Steve's Genealogy Blog

I found today’s topic for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories, Â Christmas Sweetheart Memories, a bit difficult to write.

I’ll just say that this gift from a sweetheart of long ago tends to dig up thoughts of the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories – Day 23.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

Living in Albany, New York, I always wished for a White Christmas.

In 1966, though, chances of that happening were looking a bit bleak. We hadn’t received more than a dusting of snow until 3.5 inches fell on December 14. But, even that didn’t last. On December 17 and 18, temperatures crept into the 40s, and all the snow melted.

Finally, Christmas Eve arrived. With it came snow.

My sisters and I were ecstatic. We would have a White Christmas after all!

On Christmas Eve, 13 inches of snow fell at our house . Several times during evening, my older sister and I went out with Dad to shovel the snow from the sidewalks and brush the accumulation off the car . Our younger sister helped Mom sweep the snow from the porches and stairs.

The snow continued through the night, and another 5.3 inches fell on Christmas Day. We woke to a wonderful, largely unspoiled blanket of snow on Christmas morning. A full foot and a half of Christmas snow!

We wiped away the delicate patterns of frost on the windows and gazed at the winter scene outside. Every branch of every tree was covered with snow, and each fencepost was topped with a clean, white cap.

We went outside to once again clear the snow from the walks and from the car. The snow muted the sounds around us. Even the snowplows on Allen Street seemed to move quietly as they worked to clear the snow.

From time to time a mound of snow, its weight too ponderous to support itself, would fall from a branch and fall with a plop! onto the ground below.

Winter birds hopped through the new snow, leaving delicate tracks behind them as they wandered about on their never-ending quest to find something to eat. In the garden, bright red rose hips peeked out here and there from their white cocoon.

Back inside, in the warmth of the house, we gathered by the Christmas tree. Mom turned on the radio and the sounds of carols filled the house. We opened our gifts, reveling in our own joys and those of the rest of the family, and we marveled at the beauty of Christmas.

Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories – Day 22.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

“All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth” was written by Donald Yetter Gardner in 1944.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth,
My two front teeth, see my two front teeth.
Gee, if I could only have my two front teeth,
Then I could wish you “Merry Christmas.”

“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”, written by Tommie Connor in 1952.

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus,
Underneath the mistletoe last night.
She didn’t see me creep
Down the stairs to have a peep.
She thought that I was tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep.

These songs were two of my favorites when I was young. During the Christmas holidays, our house was always filled with music, either from the radio or from the phonograph. One of the biggest thrills for our family was when my parents bought a stereo Hi-Fi, upon which we could stack many record albums, and let them play automatically in succession for hours. When the “A” sides of the albums had all played, we could just turn the stack over and listen to the “B” sides.

In 1958, “The Chipmunk Song” was written. Ross Bagdasarian, Sr. wrote the song and performed the voices of David Seville and all three chipmunks, Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

Christmas, Christmas time is near,
Time for toys and time for cheer,
We’ve been good, but we can’t last,
Hurry Christmas, hurry fast.

My father had purchased the album “Christmas with the Chipmunks” and my family listened to the album over and over. My sister discovered that, if she used her finger to slow the turntable, she could clearly tell that the voices of the chipmunks were the same as the voice of David Seville, speeded up.

When I was in fourth grade, I bought my first “Peanuts” book, and over the next couple of years I bought several others . By 1967, when The Royal Guardsmen recorded “Snoopy’s Christmas”, my whole family was familiar with the tales of Snoopy and the Red Baron.

Was the night before Christmas, 40 below,
When Snoopy went up in search of his foe.
He spied the Red Baron, fiercely they fought,
With ice on his wings, Snoopy knew he was caught.

My family owned a number of other Christmas recordings and we listened to all the standards . Today, Christmas songs bring back special memories of my youth, when absolutely nothing could compare with the excitement and joy of Christmas.

Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories – Day 21.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko

My family never talked much about deceased relatives around the holidays.

That changed in 1980 when my mother died.

Christmas 1980 was not a particularly happy occasion for us . I flew back home from Oregon where I attending graduate school. My father, my sisters, and I tried to cook a turkey for Christmas, a task our mother had always handled. Our efforts were somewhat less than successful. We exchanged gifts on Christmas Eve somewhat joylessly. We all felt empty.

We visited Mom’s grave and I saw her headstone for the first time. My sister had selected an epitaph that was simple and sweet:

Sorrow is not forever. Love is.

Mom had been buried in a new section of Our Lady of Angels Cemetery and the area bore the signs of the recently deceased. Many of the graves still bore no headstone. The earth above the many of the graves was still rough, not having had enough time to settle into a level field of grass. The tracks of the bereaved criss-crossed in the light dusting of snow, revealing that nearly every grave in the section had been visited in the few days previous.

For years afterward, it was hard for me to return to our family home without seeing persistent signs of Mom’s presence in the house and in the garden.

And, now, more than 27 years after Mom’s death, our family is selling the house. The sale should close around Christmas.

Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories – Day 20.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko 

On Christmas Eve, my sisters and I would unwillingly go to bed, urged by the television newscasts reporting the sighting of Santa Claus over some state or province. Fearful that Santa would pass us by if he came to our house only to find us still awake, we allowed ourselves to be tucked in. Once securely in bed, we nodded off quickly, exhausted from the thrills of Christmas.

On Christmas morning, we found piles of presents under the tree . Colorfully wrapped gifts with bright ribbons and bows dazzled our eyes and thrilled us to no end.  Where are mine? Here, this one’s for you. How come Dad only got socks?

Clearly the gifts were from Santa. Our parents never went Christmas shopping and never wrapped presents.

As I grew older, after I learned that the gifts were from our parents and not from Santa, I sometimes wondered when my parents went Christmas shopping and marveled at the fact that they could buy and wrap Christmas presents without my sisters and me knowing anything about it. This was the Great Christmas Shopping Mystery.

Our parents never left my sisters and me alone. They rarely hired a sitter. So, when did they do the Christmas shopping?

While we were toddlers, our parents took us Christmas shopping with them . We were thrilled to wander the aisles of toys and grew impatient when our parents would linger in the clothes aisles . While one parent kept a watchful eye on us, I suppose that the other would buy our presents and clandestinely store the gifts in the trunk of the car. There were times when the entire family would go shopping together during the holiday season and return home with apparently nothing but a box of chocolate covered cherries and a package of ribbon candy.

As we grew older, this trick would still have worked . But, by this time, Mom worked from home and would have had no difficulty getting away for a few hours to shop and wrap presents while my sisters and I were at school . Remembering how efficient and responsible our mother was, her Christmas shopping was probably completed weeks before Christmas.

But, if she had purchased our gifts so far in advance, where did she hide them? The attic? The basement? Under our parents’ bed?

One year, we found out when my younger sister “accidently” found the Christmas presents one year, hidden in the front hall closet, just off the dining room. Usually, that closet held nothing but my parents’ coats and some clothing . Exactly what my sister was doing in the front hall closet when she found the presents was somewhat suspect.

Nonetheless, we feigned surprise when we opened our gifts on Christmas morning. Indeed, we had not found all the gifts, so our mock wonder was required for only those few gifts we had seen, and even those gifts we had discovered were delightful to finally receive.

Written for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories – Day 19.

Copyright © 2007 by Stephen J. Danko