Christmas at Mom and Dad’s

Dad bought our Christmas tree sometime in December nearer to Christmas.
We always went to Days Nursery in Findlay, walked out in their woods and using our own tree saw two of us would cut the best one down.
Mr. Day would sit there in a little shack with a wood stove burning. He collected money and the few people who fit in the shack stood around and talked a lot.
Mr. Day charged my Dad $4.00 for the Christmas tree every year. The price never went up. I was under the impression that it was a special price for my Dad only.

Mom cleaned house and put up all of the house decorations while we were at school. Electric candelabras went in the windows.  We had a beautiful manger scene that was always the nicest I’d seen but I really loved how my Mom would use a round or oval mirror on our living room table. She made snow using Ivory Snow soap flakes normally used for the laundry. She than put painted metal figurines of ice skaters and snow sledders playing and skating all over the mirror. It seemed magical to look at. I loved the Santa Claus she had that was behind a sleigh full of Christmas cards. I found my own Santa just like that one on E-Bay. I try to emulate many of my Mom and Dads Christmas traditions as it brings me joy and happiness every year. There were some years I was slack on tradition but found I just didn’t feel the same.

Mom moved furniture swept the carpets and readied the area for the tree.
We always had one of those red metal stands with the green legs and I still use one like that to this day.
Dad always nailed the stand down to a piece of plywood so it wouldn’t tip over.
At this point we often had a can of artificial snow and would spray some of it on and in the tree. I sometimes still do the same thing.
We cut the trunk a little so the tree would get some water, affixed it to the stand and set it up in the front room of the house, Mom making sure just the right part of the tree was in the front for the best viewing.
Dad got up in the attic and brought down a huge box of decorations that we had collected forever.

Mom and Dad made sure all the lights would light and checked the star. We used the one bulb goes out and they all go out strings when I was little and the time to check them was before you put them on the tree. We later bought the kind that ran in series so you could easily see which bulb was out but we still checked them. Those bulbs got so hot they’d burn you and I’m sure caused many fires. Mom and Dad bought fiberglass multi colored ball covers from my Brother Gary who was selling them for a high school fund raiser.  They fit over the light bulbs to insulate them from the tree needles. They also made a nice soft fuzzy glow with the bulbs shining through them. Later we bought some that were fruit shapes like pears and apples.

I disliked the miniature bulbs that came out when I moved away from home and while they looked pretty, they were wired so if one goes out they may or may not all go out. If one gets loose they all go out too. It’s claimed that they are safer but I’ve thrown whole strings in the trash out of frustration because in reality they are cheap and they want you to buy new ones anyway.
Thankfully there are some better lights out there nowadays ‘maybe’. Now I buy big LED bulbs that run cool and last long. Not sure in reality how long they last yet though. I’m counting on having to buy more of them also.

We always had a big tin NOMA star to top the tree off and Dad always had the honor of climbing the ladder to put it up. Mom directed from below it’s exact alignment.
It was painted white in the back with a red glitter front and the single red bulb shined through the edges and the center making a beautiful star.
I found one on E-Bay and have been using it for about ten years now. I love those old stars. To me it makes all the difference to the look of the whole tree.

Mom and Dad had to get the garland right and than we kids could start putting on those old decorations. Some were from the 1940’s and maybe earlier and were really cool. Others we had gotten more recently and each of us kids had certain ones we claimed for our own. We also often strung popcorn on string and put them the same way as garland on the tree. We also glued or taped rings of colored paper together and hung it like garland though more often we used the rings hanging somewhere as decorations and to count the days till Christmas by tearing off a ring each day. I remember I had a bird that looked real that I always had to put on the tree myself. When I was younger I put many of the ornaments in the same area and my Sister and Mom would go behind me and re-distribute them evenly. I remember I resented it a little but I found I had to do that when my kids were little also and now my grand-kids are probably doing that. I haven’t had the pleasure to get in on decorating with the grand-kids yet.

We had some plastic looking icicles that we put on with hooks but the last thing to put on the tree were the icicles that are like strings of plastic shiny aluminum foil that you pretty much have to buy every year. Actually the earlier ones were made of lead. I remember you could ball them up and write on paper with them. Also, I remember our cat and dog used to eat those icicles which I don’t think was a good thing. My Mom and Sister had the patience to evenly distribute individual strings or two or three at a time over the tree. I never got the knack of that. I still put a few here and there and then end up tossing handfuls of icicles up there. I kind of rake them out straighter with my fingers after they land where they will. I always noticed my trees looked the prettiest when just the tree lights are lit and you stand back and squint at it. Squinting at it makes the lighting a little fuzzier and softer and the flaws just kind of blend in together. It’s not my fault if the tree doesn’t look right, it’s your fault for not squinting at it correctly. Steve Jobs took that line from me when he told people their reception wasn’t good because they were holding their iPhones wrong.

