the tree is finished!

There was a year almost a decade ago that we lived out in the country. The storm of the century came through and the ice and snow yanked down some power lines, so we were without electricity. Luckily I was not worried about keeping warm since we had a wood stove and plenty of dry wood inside, although the kids seemed a little nervous about the howling of the wind outside.

I had purchased a few extra bags of cranberries and had more than enough extra assorted fruits, so I thought that maybe if we made stringers of cranberries, apples and organges for the birds that it might take the kids' mind off the weather. I lit several coal oil lamps and gathered the materials that we'd require for our little project.

Before undergoing the project I wanted to make sure my kids were in the right frame of mind, so I encouraged them to sing Jingle Bells as loud as they could. The winners of the contest would be rewarded with a mug of steaming hot cocoa (and naturally, there was enough hot cocoa to ensure all would be winners). With the Christmas carols having done the trick, we set to the fun project at hand.

Using needlepoint needles, we strung cranberries, apple slices and orange slices on long pieces of thread, making about five before quitting; we didn't want the orange slices to run out! The room smelled of chocolate, fruits and the hickory wood being burned in the stove… a wonderful medley of scents! Our fingers were stiff and sticky with the juice from the fruits, and the kids were now laughing and singing Christmas carols. The blizzard still rejoiced just outside, but none of us seemed to be aware of it.

To this day I smell hickory smoke when I think of that night when we lived in that old country house. Flickering coal oil lamps… smells of chocolate, oranges and apples… singing Christmas carols and making garlands for the birds. That, to me, was the sweetest of my Christmas memories.