Holiday Time

The Holidays have changed since the 40's and 50's. Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were special days that were part of the seasons of autumn and winter. They marked times of transition in the year. They became part of our national psyche and folklore. Each in their own way centered around children and family, hope and renewal.

Today’s Mega-Retailers have bypassed Halloween completely. They have made Thanksgiving just a pregame show to the start of a frenzied buying spree till Christmas. Christmas Day is almost anti-climatic now. New Years is one last chance to buy discounted items. It is about money for them and spending for us. This is a loss to our culture and our values and to our Nation.

Imagine your world without e-mail, text message, PDF files, ‘iTunes, ‘i-pods, Android’s, internet and even without Google. Imagine a world of type-writers, letters, telephones, radios and the newest technology - television in black and white.

Christmas is a few days away as I write this. Looking back this is how it might have looked in the late forties and early fifties.

Christmas in America would have crossed a rural America, a growing suburban America and an Urban America bustling with immigrants from Europe adapting their traditions to their new homeland.

For families it might be much the same as it is today expect family and friends traveled to visit by train rather than crowded airplanes.

Christmas cards were mailed and arrived by a postman. They were sent as a way to say you remembered someone and it was for many the only form of communication to stay connected. It might come with an attached note telling the latest news from those who lived afar sharing stories about relatives, new loves and lost loves, work, the baby or the troubles with Cousin Bob. It was personal because it was hand written. Even the penmanship or the misspellings brought the human touch and made the letter come to life.

Christmas started only a few days before which made the day itself special. The only thing to start early would have been baking the cakes or pies.

Christmas Eve Day you might venture out with your parents and siblings to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. When you arrived you would smell the burning of the Yule Log and the smell of Grandpa’s pipe. The walls would be decorated with Holly and there would be a natural evergreen Christmas tree. Christmas trees would have big light bulbs of red, green, blue, orange and white.

You might sit around the radio listening to music or more likely you would lay on the floor and listen to your mom play the piano while your Grandma sang a Christmas carol. Father and Grandpa might sit in their chairs talking.

After a delicious meal and opening a few gifts, a kiss from Grandma and hug from Grandpa would send you and everyone back home for the night.

You may sit at a window looking into the sky imagining where Santa was at that moment. Maybe with trepidation you worry if He might miss your house or worse that He never received the letter you mailed to Him weeks earlier.

Finally chased off to bed by your parents you try to stay up and awake to listen for Sleigh Bells.

It wouldn’t even be day break when you would wake up and race down the stairs to see if Santa had come and with happiness He had. Mom and Dad would come down and turn on the Christmas Tree lights. In my house a pot of coffee was immediately started for my parents. The smell of coffee became part of the Christmas aroma.

If you were lucky you might get six presents or so. You never understood why Santa thought you needed a new pair of pants or new coat but that question quickly past. Girls would get their dolls and other girlie things like Hair grooming sets and pretend cosmetics or a Brownie camera. Boys might get western guns and holsters, Lincoln Logs or the dream of dreams a new train set.

Later in the morning presents would be strewn across the floor – paper everywhere. A call from mother or dad to clean up marked the end of the presents and time to eat breakfast or for many to get dressed to go to church services.

By late morning Mom was preparing Christmas supper or dinner and Dad was snoozing on the couch.

If it was in the later 50’s you might watch one of the TV Christmas specials with Perry Como or Andy Williams.

For weeks after you would go to bed and neatly stack your new things next to your bed. Maybe it was just because you feared that your sibling may just use your new toys without your knowledge.

Christmas is a family day. It is a family day not just for individuals but for a culture and a whole Nation. It is losing its meaning which saddens me.

We can learn from our past from the traditions then, we can be inspired to recapture the true importance of each holiday.