I’d like to try to explain what my early Christmases were like. The first word that comes to mind is “magic.” I made candleholders by taking empty ink bottles and putting Santa stickers on each side. Putting sand in the bottom and sticking a candle in the sand. These were only lit on Christmas Eve, that wonderful night before Christmas.

I would sit under my tree and gaze up into the branches trying to guess what would be on each branch when I woke up Christmas morning.

I had one string of lights, my reflectors were made of tinfoil which I had saved from household products. I liked to see the colored lights showing on the wall behind the tree.

There were no tree stands in those days, at least we didn’t have one.

My mother and I lived alone. My father went to Heaven when I was nine years old. My mother used to cut down a tree and just stand it in the corner and guy it with a rope from one wall across the tree to the other wall.

We put the tree in about 10 days before Christmas – no one even mentioned Christmas until after Thanksgiving back then.

Gifts were very simple and things that one needed in those days – clothing, maybe a doll, and homemade doll clothes, which my mother made. Usually a book to read or a color book and crayons (not Crayola – they were only used in school back then). Most of the crayons used at home would start to melt and bend in your hand as you colored with them.

There was always the school Christmas play the week before school got out for Christmas vacation. The whole school walked down to the K of P Hall once a day for a couple of weeks to practice before the big night.

The year that stands out in my memory is the year we performed “The Nutcracker.” Our music was from a wind-up record player that someone ran from off stage.

There was the community Christmas tree and supper where each child got a gift from Santa and a cheesecloth bag filled with popcorn and hard candy. The bag was tied with red yarn.

Santa appeared when we sang Jingle Bells as loud as we could sing!

These are my memories of Christmas many years ago, in my home town.