-- Last updated on December 5th, 2021 --

This little story isn’t scroll saw related however since it is the holiday season, I thought I would share some of the Christmas memories of my childhood. I wrote the following story several years ago after I came home from a Thanksgiving dinner at my parents’ house. I am sharing this story here and I hope that you enjoy this little bit of nostalgia from my childhood.

Thanksgiving – The start of the Christmas Season

We had just returned home from my parent’s house where we spent the afternoon for a Thanksgiving dinner and get together with family. It was a small holiday dinner with my mom and dad, my brother and his wife and my two children ages seventeen and twenty. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon with temperatures in the upper thirties. A few inches of fluffy snow still on the ground from a small winter blast a few days earlier. The dinner was exquisite as usual. I have to say in my opinion, my parents make the best turkey dinner that has ever been prepared.

My sons and I got out of the car and walked up the sidewalk around the front of the house and to the opposite side door. I opened the screen door and rang the doorbell to let them know I was about to enter. As I opened the door I could feel the moist warm air from the kitchen rush toward me. The aroma was like a bouquet of turkey, stuffing, sweet potato and sweet corn with a hint of freshly brewed coffee.

The moment I walked into the house the cold immediately dissipated and was replaced with the warm holiday feeling I remember as a child many years ago.

Thanksgiving Dinner

After a few minutes of small talk, the turkey was finished. I helped my Dad take the twenty-pound bird from the oven. He placed it on the counter and as he started to slice. I could not resist but to help myself to a piece of juicy turkey. I said that “I had to do this to test and make sure it was finished”. The turkey was golden on the outside with the white meat so juicy it seemed to melt in my mouth.

When everything was finished and ready to serve, we all sat down at the table to eat. My father then proceeded to thank the Lord.

His dinner prayers were always poetic and they themselves seemed to be inspired by God.

He would bow his head and begin his prayer.

Dad’s Prayer

My dad’s prayer went something like this:
“Thank you, Father, for the food that you have provided and we thank you for the gathering of this family. 
Father, we thank you for the freedom that you have given to us and that we live in.
We ask you to bless this day Father.
Father, we ask you to bless this food and we ask you to bless this family.
We ask this in Jesus’ precious name. Amen”

When the prayer was finished we sat down and passed the food. It always seems like it took forever for it to make its way around the table.

I filled my plate with homemade mashed potatoes, gravy with stuffing, corn, and my mom’s sweet potatoes. I almost had no room left for the homemade cranberry sauce.

The dinner that took my parents six hours to prepare and it was over in thirty minutes. The dinner conversation would always range from politics and the economy to what we did the day before to memories of holidays past. In particular, the memories of Christmas past and in my family the Christmas season always started on Thanksgiving Day.

It got me thinking about Christmas memories…

It truly was a beautiful day and a day to be thankful for the life that the Lord has given to me. I started to think about Christmas memories of my childhood and the memories during the holiday season from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

You see Christmas always started on Thanksgiving as they would start playing Christmas music on the radio stations on Thanksgiving Day. My Dad would get his collection of Christmas records out of the stereo cabinet. He would stack them all up in the record player queue, then let it play through all of them, and then start it all over again.

Sometimes we would go to my Grandparent’s house for Thanksgiving dinner or to my Aunt’s home. It was never as good or as enjoyable as being at my parent’s house for Thanksgiving dinner.

December 15th and the Atlas Van Lines Box

While it was true that for our family, the Christmas season always started on Thanksgiving Day. This was the first tangible evidence that Christmas was near always happened on December 15^th.

Every year on December 15^th my Dad would open up the closet in the dining room which had huge steps leading to the attic. We always struggled as little children to climb up these steps. My Dad climbed up to the attic door which was actually just a piece of plywood on the ceiling. He would lift it up to open the attic. He would then climb up into the attic to get the big box that held the treasures that represented the most anticipated day of the year for me.

The Atlas Van Lines box was a four-foot-high cardboard box that my Dad used to store all of the Christmas decorations. My brother and I waited anxiously at the closet door in anticipation of my Dad returning from his journey to the attic.

The Platform

Another important event would also occur on that day. Dad brought the platform into the living room. It was a sheet of plywood with twelve-inch legs that my Dad would use to place the Christmas tree. It had electrical switches built into the front of it. This was to control the Christmas tree lights, the trains, and the lights for the little town beneath the tree. I have attempted to build a platform similar to it but it will never be the same as my Dad’s.

When the big cardboard box was finally sitting in front of us, Dad would open it and start removing the items one at a time.

