MEMORIES OF CHRISTMAS PAST
We are standing in the hall outside the sitting room on the second floor of 4116. It is dark and dim. I’m in line be¬hind Anne and Roey. Behind me are Marge and Therese, and sometimes John and Joe, or Eddie or some others. Mother hovers near the door. It is an opaque glass door, actually two doors, the width of the hallway. Behind it we can see the multi-colored lights of the tree. There’s giggling, gushing and noise from all of us as we wait for the signal … the trains to start around the tree. They have a distinctive motor sound or noise and when they start the door swings open … Christmas is a reality! Before we arrived there, in that hall, we had been to a Mass, sometimes the children’s mass at nine, or if I served an earlier one I was excused from the children’s mass. We are also maybe going back to a High Mass at eleven either as an acolyte or Choirboy (not me, but Joe). We’ve had breakfast. All this before we are allowed to arrive outside the magic door! The room we entered is surrounded by piles of wrapped packages and even some unwrapped items. Mom directed you to where your pile was. The room was filled with Christmas lights, music, whooping and the noise of tearing paper. You knew then that Christmas had really arrived!
Christmas at 734 has many memories. The two that come to mind are the children standing on the stairs and waiting for Dad to turn on the tree lights before they could enter the living room; and, a Christmas Eve ride in the snow to Princeton, NJ to “Creative Playthings” with Terry Carroll. It was to get toys ordered months before.
The waiting at 734 was not as long as at 4116, but it was just as ritual. Once the entry was gained, the piles were attacked and the noise was the same! I also remember a battle royal between Paul and Andy over a car … which I believe was Paul’s but he had let Andy ride it and then his bigger brother refused to surrender it. This episode has been recorded on that 27 hour tape of our 35mm movies which we took on such occasions.
The ride to Princeton was long and tedious. It resulted in almost all the toys being obtained, but some items were never gotten. It seems strange now thinking of that trip, probably in 1963-64 of how early our connection with Princeton began. Who could have thought then of all the trips we would someday make back up Route #1 for visits to Sue and now to grandchildren.
All these memories are connected and blur into one. They are not to be taken as my only memories of this joyous time of the year. Nor, are there inferences to be made that I think of Christmas only in terms of gifts. Not at all! I think of Christmas in terms of children and all that a child brings to one’s life. The innocence, the wonder, the indescribable looks of love that shine from the soul of those we are blessed to call “our” children or grandchildren. No. Christmas is a child’s feast and it is great to be a child once again … even if only in spirit.
So it is with joy we wish you a wonderful, awe-filled Christmas as you watch your children, nieces, nephews, friend’s children … Oh and Ah! the coming of the Chirst Child once again.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!