Quasimodo wrote:LittleNipper wrote:My mom would make Christmas cooky cutter sugar cookies, and allow me to set one out for Santa with a cup of coffee. I asked her once why the coffee and she only laughed and said, "Your daddy says it will help 'Santa' stay awake most of the night." I also remember her singing "Silver Bells," while she made her cookies. My grandparents would come Christmas day for turkey, candied yams, bacon stuffing, mashed potatoes/gravy and string beans. Trees were decorated with lots of leaded tinsel back then and the ornaments were mostly thin mercury glass. I still have many ornaments that are from the fifties, forties, thirties, and the twenties... Each one holds some sort of memory for me, either of someone who is now gone or a simple moment of youth long past...
Yeah, I guess Santa might need a little caffeine after visiting every house in the world.
If you can arrange to post photos of those lovely old ornaments, it would be great.
What part of the country were you raised in, Nipper? I'm guessing the South, but I'm usually wrong about these things.
Thanks for the thread, Nipper. It's good to remember past Christmases and past loved ones.
Well, you are almost right. I was born and raised in SOUTH Jersey (New Jersey that is). My parents were born and raised in Philadelphia. So, we went to Gimbels, John Wanamakers, Strawbridge & Clothiers, and Lit Brothers Department Stores in Center City to see the displays after Thanksgiving every year for years. They are all gone now --- only memories of enchanted villages and Zoro's Christmas Hacienda and giant animated bells and the elevated monorail that went around the top of the Rich Uncle's Toy Department at Wanamakers for the kids to ride ------------- so the parents could shop... My wife makes rice pudding with an almond hidden in it. Oh, we also have an old green glass pickle ornament that we hide on the Christmas tree. So, there are two chances to have a great New Year!
