Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 7 - Christmas Television and Movies

It is a very good thing we have more than one television in my house. My husband does not share my appreciation for all things Christmas, especially when it comes to TV. I love the channels that show nothing but Christmas movies all day and night starting about Thanksgiving. Some of the movies, or even most of them, are rather formulaic, but that's what I am looking for: a happy, feel-good type of ending.

Then there are the movies that are watched over and over again, year after year. Our Christmas Eve day tradition, whether or not the crowd is large or small, is to watch the National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. It seems every year someone will spot a funny bit that hadn't been noticed before. Perhaps the attraction is because the movie seems to touch on so many things that can happen during the holiday preparation: problems with lighting, unwelcome Cousin Eddy and family, the great-aunt with dementia (wrapping up the cat for a Christmas gift), the "rabid" squirrel running through the house, the year end-bonus being different than expected, and many other events. It makes my minor holiday mishaps very easy to accept.

Another Christmas Eve day movie is A Christmas Story. "You'll shoot your eye out!" is one of our favorite Christmas lines. The 50's setting with the typical housewife mother, the fix-it-yourself father who uses a lot of profanity (family-friendly), and the boyhood hope of a Red Ryder BB gun for Christmas. A favorite scene is when a classmate takes a triple-dog dare to put his tongue not the flagpole and gets his tongue stuck. My youngest son had the same thing happen to him on the bus ride to school as a kindergartener. The entire busload of kids was late to school as they had to go back to the bus garage to run water on his tongue to safely remove it. It still makes me giggle to think of it.

And another classic, that I will watch more than once a season (and have already this season) is White Christmas. A series of mix-ups constantly block the happy romantic ending but all ends well. Even though the movie is as old as I am, it never loses its appeal.

We spend many, many weekends at our family cabin year-round, but the month of December is spent at home, preparing for the season. All the holiday movies, old and new, keep me inspired as I am baking, decorating and wrapping for our sometimes less than perfect, but always memorable Christmas.


"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”

tv image from http://info.umkc.edu/womenc/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/television_comic_2.png

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 6 - Santa Claus

I have a very vague recollection of going to a Christmas party at one of my dad's fraternal organizations, perhaps the Lions, and talking to Santa Claus. But I don't recall annual visits to a department store for a visit. There were so many of us children though, it may have been too big of an undertaking.

1978

1977

I did bring my children to visit Santa, though, starting in 1977, when Sarah was not yet a year old. I told about the encounter with Santa in an earlier post here, so I won't repeat the story. But I will share the picture again at left.

The next year, 1978, Sarah was almost two, and a little scared of Santa Claus. The picture, at right, looks like the same setting as the previous year with a house in the background in the photo at right. I hope I wasn't really sitting on Santa's lap as I gave birth to a baby boy on Christmas Eve that year and might have cut off the circulation in his leg. I'm not sure exactly when the photo was taken but I would think it was somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve.

The following year was just a little different. This was a special year as Santa made an early visit to my children's cousin's house. Jason, Jeffrey, Sarah and Josh got a private audience with the man with a bag. Josh was almost 1 year old and not quite sure of what to think about Santa.

After that, waiting in line to see Santa seemed kind of blasé. I mean, once you've had a private audience do you still want to stand in line to see Santa? Well, apparently they did because we had a number of other pictures of the kids with Santa. Jordan came along in 1982, and he had to have his chance at it, too. 

So we continued with annual visits for a while as seen below. 

But while I love looking back at these photos of my children, I find great joy in seeing my grandchildren with Santa. There's something about Christmas in a child's eyes that takes my breath away.

"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 5 - Christmas Recipes

We have hosted Christmas Eve for my large extended family for many years. It started when my children were younger and it seemed easier to host than to try to get everything in the car and travel to my parent's farm. Now there are several family members that live out of state. So the last couple of years we have changed it from an every year event to an every other year event. Our last Christmas Eve was an ugly sweater theme. Even some of the grandkids participated and there were several prizes awarded.

