SNGF -- Holiday Celebrations and Memories - Part 1

Calling All Genea-Musings Fans:

It's Saturday Night Again - 

Time For Some More Genealogy Fun!!

Our mission tonight 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 nibling, 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?"

3)  Tell us about your memories of your holiday gatherings and celebrations in your own blog post, in a comment here, or on your Facebook page.  Be sure to leave a link to your report in a comment on this post.

Here's mine:

I chose these two questions:

Did your family have traditions for how gifts were given or opened (e.g., all at once, youngest to oldest)?

When we were young, our tradition with presents was to open our presents from Nana on Christmas Eve. These were sent sometime before Christmas. We were always excited to get her present as we loved getting new flannel pajamas. This was the only present we were allowed to open on Christmas Eve as Santa would be coming that night. When we woke in the morning, presents from Santa for the younger children who still believed were unwrapped and the presents from the parents were wrapped (as they had been under the tree before we went to bed). When our other grandmother came for dinner, she brought her gifts to us. We loved especially getting money that we could spend on our own.

Once all the kids got past believing in Santa, we opened gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning after Mass. One of the kids would play Santa and pass out gifts and we took the time to watch everyone open their gifts. It took a long time for eight people to open presents!

Were there special rituals or traditions your family followed (e.g., lighting a menorah, hanging ornaments, exchanging gifts, volunteering)?

We never got the Christmas tree before December 11, as that was my youngest brother’s birthday. Some years our tree was real. My mother liked Scotch pines. Other years we had artificial trees. When I was young and we were living in Pittsburg, the tree was silver and mom had a spotlight pointing to it from the floor. One year the light was green, another year blue, or red. I think she used the same color or pairs of colored glass balls. Looking back on it, it was purely a decorative item.

Later, as we got older, our tree was real. We were allowed to put on ornaments that we made. In fourth grade, we learned to make German Bells using wrapping paper, especially foiled paper. They were not easy to make but were beautiful. Another year, our family made strung popcorn and cranberry garlands. Dad hung the lights, the kids hung the ornaments, Mom moved them into better places after we went to bed, and she would hang tinsel one strand at a time while we were in school. She saved the tinsel from year to year. Our trees remained up until after New Years Day.

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