Once upon a time, when Papa was just a little boy,
Christmas was the most beloved time of year, in fact, Dougie began to look forward to Christmas at about the end of January. Mama would have each of the kiddies go through the Montgomery Wards catalog and select about 20 items, assuring us we would only get about 10 (or so) of them, but most usually she got them everything on their lists. Her secret was the Wards charge account. Both Mama and Dada worked hard at Lockheed (before Martin joined the gang) and both were paid very well for that day and time, and the reason they both worked so hard for so much money was so that Mama could pay off the Montgomery Wards charge account. Crass commercialism, to be sure.
But there was a lot more to Christmas. For instance, Mama and Dada, and Grandpa as well, always reminded the children that Christmas is not a holiday in the Bible, and that December 25th was certainly not the time of year that Jesus was born (which was more likely August or September), and that everything in the "Christmas tradition" was borrowed (or more likely stolen) from paganism. They would always the children that it is fine to spend a day with family, lovingly exchanging gifts, and spend a large part of that time thinking about Jesus, and the gift God gave to the world in Jesus.Another special thing was that they always did their Christmas gift giving on Christmas Eve. Why? Because they wanted to at least TRY and make the holiday as close to being Biblical as they could. You see, the whole stated reason people give gifts is because when the three wise men visited Jesus, at night, the wise men gave gifts. Thus the gift giving. If this happened at night, that is the beginning portion of the day, if you keep time the way the Bible writers did, the way that apparently God does -- see Genesis Chapter 1: "...and the evening and the morning were the first day, and the evening and the morning were the second day, and the evening and the morning were the third day..." The best translations generally state it more literally: "...there was evening, then there was morning, the first day..." So, for instance, Saturday actually begins on what we call Friday night.But there's still more to the tradition of gift-giving on Christmas Eve. When Jesus was born (the wise men actually visited him when he was probably in the neighborhood of two years of age) Joseph and Mary couldn't find room as evening was drawing nigh, and they prepared for birth in the stable. This is also when the shepherds were alerted of the imminent birth and followed the star to the stable.So it makes sense, this tradition that not many have followed or practiced, that Jesus was born at NIGHT (the first part of the day, Biblically speaking), so the first part of CHRISTMAS is at night, Christmas Eve.Despite the pagan tree worshiping beginning of the "Christmas tree," the family did get a huge, real Christmas tree every year (and even carried it home on top of the Pontiac Le Mans for several years). Dada had built a huge addition to the house, The Big Room as it called, which was as wide as the house, and about twelve feet across by thirty feet long, and it was a beamed ceiling that was probably sixteen feet from floor to the stained-red beam. The family Christmas trees usually touched the bottom of the beam, and so had to be moved over slightly, to put a star at the top. Before the addition of The Big Room, the Christmas trees were in the living room, which still allowed for an eight-foot tree.The subject of Santa Clause was really only broached when Dougie was about three years of age, after he sat on a "Santa's" lap at his parent's company Christmas party. He asked his Dada: "How does Santa get in? We don't have a chimney?" The reply was: "Santa has a skeleton key, so he can get into every house, even when they don't have a chimney." Dougie thought about that. It sounded scary. A skeleton key. Why in the world did Santa have to have a skeleton key? It seemed like if he was all on the up and up he'd have a better key than a skeleton key. Dougie probably had a nightmare about Santa that night.There were Christmas movies and wonderful Christmas "no-school" specials such as Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, and Frosty the Snowman. So many different and wonderful versions of A Christmas Carol. And the family played lots of Christmas music, starting about three weeks before Christmas. And they gathered around the piano often with Mama playing the piano and everyone singing all the wonderful Christmas carols such as Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, Angels We Have Heard on High, The First Noel, We Three Kings, Silver Bells, Jingle Bells, and so many others. In the early years Mama always played the piano, but then Donna took over, and not too long after it was Pammy playing the piano as she became the true pianist of the family.They were a family of beautiful singers, all of them that is except for Dougie. Everyone assured him, for many, many years, that he had a frog voice.Christmas was a time of good cheer. Certainly, Mama and Dada blew up at each other every five minutes (on a good day they could