Christmas Bounty

Christmas was a magical time for a kid – getting out the Christmas decorations and sorting through them, hunting down a Christmas tree (a real one – we never had a fake one), playing Christmas music, etc. One year my parents found little Christmas tree lights and used them on the top section of the tree. We liked them so much that within a few years little twinkly lights had replaced the big fat ones that had been used for decades. There were very old ornaments we hung on the tree – it was like visiting old friends when we unboxed them each year for Christmas.

Among the decorations was a musical bell. I believe my parents bought it shortly after I was born. It’s maybe 6 inches in height (plus a chain to hang it) and there is a little music box inside – you pull on the string and it plays Jingle Bells. There’s a label on in indicating it was made in Japan (in the days before cheap stuff was made in China). As a kid I thought it was solid and heavy. I discovered in my early teens by happenstance that is quite light. I’m spending words on this bell because it, more than any other physical object, signifies Christmas for me. It’s the only thing that has been present at every Christmas since I was born (apart from certain years I was not home for Christmas). Anyways, I have it now and intend on keeping it until some day one of my kids or grandchildren hang it in their house.

Until my mid teens, Christmas was also bountiful occasion – lots of great presents under the tree. Dennis & I would wake up very very early Christmas morning, sneak downstairs, and quietly survey the presents with flashlights for who got what which, of course, was all wrapped up in paper, though we had fun guessing what may be inside each. After that we would wait for what seemed like days until everyone was up, dressed, and ready to gather for present-opening time.

I was a grown-up when I found out that my parents would take out a loan each year so we kids could have an awesome Christmas. Sometimes the previous year’s loan would not be paid off on time and was added to the new loan. Eventually they caught up and stopped taking loans out as Christmas, over time, became less expensive – kids got older and some of them moved out. I was 14, I think, when one particular Christmas I looked at my quite small pile of presents and realized I wasn’t a kid anymore.

A couple of presents I especially recall that were given to Dennis and me by Jean & Dick: Atari Pong, which had just come out, and the following year a small but thoroughly enjoyable air hockey table (air hockey was also relatively new thing at the time). Those were expensive gifts. Dennis and I were really overwhelmed to receive them, though we had to wait until the adults were finished “trying them out” which was pretty much all Christmas Day.