Christmas Casserole of Memories

Reflection is an important exercise in the slowing down theme. In the last few days I have thought back to some Christmas impressions and memories from my childhood. 

One thing I remember is Christmas candy. At Christmas time, Mom liked to buy a tin of Fanny Farmer candy to share around. It could take me a long time to decide on the one or two pieces I was allowed to pick during my turn. Such an array of colors, shapes, textures, and flavors to choose from! Would it be a hard, narrow bone-shaped one with a filling of soft sweet marrow? A big section of multi-colored bands ribboned into perfect interlocking waves? Or a tiny pink pillow of fruity tang? Maybe a striped minty oval? I'd hope it wouldn't cut my tongue in its sharp grooves if I wasn't careful enough in my sucking it down from big to little!

I asked my brother recently if he remembered The Choosing from the candy tin. Oh yes, he did remember reaching into that "casserole" of candy. 

Mom also liked making her own Christmas candy and cookies. It was the one time of year when she (or we) used her cookie press and made many tiny shortbreads in the form of trees, camels, stars, and hearts. Sometimes the dough was colored, and sometimes the plain cookies got colored with sugar or sprinkles on top. Some years she made raisin-filled cookies, which were two rolled out cookie dough layers baked together with a raisin mixture between. The top cookie often had a cut-out "window" in it that allowed the dark filling to show through nicely. We thought it was great stuff to be allowed putting the raisins through the hand-cranked meat grinder for the filling.  

Mom was often into a new hobby or craft around Christmas time. I remember her plastic canvas poinsettias, fine crocheted and starched snowflakes, and latch art creations. She'd love to learn a new art, talk about it to anyone she met, teach her daughters to do it, and/or gift it to someone. The photo at the beginning of this post depicts such a case. That particular Christmas, she enthusiastically roped us girls into making baskets out of fabric-covered ice cream buckets. My dad and brothers pretended the finished products were more like upside-down frilly pioneer bonnets! 

I also have fond memories of Christmas caroling. We'd meet at the church, having bundled up really well against the frigid Wisconsin cold of a December night. After getting put into groups for caroling in certain places like Northwoods Beach, or Stone Lake or Peninsula Road, our designated group would pile into warmed-up vehicles and head out for our first stop. We'd traipse through a snowy yard and crowd up to the house beside an cracked-open window or door and begin singing to the elderly people inside. After a few carols, we'd wind up with We Wish You a Blessed Christmas, including "Good tidings we bring to you and your king..." (well, for all we knew, their kin actually was royalty) and the people would give us their teary-eyed gratitude and sometimes a package of chocolates. At the end of caroling, when our toes and fingers were past feeling and our hearts were full feeling, we went back to the church or some church family's house and had hot chocolate and other goodies.

Christmas programs at school were always a big deal, too. We might have tried keeping our special singing or speaking parts a secret from Mom and Dad, but I'm sure they ended up finding out much of what was ahead during our times of "going through the whole program" at home. After the program proper was over, the parents would come down to the school room in the church basement and view the art work we students had done on the chalkboards, and sometimes there was a gift exchange among the students and sometimes a pinata, and always there were bags of treats passed out to the children - oranges, candies, nuts and popcorn balls. Always it was one noisy, exciting affair. 

I also remember getting sick around Christmas time. I think two Christmases in a row, I missed out on the fun program night because I had strep throat. One of those times, my twin was sick too, so I guess we could at least stay home and commiserate together. 

In our family, we always got some sort of gift for Christmas. In the lean years, it was one item that we children were supposed to share, such as a sled. Often our gifts were books or crafts, something to occupy our minds and hands. Later on, as we children got older, we started doing a gift exchange among family members. I think back then there was more emphasis put on homemade gifts than what there is now. It was tradition for us to have the Christmas story before the opening of gifts. Dad would read the account from Matthew or Luke. In my mind, the Christmas story never took so long to get through as then.

I'm curious - what are some memories in your Christmas casserole?