make seven minutes between blow-ups), but all in all everyone was excited, everyone was pleased. Dougie still got spankings during the holidays, he always got spankings, but he would usually console himself with the fact that he would soon have presents.And the presents were somewhat ridiculous. Stupendous. Superfluous. Decadent. Beyond a child's wildest dreams. The tree would be swamped in presents, encircled by a ring of presents that sometimes extended to a six-foot radius. Wrapped presents, in some times twenty different styles of paper, with bright shiny bows (Mama never did ribbons as she thought they were silly). And Dougie would crawl among the presents, picking out his name. Looking about furtively to make sure he was unseen, and then SHAKING it, and he had about a 90% success rate it would prove on the day. When he was very young, he would shiver with anticipation, practically drooling, hardly able to contain himself -- one Christmas, about two weeks before the date, Dougie seriously asked his Mama if they could go to the dentist to have Dougie put to sleep and woken only on Christmas Eve, but Mama felt it would cost too much, and her Lockheed health insurance probably wouldn't cover the cost of all that anesthesia. Otherwise, she did consider the question seriously, and actually found the idea quite sound.When he was older, perhaps at the age of eight, Dougie often crept from bed after everyone was quietly asleep, to the tree. He would fnd one of his presents, and carefully, very, very carefully, he unwrapped a corner, gently pulling up the tape with the hands of the finest brain surgeon. Body trembling with the nearness of getting caught, he would unpeel another corner, unwrapping the present until he found either a name or a picture which told him what it was. Satisfied, he would carefully, carefully rewrap the gift, making certain that it looked just as good as before, and then he would replace the present in its spot and creep back to bed.And often he would feel guilty, as he drifted off to sleep smiling.Mama never quite knew he had taken up this practice, but she somehow started taking gifts out of their original boxes and placing them in very weird boxes, so that Dougie might believe he was getting a crock pot, and not only did he not know what that was, but he would for days be upset that he was getting something he just knew couldn't be fun.Usually Christmas Eve was the immediate family, Dada, Mama, Donna, Dougie and Pammy, and then Christmas Day everything would migrate to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where there were MORE presents, and Grandma's Christmas cooking was every bit as sumptuous as the magic of her Thanksgiving delectables. Other years, Dada would make sometimes two or three trips when Christmas Eve and gift-giving was performed at Grandma and Grandpa's house, shuttling a small car packed with presents. In some ways these Christmases were more special, in other times they were just too complicated as all the family argued about a free-for-all at the gifts, or the insidious practice of distributing one gift at a time to one person at a time so that "everyone can participate in the joy and glow of Christmas." Bah, Humbug. That is more properly called Christmas Torture.Grandpa always insisted on reading one of the accounts of the birth of Jesus from one of the Gospels, and the whole family would actually sit quietly, listening to Grandpa read (even with all those tantalizing presents too near at hand). The kids would squirm but Dada would shoot them a glare as sharp and hot as a flaming dagger (if they were near enough he would pinch them on the leg, usually the object of his pinches were Dougie, of course).But when Papa was a little boy he often followed Grandpa, Dada, and Uncle Bob outside, to stand in the darkness. In those days Quartz Hill was hardly a town, let alone a city, and so the night skies were dark, and a billion stars twinkled just out of reach. And the menfolk would seriously do an extended search for the "star" that led to the manger. At the time Dougie thought they were serious, but today he has his doubts.But Dougie looked too, scanning the skies, excited and filled with wonder to see a star that in reality was a band of angels, and maybe they would come down and proclaim: "We bring you tidings of great joy!"Dougie probably would have asked them if they could wait until after all the presents were opened.But the thing of it is, when Dougie grew up and thought back on the fine and fun Christmas shindigs, it was not the presents he remembered, but the gathering of the family, and the getting along of personalities that rarely got along very well. He remembered, clearly, how even though Christmas is not a Biblical holiday, and is definitely all the crassness it is advertised as being, still his family found a way to focus on God, and the Son of God, and found that loving each other really does fulfill the Law of God, regardless of pagan holidays and materialism, and Christmas was and is and will always be a very fine time of year.All Stories © 2009 Douglas Christian Larsen
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