XXIV. Christmas Present

For the last 20 years Christmas has been a very happy and fulfilling time for me. It wasn’t always this way. Christmases of my youth were down right horrific at times but also included some of my most precious memories of people, places and experiences. Christmas in much of my 20’s & 30’s were filled with emotional ups and downs. Christmas always seemed to force me to think about people I had conditioned myself not to think about. Christmases spent alone, or with others families where it seemed like, it felt as if, I were even more alone surrounded by people. Their experience was not drawing on the same history, and vice versa, of Christmases past. I have never gone home to the Arthur’s for any holiday. For many years I was not welcome and then it just seemed like there was no longer a home to go home to. The last Christmas before I met my husband, Christmas 1999, was spent with virtual strangers. My relationship had finally come to an end in October, an end I had known was coming for over a year, with me moving out of a home I’d known for almost 10 years into a rented room over Thanksgiving weekend. I was not only moving on from a life and home, but an extended family I had spent every Christmas with for nearly a decade. It was another ‘Hard Candy Christmas’.

But not so the following year. It was special simply because we were together. It wasn’t all that big but it was very genuine. I had a handful of items that I attached fond memories to and drug thru life where as Lane still had toys and ornaments he had received in childhood..Lincoln Logs, Hot Wheels, Tinker toys, Mr. Potato head, a Santa mug with is name on it. He put up a tree. He listened to me talk about some of the fond memories I had and did his best to create the circumstances where in they could be re lived and shared. He shared family traditions that I was more than happy to embrace. Although I still occasionally struggle with some heart wrenching emotions around certain memories, I have had very merry Christmases for twenty years.

And then it just grew, and grew, and grew from that first Christmas together. The next year he bought a small 4 piece miniature Christmas village. I have always loved dioramas and admired Christmas Villages in other peoples homes. In fact just about every decoration I associate with and have collected for Christmas is not something we ever had as children, but things we saw elsewhere. I setup our little village on the fireplace mantle. I would move the people around and build a story-line that still runs today. Each year we wonder if the man who owns the greenhouse will finally propose to the woman who runs the Antique store. He has flowers in hand but always seems to lose his nerve.

They say ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’. OK, we didn’t invent this but utilized it in a way we might never had if it wasn’t for the necessity of it. In 2004 we got kittens…ended up with kittens as we rescued a litter from under our deck in the late spring. We decided to keep two of them, adopt the rest out, trap the mother and have her spayed so as to “stop the insanity”. Now it was Christmas and we had two cats that had never seen a Christmas tree. We were not about to put our vintage ornaments out for them to play with or a tree they would absolutely need to climb. Lane came up with the idea of the swag on the beam of our vaulted ceiling. Just some garland and a string of lights …right. It was an incredible amount of work but the results were outstanding. The next year we put the Christmas tree up and the swag as well. Lane had done our tree in red ornaments one year, a particular red, and so this year he covered the swag with the red ornaments. We collect just a few to add each year. Lane used to climb a 14′ ladder dozens of times to wire on each ornament, making sure they all clear the ceiling fan which runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year in central Texas. A couple of years ago he came up with a way to suspend it at floor level and then hoist into position. It is one of my mom’s favorite features and described it as “making you feel like your inside Christmas”.

We have obtained one Santa Clause a year. Our mantle and hearth now have 20 representations of Santa Clause on them. We have many vintage Christmas pieces. Let’s be honest, anything we have have had over half our lives is considered ‘vintage’. Some 15 years ago I was ready to buy a vintage ceramic tree off of eBay for around $70. On our way out to shop that day we stopped at a garage sale just up the street. Laying in a box of miscellaneous items she had one marked for $5, base included with original bulb, Sixteen inches High with all bulbs and not a chip on it. I gladly handed over a $20 and told her to keep the change. We have an assortment of Avon and Norman Rockwell Christmas plates that spark that nostalgic ember of innocence. Our tree is covered in ornaments that Lane kept from his childhood and many we have collected over our years together. Our Nativity is many decades old, one that Lane had when We met. It is the kindest reminder of where Christmas began for us, all those Christmases, so long, long ago.

Of coarse the Christmas villages are my passion. This has grown from our first small village of four houses to multiple villages with around 70 houses and hundreds of accessories. We don’t put them all out anymore. It had become to much trouble moving furniture out of the house and tables in to accommodate them. Every year each is carefully removed from its original box and displayed, then dusted, repacked and stored on a shelf for the next 11 months.

In 2005 Joanne’s fabric is where we were still buying all of our village pieces. That year they had a collection called Retroville. All pieces representing the 50’s & 60’s. We had never seen recent era village pieces. Most are Victorian. I fell in love with it right away. Of coarse I could never justify buying every piece so I chose my favorites. Pop’s Dinner, Mack’s Gas Station and Albert’s Grocery store. We went back a few days later as I had decided I needed a few more pieces in the set and was wiling to make the investment.. They were sold out. Oh well, I had the pieces that meant the most to us. Christmas morning, after we had opened everything under the tree, Lane comes out of his studio with an additional stack of gifts. It was the other 7 village pieces and many accessories I had not picked up. Its a good thing as it was only produced that one year. That’s my Lane, my love, my heart.

And of coarse, the Christmas quilts. Lane began making these a number of years ago. Now we have to choose which ones to display as we have run out of wall space. There have been several more added to the collection since these videos were made.

These are a couple of videos I made of our home at Christmas a few years ago. It takes several days to put it all out and several days to pack it all in. It is a labor of love. Every piece has a sentimental story or memory attached. It is proof that you’re never to old to have a happy childhood…if you so desire. We did this for years before we became parents, while we had our child in the home and still today as empty nesters. We all gather to touch the golden memories we have made for ourselves so many years ago as children, then together, today and into the future…Christmastime is here. Enjoy!