Childhood Christmases
It probably
sounds odd and strange when I say that Christmas for me had little to do with
Santa Clause. Honestly I don't know what my parents believed about Santa Clause
or whether they 'played' Santa for my three older brothers or not. All I know is that they were totally
unconnected to doing the Santa Clause thing when I came along. I think I
remember them doing the part about him coming in the night and leaving a
present, but it was not a matter of excitement to them or me, and neither was
it used to get me to behave. Perhaps
they had done these things for my brothers and were tired of the idea by the
time I came along. The few times they mentioned Santa were tied to their
bedroom and some small gifts that Santa had 'maybe left for me.' These gifts
were not under a tree nor were they wrapped. I remember trying to act like I
liked these items from Santa. It was a
truly awkward moment for me because I did not know what to say or how to act.
Likewise, Herman
had parents who did not do 'the Santa thing' and at a very early age told him that Santa was just your Mom and
Dad. I think their belief was that the
focus of Christmas was a religious thing and not about a fictitious person name
Santa Clause. What strikes me as odd now is how Herman and I DID do Santa for
our boys until they were 8 or so. While
I'm not sure now how we came around to deciding to play Santa, I guess we
thought it was easier to go along with the crowd.
For me I cannot
imagine Christmas without aunts, uncles, cousins, and random guests who showed
up at our house on the big day. For us
Christmas was a big family party that had a few gifts, but the focus was more
on enjoying each other's company, sharing a meal and telling funny stories
about family members. Food WAS a big
deal at our house for Christmas. Mama
always had fresh pork tenderloin, sausage and ham. We had frozen and canned
vegetables from her summer garden and the stack cake desserts were what
everyone raved about. In my early adolescence I got introduced to German
Chocolate Cake and from that point on I made one each Christmas for our
family. It became 'my' signature
Christmas dessert. I have always
preferred to cook desserts over vegetables , meats or salads so after I learned
to make German Chocolates cakes it became my specialty.
