Christmas Mem'ries

It’s January 3rd and time for us to put away our Christmas decorations.  I don’t really have decorations from my childhood because they are still in the storage case at the Mosher Family Homestead, where My Mam keeps them - in fact, I believe that nearly every Christmas decoration and ornament we’ve had over the years is still in her personal collection.  Of course, a few got broken over the years but the last time there was a big Mosher Christmas (it has been a while), the enormous tree contained nearly every ornament I remember from over the years, and even though the family hasn’t done up the house the way Mommy always did, for some time, I am pretty sure they are all still there, intact, like the memories.

Growing up, Me Mother always did Christmas right.  It was impressive, how much effort she put into the holiday, and I often wondered if she did it because she loved Christmas or if she did it for us kids.  I do not know the answer, I only know that it was magical, with a right and proper combination of store-bought decorations and things that she made, for My Mam was a crafter.  She loved making things, and so there were special ornaments for each of the children, usually with our names on them, like little cushion-stuffed felt stockings for each of us.  She was traditional with some looks, and quite simple about it, too.  For instance, there was always perfectly arranged greenery on top of whatever fireplace or bookcase was handy, and, afloat throughout the boughs of fir were shiny, shiny, shiny gold, and red, and blue balls.  Meanwhile, Mama always filled her cut lead crystal bowl with balls covered in silk threads, either deepest green or bluest blue.  Wreaths on the front door always had an enormous red bow and, where possible, the door was wrapped in red ribbon.  The sights of Christmas in the Mosher home growing up were the kind of sights you would see in a good Christmas movie or the SEARS Wish Book.

When I left for college, Me Mother gave me two things to remind me of home at Christmastime.  One was the red elf that, in future years, would become known as the Elf on a Shelf.  When we were children, we had two of these elves for the holiday season - one red and one green.  My siblings and I always loved them and played with them, they brought such whimsy to the house.  I don’t know where the green one ended up, I always supposed that Mama gave that one to Stephanie when she went off to college, and that I got the red one.  The other elf I took to college was one that Mama made - she knitted the body and the cap and fit the little plastic face into the unit.  These were the two Juana Christmas decorations that traveled with me, throughout the years, and they are with me and Pat, still, a reminder of those magical Mosher family holidays and of how much Mommy liked crafting.  Even today, when ours is not the most Christmasy home around, with fewer decorations, with no cookies, with no gifts, and neither Jesus nor Santa, the two elves come out every year, as does the Crystal Christmas Tree.

The Crystal Christmas Tree has a different story.

Me Father and I were out doing some holiday shopping, sometime in the Eighties.  We spotted the Crystal Christmas Tree in a store and we both thought it was pretty and that Mama would like it.  He said we should get it for her, and I agreed, so we bought the Crystal Christmas Tree and proudly took it home to Juana.  And she looked at it.  And she looked at it.  And she looked at it.  And she said:

“This looks like a really painful sex toy.”

Back into the box went the Crystal Christmas Tree. 

A few days later, the box would go home with me. Neither of them seemed to want to see it, neither wanted to be reminded of the failure that was the Crystal Christmas Tree.

The Crystal Christmas Tree has been a yearly decoration in the various homes Pat and I have shared, ever since, and we do not view it in the same way as Mama.  We like it and think it is beautiful, even if My Mam didn’t think the same way. But we do, always, think of Juana and the painful sex toy, when the Crystal Christmas Tree is on display.

Me Mother, by the way, has some imagination.