Inside the Atlas Van Lines box, there was a smaller pink cardboard sunbeam mixer box full of little cardboard houses. Each one had holes in the bottom for the electric Christmas lights. Little miniature pine trees were also in this box. Some of these little trees had tiny ornaments and a white coating to look like snow. There were also rolls of cotton to simulate snow on the platform that we would place the tree on.

Christmas Decorations

These little cardboard houses were very detailed with windows, doors and some even included little shrubbery on the outside. The glitter on the roofs of these little houses made it look like fresh snow.

Some of them were in better shape than others. In the collection, there was a church, some mansions, a few little houses, and cottages.

We would set them up all around the platform to make it look like a little village under the tree.

We placed a string of lights on the platform under the cotton and then we placed the houses over the top of the lights. There were windows in the little houses and when the lights were on, it looked as though it was a real little village on Christmas Eve with the lights on.

Electric Trains

We set up the electric train set to go around the little town. There were a green Penn Central engine and a red and silver Santa Fe engine with several train cars and a red Santa Fe caboose. I believe we even had a black engine; although I cannot recall the railroad company on that one.

There were trees and shrubs as well.  My brother and I played for hours with the train set, cars, and the houses on the platform. I remember playing so rough with the trains we would end up crashing them and getting the icicles and cotton stuck in the axles. My Dad would have to fix them so we could continue playing.

Matchbox Cars

In the Atlas Van Lines storage box there were several matchbox cars still in the original boxes. We loved to play with their cars as they were the kind of matchbox cars that had the “Made in England” stamped on the bottom. There was a white 64 Mustang, a yellow taxi, a gold Rolls Royce and a few other cars that had doors or the hood that would open.

In the Atlas Van Lines box there were Christmas ornaments from when my Dad was a child; fragile glass and tinfoil ornaments that were perhaps even older than my Dad. Some of the old tinfoil ornaments were about the size of a baseball. The design was one side that was inverted and was mirror-like and shiny. They were very fancy looking and beautiful ornaments. I remember actually sticking my finger in the fancy part of some of them and broke them. There were little onion-shaped ornaments that had the glitter glued in different designs like stars and other shapes. There were glass ornaments as well. The glass ornaments were very thin glass and shattered when they fell onto the platform. Some others were plain red, green, gold and silver balls that were made of glass.

Christmas Lights

In the Atlas Van Lines box, there were several strings of electric lights. Most of them being the steady on type of Christmas lights, but there were a few strings that were the twinkle type lights that were truly “twinkling lights”. They were not the flashy big lights that you see in the windows of truck stop restaurants or department stores at Christmas time. These were real twinkling lights that each light on the string slowly twinkled on for a second or two and then off randomly for a few seconds.  They were very beautiful Christmas lights of red, green, orange, yellow, amber, and blue. They do not make lights like that anymore that I could find.

In the Atlas Van Lines box, there were two nativity scenes. Joseph, Mary, baby Jesus with the three wise men, the shepherds, one that was holding a lamb on his shoulders and an angel that hung by a hook on the peak of the roof of the stable.

Christmas Eve

The Christmas holiday seemed to have its peak of excitement on Christmas Eve as this was the moment that was the most nostalgic for me.

One of the things I enjoyed doing was sitting on the living room floor with all the lights turned off in the room except for the Christmas tree lights and the lights that were on the platform for the little cardboard houses. I would then begin to slightly cross my eyes just enough until the tree became blurry but not so blurry that there appeared to be two trees.  With the combination of the smell of holly and bayberry candles and the bag of scented pinecones, the slow twinkling lights, and the tin foil ice sickles shimmering from every branch from the slightest movement of air from the warm heat duct, it was so beautiful that it was almost hypnotizing.

Little children around the world looked forward to the next day and found it to be the most exciting day of the year and I was no different.

Christmas Eve is when the house looked its finest because on that day the decorating of the house was finally finished. The candles were lit, the gifts were under the tree the Christmas lights were all turned on. Absent was all the clutter that happens when Christmas morning arrives. All that was left to do was to enjoy the moment.

Santa is on His Way

I recall one year on Christmas Eve, I was helping to decorate the tree with my Dad and my brother while listening to the radio that was in the background. The newscaster had just announced that Santa Claus was spotted making his rounds. I don’t remember where he said that Santa was at the time, but I do remember the excitement.

I was at the age where I was starting to wonder about the whole Santa Claus thing. My little brother was a true believer. To my brother, Santa Claus was a very important dude. On this one particular Christmas Eve, we were putting the ornaments on the tree, the little cardboard houses on the platform and making it look like a little town under the tree. The newscaster made the announcement that Santa was on his way. We were both in our pajamas at the time as it was evening and almost bedtime. The pajamas were the kind that had the little feet sewn in the pants with the little rubber pads on the bottom of the feet.

