Christmas Trees, Stocking Treats, and Family Togetherness

Sugar Cookies, Chocolate Nut Revels, Sugarplum Cookies, Hedge Hogs, Holiday Fruit Drops, Puffs, Date Pinwheels and Bars, Candy Cane Cookies, Peanut Butter Rice Krispy Balls, Russian Tea Cookies, Cherry Coconut Bars and Drops, Refrigerator Cookies, Spritz Cookies, Thumbprint Cookies with Jam, Pfeffernuesse, Gingersnaps, Hermits, Bon Bon Cookies

Daddy bought the Christmas tree each year. He would wait until very close to Christmas to buy it because that was when they were the cheapest. He bragged about paying fifty cents for a tree one year. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t the most beautifully formed tree because Daddy would drill holes in it and rearrange the branches to make it look balanced. We thought our trees were the most beautiful possible. We made garlands out of colored construction paper loops, glued together with library paste. We strung popcorn, hung the family ornaments, and used lots and lots of tinsel and angel hair. Angel hair was a white material that sort of looked like spun cotton candy and was intended to make the Christmas tree appear snowy. It was made of fiberglass and after hanging it on the tree you itched from handling it. We saved all the tinsel from year to year even though it was cheap enough to buy, even back then. We got big red apples, juicy oranges, walnuts, and candy in the socks we hung for Santa to fill. When we were older, we discovered that it was Daddy who went to Lagomarcino’s each Christmas to find the biggest oranges and apples they had. The socks were the actual socks that we wore, not the big, beautifully decorated socks that are purchased or made today. Daddy always gave Mom two pairs of nylon stockings for a Christmas present—a tradition of his for years. After the family became too large for our house, we had many wonderful Christmas Eve’s at Iris and Bill’s. Mom’s favorite holiday was definitely Christmas. She loved her tree and homemade ornaments and, after we’d all left home, usually had it up by the first week in December. She started shopping for the perfect gifts for all of us right after Thanksgiving. She often went to Barb’s in Normal, Illinois to finish up her shopping. Barb would take her to the Garlic Press and other specialty shops and then they would have lunch at a quaint little tearoom. Mom loved all this attention. On the weekend Norm would take them all to the Apple Barn to load up on apples and cider. She would take her Christmas ornament supplies to Barb’s to finish up the last of that year’s balls and taught Amy and Jenny how to make them. I think Mom especially loved Christmas because it drew the entire family together.