'Tis the Christmas season again, and most of we elderly folks can conjure up many loving memories of the Christmases of long ago.
In the '20s, '30s and perhaps early '40s, people didn't start commemorating the yuletide season until Dec. 1. And on the first of December, kids started counting the days until that glorious morning arrived when they found that precious stocking hanging from the mantel, filled with candy, nuts, a shiny red apple and a big, juicy orange. (In days of yore, an orange at Christmastime was like manna from heaven!) Years ago, kids truly appreciated the inevitable Christmas stocking, plus a small gift, or two, for children "way back when," didn't receive candy, oranges or gifts each time they desired them.
During the depression, we were poor as church mice, but we didn't feel poor because everybody was in the same boat. None of us had anything in the first place, and, I repeat, kids weren't handed a special delicacy or toy every time they cried for them. It's too bad that youngsters of today couldn't have lived back during the depression to get a taste of how to appreciate and enjoy the simple things in life. Nowadays, when kids say, "I want it," most parents see to it that they get it; therefore, how can children of today truly appreciate Christmas, when they have Christmas all year around?
I recall the year when I was a kid and somebody gave me a whole dollar to spend on Christmas presents for my family. So, at 10 cents each, I bought 10 gifts, including a little celluloid doll for my sister (10 cents), a small, metal car for my brother (10 cents), a pair of candles (5 cents each) for my mother, etc. And, to my delight, the lady in the store from whom I purchased the gifts, wrapped each present in bright, colorful Christmas paper of holly and poinsettia design.
In my youth, on Christmas eve, our church often presented a yuletide program. I recall the year when the theme for our Christmas presentation at the church featured "Mother Goose" characters. I remember that I was once Little Jack Horner, "eating his Christmas pie," and when it came time to say, "He stuck in his thumb, and pulled out a plum," I discovered that under the circumstances, such a feat was hardly possible, for the pie that I held in my lap was chock full of raisins!
In closing, I just want to add, that one thing I get upset over in these times, is when TV, along with its commercials, always wishes everybody, "Happy Holidays - peace on earth." Always "Happy Holidays," and never "Merry Christmas!" The agnostics and the atheists are bound to take God and Christ out of everything, and if you take Christ out of Christmas, why bother to celebrate his birth at all? Well, I, for one, refuse to spout "Happy Holidays," all of the time. So, I shall shout at the top of my lungs, "Merry Christmas! Merry, Merry Christmas, everybody!"
