A Christmas memory of long ago…

When I was little we had a big Christmas Eve celebration with my whole extended family, several aunts, uncles, cousins etc all together in one night. The kids would dress up every year and perform an excellent rendition of, “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” complete with hand gestures and enthusiasm, while the rest of the family, laughed, clapped and recorded the hilarious performance. Also every year, Santa Clause would come to our house. THE Santa Clause would come to OUR house. We felt so privileged that Santa would come to our house while we were still awake to bring us our presents while other children always missed out as he came to their houses when they were already sleeping. Santa would knock on the door, ho, ho, ho-ing up a storm, and bells jingled as he walked into the house with his bag of presents. I was captivated by him, watching his every move and breath. One by one, he would call us each up to sit on his lap and talk with him and receive our Christmas present. There was no doubt Santa was real, he walked into our house every Christmas Eve and he brought presents we had asked for on our Christmas lists. I was always bashful around Santa, smiling and nodding when I sat on his lap and he asked me questions about my year and what I wanted for Christmas. I think I was in awe that Santa was right in front of my eyes. It wasn’t until I got a little older that I started wondering if he was the real thing. Sure, there were mall Santas, but we got the real one on Christmas Eve. Doubts entered the scene one year, when my cousin Erin and I decided to watch for Santa and his sleigh to arrive. To our surprise, Santa rolled in, driving a yellow Volkswagon bug. I was devastated, thinking, this must not be Santa. He NEEDS a sleigh. He assured me that his sleigh was waiting but he wanted the reindeer to rest up for the night ahead. This was enough for me to believe. The next year, I was a little more skeptical and decided I would ask Santa a list of questions that I thought only Santa would know. Upon sitting on his lap, I fired off questions such as, what is my cat’s name. Who is my teacher? What color is my favorite dress? What color is my house? He knew the answers to all these questions and I felt silly for asking so many and ashamed that I doubted in the first place. I’m not sure when it was that I stopped believing in Santa Clause, but I do remember the first time I met a man who worked with my Dad and Uncles at the fire department who had the same voice and nose as THE Santa Clause.

A Christmas memory of today…

At this same Christmas Eve celebration, my family gathered once again for the evening. There is less running around and play as we have all grown and now take up much more couch space than we once did. We did not perform our annual “Santa Clause is Coming to Town” gig, but we did reminisce the good ole days and previous performances of the song and a special rap performance of ’twas the night before Christmas” by my cousin Erin and myself. She rapped and I giggled on the couch pretending to be asleep and dreaming of sugarplums. We opened presents until the gifts disappeared, waiting for Grandma, who always unwraps the slowest and has the biggest pile of presents. We ate the signature goulash dish that my grandma makes every year. We talked and drank and laughed and enjoyed good company when we heard Christmas music coming from outside. The Christmas fire truck was driving by the house and had parked outside, blasting classic Christmas songs from the loudspeaker. Every year, the fire department decorates one of the fire trucks with Christmas lights and a banner and drives all around the island playing music for people, a bit like a rolling caroler. We all ran outside to see the fire truck. All of us stood on the porch, shivering a bit but smiling at the moment. This is also my Uncle Dave’s house, which looks much like Clark Griswold’s house from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. You can see his house from the sky, I’m sure. It’s lit up to extremes. No section of house or tree is spared; everything is glowing bright and beautiful. It was a sweet moment, all of us out there on the porch, singing along and dancing to the Christmas songs in the glow of Christmas lights and the sight of our breath in the air.