CHRISTMAS
Christmas
was the best time of the year for me as a small child. The very first Christmas that I can remember
was when we lived in a second floor apartment above an ice cream/candy story
owned by Abe and Cathy Stango. At that
time it was just my Mom, Dad, my brother and me. Mom would tell us the story, “The Night
Before Christmas” and my brother and I would be excited about getting up the
next morning to see what Santa Claus brought us; even though we did not have a
chimney. But it was okay because our
bathroom had a door that led out onto an open the roof with a fence around it
which Mom was able to hang clothes out to dry.
It was always a challenge to go to sleep the night before; Mom would say
to us that Santa would not come if we were not asleep. The next morning, my brother and I would be
up very early, sneak down the stairs to the living room and see presents under
the tree. We would lay awake waiting for
Mom and Dad to get up before we could open up presents. Most of the time, we would have to wait for
Dad to get up, which was about another few hours, like about lunch time. “Gee Whiz!”
Most of
the time my brother and I would get the same things for Christmas; not a whole
lot of toys but clothes, mostly. One
year we received blackboards on an easel.
Another year we received an Etch-A-Sketch. Another year we received Lincoln Logs and,
again Tinker Toys. On one particular
year we received different items. I
opened up a big box of dominoes, in white that were like building blocks. My brother opened up a GI Joe. I knew my brother and I would share playing with
my dominoes, but how would we share in playing with his GI Joe? My sister was born by the time we were about eight
and seven and we received a red wagon.
Wow! This was the best Christmas
of all because my brother and I could be outside riding in our wagons
pretending we were driving cars. We were
only allowed out when Mom was outside with us and we had to stay on our side of
the street. Here we were, riding down to
the corner Stango’s store and then riding up to the other corner grocery store
that belonged to Julius Wagner. But here
is what I learned about those Christmas times growing up back then.
Mom and
Dad could not afford to buy a lot of Christmas presents. In fact, I do not ever recall Dad buying
Christmas presents for any of us. Dad
was struggling financially; we never seemed to have money. But then again, I knew him to be an alcoholic
and a gambler as I got older and always complaining about not having any
money. The money that paid for our
Christmas presents those earlier years came from my mother’s Aunt Annamay. In memory of Aunt Annamay, my mother gave my
sister, Relina the middle name, May.
Additional money came from what my mother saved in food coupons. In the 1960’s supermarkets would reimburse
coupons in cash instead of being deducted from you bill as it is done today. My Dad always paid the grocery bill and when
Dad was not looking, Mom would hand over the coupons she clipped to the cashier,
take the money and put it in her pocket.
Dad never knew she did this every time they went grocery shopping. Any other Christmas presents we received came
from my Grandmother and my Aunt, Mom’s sister.
When our
second sister, Rhoda was born we moved to the home of the Stango’s and opened
the store. Christmases were a bit
different then. No more toys, but things
we needed. Dad still slept until almost
lunch time because we would spend Christmas Eve at Dad’s friends’ parties until
three or four in the mornings. Good
thing we were off from school until the New Year. We always had to wait until Dad got up before
we opened presents. Mom would buy him
presents on our behalf and we would not know what we had given him until he
opened the presents; underwear and socks.
Ha, ha, ha. Dad still did not buy
us Christmas presents. But, what Dad
would do is take my brother and me out and buy us new clothes and shoes that we
would wear on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve at his friend’s parties. I guess this was his Christmas present to us.
Yes, I believed
in Santa Claus in the early sixties. I
enjoyed watching the cartoon Christmas Classics, Frosty the Snow Man, Rudolph
the Red Nosed Reindeer, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and, my favorite, A
Charlie Brown Christmas that shared to every child who watched the true meaning
of Christmas. I still watch these shows;
brings back child hood memories, good memories.
But do you know how Santa Claus came to be on Christmas? As I began to go to Church (I attended quite a
few), then went to Bible College and Seminary I learned more about our
Christmas tradition.
Santa
Claus was a real person. Santa Claus
comes from the Dutch, Sinter Klaas which was their name for Saint Nicholas who
was Monk and Bishop of Myra (Turkey) in the third century A.D. The Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches
celebrated his death for over a thousand years since his passing on December
6. Saint Nicholas was known to be the
patron saint of children and sailors.
The Dutch depicted Saint Nicholas (Sinter Klaas as a tall white-bearded
man in red clerical robes who arrived every December 6 on a boat to leave gifts
or lumps of coal at children’s homes. The
tradition of Sinter Klaas is believed to have been brought to Early America by
the Dutch who settled in the Hudson River Valley, New Amsterdam (Manhattan). In early 1800’s, Washington Irving portrayed
Saint Nicholas as a stout Dutchman who flew the skies in wagon dropping
presents down chimneys. Later, Clement
Clarke Moore, wrote “A Visit from Saint Nicholas, known as “Twas the Night
Before Christmas” trading the wagon to a sleigh with reindeer. During the Civil War, Thomas Nast depicted Saint
Nicholas as living not in Turkey or Holland by at the North Pole.
The celebration
of Saint Nicholas had nothing to do with the celebration of Christmas. In fact, Easter was the main holiday
celebrated in the early years of Christianity.
In the fourth century A.D. the Church decided to institute the birth of
Jesus as a holiday and, because the date of Jesus birth was not actually known,
Pope Julius l chose December 25 in an effort to adopt and absorb the traditions
of the pagan celebration Saturnalia; a festival in which Romans believed that
Mithra, an infant god was born of a rock.
The Church first celebrated the day calling it the Feast of the
Nativity. In the mid 1600’s to the late
1600’s Christmas was not a holiday. In
fact, it was outlawed in some places because of it disorderly carnival
behaviors and by the American Revolution, most English customs, including Christmas
fell out of favor. Christmas was not
declared a federal holiday until June 26, 1870 when Washington Irving reinvented
Christmas into a family centered day of peace and nostalgia.
What does
Christmas mean to me? Does it represent
the Birthday of Jesus? No, not
really. Yes, Jesus’s birth is important,
the “Spring Lamb” born to die on Passover so that death might pass over us who
believe Jesus to be the Messiah, the Prince of Peace of whom Isaiah the Prophet
wrote (Isaiah 9:6-7). Does it represent
the celebration of the death of Saint Nicholas?
No, not really. Yes, Saint
Nicholas is an important figure in history because of what he has done for
children, gave gifts but he is now too commercialized and overshadows the ultimate
reason for the season, remembering why Jesus was born and to what purpose. I was once asked what I wanted for
Christmas. What do I want? Hmm, a flat screen TV? An iPad?
A luxury cruise? A lot of
money? Here is what I want for
Christmas, people to come to know the true meaning of Christmas; the reason for
the season. God gave us the greatest
Christmas present, one which came from his heart; Jesus Christ. Should you get me a Christmas present, even
the smallest gift can reveal that it came from your heart; not your pocket.
Historical
Resources: www.history.com/topics/Christmas
Give from your heart!
Merry Christmas!
Rick & Ron
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