Saturday Night Genealogy Fun -- Holiday Celebrations and Memories - Part 2

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night Again - 

Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!!

Our assignment from Randy Seaver of Genea-Musings is to: 

1)   Today's challenge is to share memories of December holiday gatherings and celebrations with your families (as a child, a young adult, a parent, a grandparent, a great-grandparent, an aunt or uncle, a sibling, a cousin, an in-law)!  

2)  Pick two or three questions from the list in my blog post:  Ask AI:  "What questions can I write about concerning family gatherings and celebrations during the December holidays?"  Use different questions from the list that you didn't use last week.

Here's mine:

Last week, I wrote about when we opened presents and what kinds of trees we had. This week I shall select two more topics:

Were there memorable gifts or surprises from your family’s holiday history?

I have been thinking about the family gifts we received over the years. One year in the mid-1960s, my parents bought a new black and white television in a beautiful cabinet with a record player and AM/FM radio, and I think it might have been a Curtis Mathis television. Along with the television set, they received a free LP, “Burl Ives and the 12 Days of Christmas.” I loved that record and we played it to death. A few years ago, I found a used copy for my own. We did not get a color television for many more years. I remember watching The Wizard of Oz at a friend’s house and was surprised that the scenes in Oz were in color. I had no idea.

Another family present I remember was a ping pong table Dad set up in the garage. That was fun for a while, then it seemed to become the table for laundry, with the washer and dryer right next to it. Maybe we stopped playing after losing all the balls.

Other family presents were board games like Monopoly, Risk, Sorry! and Yahtzee, and a Creepy Crawler machine that made rubber reptiles. Playing games together was always lots of fun.

What dishes were a staple at your family’s holiday celebrations? Who made them?

The holiday meals were always celebrated at our house. My mother prepared most of the items. Appetizers included potato chips with onion dip, Frito chips with bean dip, a veggie tray of carrots, celery, and green onions, and crackers with smoked baby oysters or cheese. The appetizers usually filled us up. Dad fixed the drinks. Mom and Dad drank gin while my grandparents liked bourbon. At one point, I remember my grandfather drinking his with milk – yuk!

Dinner often consisted of sliced ham roasted with clove pieces within sliced pineapple, scalloped potatoes, candied yams, and Mama-ma’s Christmas salad. I’m sure we had some vegetables, but I do not remember. Dessert was always supplied by my great-aunt, Bev. The Christmas salad was a mixture of green gelatin, cottage cheese, walnuts, and cherries with a cream cheese topping decorated with cherries. I loved it.  Sometimes, Aunt Bev brought a minced meat pie for my dad, which I loved, too, but mostly we had pecan or apple pie.

Grownups ate at the table in the kitchen, set with the company china and silverware (which was gold-colored and not silver). Mom always made nice centerpieces using pine needles, pyracantha berries, gold ribbon, and candles. The children had a separate table in the sunporch and used paper plates. There were six of us. Perhaps if one of the kids were still babies, they ate with the adults. Once I was a teenager, I graduated to the adult table. However, at the kids' table, you had more freedom to eat or not eat anything on your plate.

There was no entertainment during the day except for Christmas music playing on the radio, tuned to a station playing only holiday tunes. 

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