We always put a sheet around the bottom of the tree and put the few presents that came early from various people under the tree. We put our presents from each other under the tree when we got them. We loved to sit there and stare at the presents and try to guess what was in them. On Christmas Eve we had a tradition of going to my Grandma and Grandpa Pressnell’s and we got to open the presents they bought for us there. That was so cool because we got some presents early and there was always some kind of Christmas special playing on TV and my Grandpa’s TV was in color! We were the last family on earth to get a color TV and we never had cable so we got two Toledo stations 11 and 13. Grandpa got all the channels and there wasn’t any remotes back then. I remember he had a white cushioned stool right next to the TV so he could sit there and turn the channels until he found what he wanted. Sometimes he sat there a long time!  Grandpa had a full sized Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer complete with a red electric light bulb nose in his front yard. Also he always had a shiny silver aluminum Christmas tree like Lucy on Charlie Brown wanted. He had it on a rotating stand and had a color wheel light pointing at the tree that turned slowly and reflected all the pretty Christmas red, green, and blue colors as the tree slowly turned. It was really pretty actually but I was always proud of Mom and Dad’s and I still get a live cut tree like they did.

What was really amazing was how many more presents appeared under the tree on Christmas morning! I mean, we KNEW Santa brought them but it still was always a surprise just the same. The excitement was almost overwhelming for a kid. I could never get a good nights sleep on Christmas Eve and more than once snuck down the stairs to see if I could catch a glimpse of Santa or freshly arrived presents.  We didn’t have a fireplace. We put out milk and cookies and maybe even carrots for the reindeer on the kitchen table and they were always eaten though Santa was obviously hurried and often left a mess for my Mom to clean up. Until I was older I didn’t understand ever how my Mom and Dad pulled it off. How could they get up earlier than me? Being the youngest I was ALWAYS the first one downstairs to see the magic. Did they let Santa in the door? I remember Santa even visited us once when I was little before Christmas but he didn’t bring all those presents unless he told Dad to hide them in the garage or something. When I was probably sixteen years old I managed to come down stairs extra early and turned on the Christmas tree lights without waking anyone and I stared at all those presents and was still spellbound a little while before deciding I’d better get back up to bed.
I went back to bed and Mom and Dad never knew I don’t think.

Even after we all were up we had to all be at the table and have milk and pecan twirls Mom had made fresh in the oven. Mom had already been up getting Christmas dinner ready. Mom’s own (probably second or third) cup of coffee by that time was mandatory before any activity could be started. When all of that was cleaned up we finally got to sit around the Christmas tree! Dad passed out presents as he saw fit. He was careful to always save the best for last and we knew it. It seemed to take forever getting through all those school clothes and socks but somehow we managed. One certain Christmas when I think it was just me and my Sister, my Mom and Dad neglected to put names on the presents. We weren’t sure who’s presents we were opening, and I remember being spoiled it was somewhat frustrating but eventually it was all straightened out and turns out to be a favorite memory. My favorite Christmas presents ever from Mom and Dad when I was a kid were my walkie talkie, my Cox Baja Bug and my tape recorder and I still have them all. My favorite from my Grandpa Pressnell was a Tonka VW beetle which I still own.  I also still have my favorite Christmas present from my Sister, a Radio Shack AM headset radio. The radio and tape recorder unfortunately no longer function. Earlier years I got Hot Wheel Cars and eventually collected all of the first three years of Hot Wheel cars that came out. I was the youngest of four kids and we were all born three years apart so I mostly remember my Sister and me at Christmas.

I remember a special Christmas when my Brother Jerry came home and Mom and Dad gave him a yellow Linus (from Charlie Brown) pillow. On it was written, “Happiness is Sleeping in Your Own Bed”. They were wanting Jerry to come back home to live. I remember another one when I was about ten years old when my oldest Brother Gary was supposed to come home for Christmas from the Coast Guard. Dad and Mom wanted to surprise him in Toledo at the bus station during his lay over instead of waiting for him to come to Findlay. We waited many hours but he didn’t show up in the bus terminal all night. Dad asked a lot of questions of the bus authority but didn’t get any answers so we all went home very tired and sad. It turned out my Brother not knowing we were going to surprise him in Toledo got off his bus and was told by the bus driver he didn’t have to wait in the terminal as the bus for Findlay was right next to his. My Brother stepped off his bus and right onto the other bus and waited to leave for Findlay. When he beat us home he had no idea where we were so he climbed into the house through the cellar window. He was sitting in a living room chair waiting for us when we got home. I remember how emotional it was for Mom and Dad. I was really glad too and made out like a bandit. He gave me a real Coast Guard Dixie Cup hat with his serial number stamped on it. He also gave me a Coast Guard Cape May sweat shirt. That was one of the most exciting Christmas’s ever that I remember at Mom and Dad’s.