The Grandkids

Christmas Eve tends to be pretty casual at our house when it comes to food. When there is a crowd at our house on Christmas Eve, we serve two types of stew. Oyster stew is the traditional stew served over the years.

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Holiday Oyster Stew

The original recipe is from the 1974 version of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and has been slightly altered over the years. It is served every Christmas Eve to those who enjoy the “bugs” as we call the oysters. “How many bugs do you want in your stew?”

3 pints shucked fresh oysters, undrained
½ cup butter
¾ gallon of milk
1 or 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
dash of Tobasco sauce
10-16 saltine crackers crushed
½ teaspoon salt

Simmer oysters in 3-quart pan until edges start to curl, stirring gently. Meanwhile, slowly heat milk in 6-quart dutch oven. Add butter, Worcestershire, Tobasco and salt to milk mixture. When edges of oysters have curled, drain most of liquid and add to milk mixture. Stir in crushed saltines. Better made a day ahead or earlier in the day of serving.1

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We added this Broccoli Cheese Holiday Stew for those family members who are afraid of oysters. It requires minimum effort and is basically just opening cans and heating frozen vegetables. But it has a good flavor and goes well with a plate of cheese, cold cuts and dinners rolls. Complete the buffet spread with fresh vegetables and fruit trays and some appetizers and everyone is happy.

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Broccoli Cheese Holiday Stew

This very easy stew is made every Christmas Eve in a large 22 quart roaster oven to serve the crowd at the Tenney house.

4 cans Campbells cheddar cheese soup
2 cans chicken broth

2 cans milk

3 2-lb bags of frozen broccoli
2 2-lb bags of frozen hash browns (OʼBrien style is good as it has peppers and onions
)
1 8-oz bag of frozen onions

Heat roaster oven to soup setting. Add soups, milk to roaster and stir to blend. Can add more milk and/or chicken broth if needed to thin. Pre-cook vegetables in microwave and add to roaster. Cook at low setting for a couple hours, stirring occasionally. Serve with oyster crackers.

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There is one thing that I like to do every year whether we are going to be serving a crowd or not. I like to make hot apple cider with cinnamon and cloves and start it about 30 minutes before the first guest is expected. It is such a wonderful aroma and almost everyone comments when they walk in the door, "It smells so good in here!"

The siblings and spouses

1Multiple editors, Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, Meridith Corp., 1974, page 297.

"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 4 - Christmas Lights

I remember my dad making a really tall wooden Santa to stand in the yard. Or at least it seemed really tall to me. Santa didn't have lights, but he greeted all the neighbors as they drove by our Brooklyn Center, MN neighborhood. In the picture at left, older brother, John, is holding younger sister, Jill, in 1961. If you look closely, you can see in the photo that my dad also strung Christmas lights to outline our three-bedroom rambler.


Here is another picture of all six of us by Santa. That's a lot children for that small house! Dad solved that problem by building a 5-bedroom home about 7 miles away. A fortunate thing since three more children joined the family.


I recall after we moved to the new house, a 2-story colonial-style home, my dad bought some very large decorations from a municipality that was selling their old street decorations. They were a little large for a house, but my dad was very proud of his "deal."

I'm afraid that if we didn't have any grandchildren that I wouldn't be able to talk my husband into stringing lights outside. It's just not his thing. Fortunately for me, we have several grandchildren and their doting grandfather wants to be sure that Grandma and Grandpa T.'s house looks festive for the season.  Grandpa likes to use white lights; we recently converted to LED lights when the old strings needed replacing. Once it is cold enough so the snow stays on the ground, and the timer is properly set, the front yard looks like a winter wonderland with the white lights reflecting in the snow.

"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 3 - Christmas Music

I am a self-admitted Christmas music-aholic. I enjoy almost every type of Christmas music and buy new albums every year. I like to hear Christmas music when I am shopping, when I am at work, when I am baking, when I am decorating the house, when I am wrapping gifts... pretty much all of the time.