“If Santa comes down my chimney…”

My brother asked my Dad how Santa Claus would get in the house to leave all his presents. I said that he would have to come down the chimney. And then there was one of those moments I will never, ever forget and will stay with me as long as I live. My Dad said, “If Santa Claus comes down my chimney; I’m gonna punch him in the face”. Well, my brother could not tolerate that. I remember him getting so angry that he ran over to my Dad and was going to beat him up. “Ohhhh!” in an angry voice, “Daddy said he’s gonna punch Santa in the mouth!”. He was really upset. After all, this was Santa he was worried about.

In my mind, I can still see my brother running from the living room to the kitchen and then back out to the living room to try to hit my Dad. I can still hear the pitter-patter of him running across the room. His little footsteps and the faint click of the rubber sole of the pajamas he was wearing. It is one of those classic moments that some always mention at holiday gatherings.

Every year at Christmas time there were a few television shows that we made sure we did not miss. The Grinch that Stole Christmas, Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph, A Charlie Brown Christmas, and my favorite A Christmas Carol with George C.Scott. We still watch some of these now.

Christmas Day

Christmas was one of the most anticipated days of the year for us and hopefully like most children in the western world. We hoped that Santa Claus left a pile of gifts under the tree. It was always hard to sleep on Christmas Eve but I would eventually fall asleep.

Mom and Dad would wake us early in the morning and we would run out to the living room and start looking for gifts with our name on it. We would then tear off the paper as fast as we could.  It must have taken them hours to shop for and then wrap all those gifts so neatly with ribbons and bows. Within a few minutes, every single gift was torn open without thought and paper was strewn over the entire living room.

It was difficult to play with so many toys at one time but I tried as hard as I could. The living room looked like it was waist-deep in torn-up wrapping paper from one end to the other.

After the Mess

After the Christmas morning gift opening; we would sit around and play with our toys. My parents would watch and take pictures while trying to pick up the wrapping paper all over the living room.

My grandmother usually showed up soon after the original mess was cleaned up. She always brought a lot of gifts for us. We would then have a second round of gift opening and again make another mess in the living room. Once more we would then try to play with all the new toys and games until dinner

Christmas Dinner

Most Christmas days we would have Christmas dinner at our house. My mom and Dad would make the same dinner as we had for Thanksgiving.  I always loved the Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners my parents prepared. There were a few Christmas day dinners that we would have at other relative’s houses.

I remember one Christmas we had a Christmas dinner at my Aunt’s home. It snowed very hard that day. My Aunt had a Silver 1960’s type Christmas tree. It had a rotating lamp that had four different colors that illuminated the tree.

She had some ornaments that looked like Raggedy Ann dolls that were made from rolls of Life Savers candy. They looked so good that we asked if we could eat them however since they were probably ten years old they wouldn’t let us.

The evening came quickly and before we knew it, night time was at hand. I eagerly looked forward to next Christmas. As I have gotten older, I look forward to the Christmas season even more

All Good Things Must come to an End.

When Christmas was over and it was time to put the Christmas decorations away. The Atlas Van Lines box went back up to the attic where it would spend the next eleven months. I always felt sad when this day came but at the same time, it made me look forward to spring. This day usually took place in the first week or two of January.

In the box was a rolled up bunch of newspapers. It held the tin icicles from the previous years. My Dad would take the icicles off the tree and wrap them in this newspaper to use for the next year.

My dad just recently told me that he got rid of that old Atlas Van Lines box in 1998 after they put an addition on their house. When they moved to Florida a few years ago, they gave me a bunch of the old Christmas stuff we played with including the lights, ornaments, trains, the little cardboard houses, and matchbox cars.

Every year at this time I look back and remember bits and pieces of the Christmas seasons from my youth. Looking back at Christmas, I can still smell the candles, the pine cones, and the freshly made chocolate chip cookies. I can still feel the excitement from the anticipation. I can still feel the warmth of our home and the feeling of not having a care in the world. When I stop to think about it, I believe it has been a blessing to have these experiences and memories. I know there are a lot of people in the world that have not had the same opportunity.

Now my parents live in Florida near the beach. My lovely wife and I have two grown sons of thirty and twenty-seven years old, an eight-year-old daughter, a five-year-old son. We also have an eight-year-old grandson, a six-year-old granddaughter, and a brand new six-month-old grandson. And with the family growing, I look forward to many more Christmas memories.

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Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Keep on Scrolling