I have over 400 Christmas albums from several different genres and I can't say as I have a favorite. I enjoy listening to folk, country, pop, Christian, jazz, light rock, Celtic and many other styles.  I like listening to lyrics and enjoy being able to sing along when I am so inclined.

Last year I uploaded all of my music to a cloud service so that I can listen to any music any time. I marked all of the Christmas albums as "Holiday" so that I can choose to listen to just holiday music this time of year. I also created a playlist of non-secular music to play at work.

Some of my favorites include two Christmas albums by Kathy Mattea, "Good News" and "Joy for Christmas Day" Most of the music is non-standard Christmas fare but it is all beautiful. Some of the songs have a Celtic feel that is very haunting. Kathy Mattea's version of "Mary, Did You Know" is the first one I heard and remains my favorite version to this day.

A new favorite for me is "On a Cold Winter's Day" by Quadriga Consort. The songs are from the British Isles and include English, Irish and Scottish tunes some in Gaelic. One song, Tàladh Ar Slànaighear, is the old version of Kathy Mattea's "Christ Child's Lullaby" on her "Good News" album. Just beautiful!

The last couple of years I have purchased albums by Pentonix and Straight No Chaser which are both a cappella groups. Very fun to listen to and simply amazing when you realize it's just voices with no instrumental accompaniment. I have no idea how they can make their voices do that!

The old stand-bys are sometimes the best: Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Dean Martin, and Bing Crosby remind me of listening to Christmas music as a child. Kenny Rogers, Dolly Partin, Vince Gill and Kathy Mattea entertained me while I was prepping for Christmas with my own young family. And today I have all of them available to me from "the cloud," ready to listen to at any time. I almost always "shuffle" the music so I am pleasantly surprised as the songs move from one genre to the next.

One of my favorite parts of the holiday season is the music. I can hardly wait to hear the new releases this year!


Clips are from : http://www.clipartpal.com/clipart_pd/holiday/christmas/carolers_10262.html

"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 2 - Christmas Cards

I remember as a young child being so excited when Christmas cards started arriving. If the card was addressed to Mr. & Mrs. and family, one of us children could open it. On rare occasion, if the card was from a close family member, you might find a photo inside. That was a special treat.

As we grew older, married and started our own families, things had changed and photos were often included in cards. It was especially fun to get photos from friends you didn't get to see often. I've saved those cards and photos over the years and have created scrapbook. Perusing the scrapbook is like watching my friends' children growing up.

Christmas Card 2013

The last two years I have sent out a different kind of Christmas card. It was sent only to my family. I love the card from 2013 shown at left. It shows six of us children around the tree, probably about 1963, the three youngest were not yet born. We are all wearing matching pajamas sewn by my mother and given to us as Christmas gifts that year. Her sewing room was the bedroom/dining room off the kitchen and I remember hearing the sewing machine whirr after we were all in bed for the night. What a labor of love that was!

The Stover families
Christmas Card 2014

Last year I sent out a Christmas card with my great-great-grandparents, Knut and Guri Stover together with his sister and her husband, Gunild (Stover) and Torvald Mathison. The families came from Norway and lived first in NE Iowa before moving permanently to the Hendricks, Minnesota area. I love using old photos on my greeting cards and plan to continue doing so.


Christmas letters have frequently been given a bad rap. Everyone suffers from the Lake Wobegon effect: their children are better looking than average, smarter than average, and more successful than average. But I have always enjoyed receiving and reading those letters. In just one letter I get a recap of the sender's entire year recounting vacations and major life events like weddings, the birth of children or grandchildren. What genealogist wouldn't like that?

Grandma Myrle's Christmas letters
dated 1949 to 1967

My grandmother, Myrle, saved a copy of most Christmas letters she sent. In her holiday letters she talks about her grandchildren (my immediate family and my cousins). She also talks about her friends, her travels and her older sister, Althia. The letters were written between the years 1949 and 1967 and make for some interesting reading.

Myrle tried to write her autobiography a few times but but it was very incomplete. She really only wrote about the early years so these letters shed some light on her later years as well.

We don't get nearly as many Christmas cards as we used to. And I kind of miss those days. But I am happy that I am able to connect with friends and family via social media and share photos and greetings in that way. In fact, I recently shared my grandmother's Christmas letters in a private Facebook group so that other family members could see them. So even though we don't get the photos and greetings in the same fashion, we are still able to share with friends and family during the holiday season.

"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - December 1 - Christmas Trees

In the Tenney household, when the Christmas tree is fully decorated, the season begins in ernest. I like to put it up early as a reminder of all things Christmas. Not only does it get me "in the mood," but it's a reminder of things I want to get accomplished (like decorating, baking, shopping and wrapping). And it is also a reminder of the reason for the season itself.

The tree is tall, over 9 feet, and is an artificial tree due to allergies. Although I love real trees, it's nice to be able to put the tree up early and leave it up past Christmas without worrying about watering or messy needles.

I take my time trimming the tree now that the kids have grown. The first night consists of just setting up the tree. It takes a couple of hours as it's in many pieces and requires a ladder for reaching the top. There are usually old Christmas movies playing on TV as I am trimming the tree.

I put the lights on the tree the second night. This tree is almost 20 years old and so isn't one of the pre-lit trees. Instead, I use 1500 LED multi-color lights and weave them in and out of the branches. 

From our 1984 trip to China

The third (and sometimes fourth) night is for adding the ornaments and other decorations. This can take a long time as there are 400+ ornaments and many of the decorations spark conversations. My husband isn't excited about helping to trim the tree but he does like to talk about the wonderful memories that the decorations evoke.

Our trip to Switzerland

Several of the ornaments are from trips that my husband and I have been very fortunate to be able to take part in. The trips were awards for sales and with a young family, we weren't always able to spend a lot on souvenirs. But Christmas  ornaments and decorations were within our budget and decades later are wonderful reminders of some amazing travels.

1977

There are many, many pictures that decorate the tree. Some photos are part of an ornament but most are just photos in light-weight frames that I just prop up on the tree branches. Several are photos with Santa Claus from decades ago. The photo at left is one such example and is one of my favorites. From 1977, it is my daughter's first visit to Santa. She was a little squirmy at first, but then settled down and even smiled for the photo. Imagine my surprise, when I picked her up to set her in her stroller and found she had utterly exploded in her diaper and had made a terrible mess of her clothes. I can only imagine what she did to Santa's suit! No wonder Santa doesn't look as happy as Sarah does. She is probably forever on his naughty list. (Sorry, Sarah, I had to tell the story.)

Some of my favorite ornaments are no longer hang in on our tree. When the children were little, we would go to the mall and pick out ornaments each year and have them engraved with their name and the year. Each child was given their ornaments to hang on their own family tree.

Many of the ornaments are homemade. One year, in the late 1970's, I made 24 cross-stitched ornaments as a gift for my mother- and father-in-law. They were simple patterns of Christian symbols and the meaning of each was written on the back. My in-laws have both passed on and now those ornaments hang on our tree. It is a wonderful reminder of those family members who are no longer with us.

Cross-stiched log carrier
with cinnamon stick logs

When we moved to our new house in 1980, I wanted our tree to be fully decorated with new ornaments. But, again, our young family and finances prevented me from purchasing fancy ornaments. So I spent the summer and fall creating several dozen ornaments of many styles. Only a few survive, as many were given away over the years. But those that do survive are treasured.

When I think about it, I am sure that I could put up the tree, string all the lights, and hang all the decorations in one day. But stretching it out over a few days gives me extra time to reminisce and hold those memories close, if only for a few moments.

These are just a few samples of the ornaments from my tree. There are hundreds more and many have wonderful memories attached. Each year, a few ornaments are added. Some, sadly, are broken and have to be put away. But the memories of Christmases past and the family members who are no longer with us, shine brightly each year every time I look at the tree.

"The Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories (ACM) allows you to share your family’s holiday history twenty-four different ways during December! Learn more at http://adventcalendar.geneabloggers.com.”