As far back as I can remember Christmas has always been an exciting time for me. Both my mom and dad loved the holiday, always decorated, and purchased far more gifts than they could afford. Christmas was my favorite holiday long before I came to know the Lord.

My earliest childhood memories of Christmas reach back to our home on Van Buren Street, when I was 4 or 5. While the configurations of that house changed frequently, I do believe I recall the Christmas arrangement back then.

First, my dad always put lights on the home. It was a two story, white wood frame house with a front door facing the street and a back door opening into our yard. The entrance from the street was up a couple of concrete steps to a large concrete porch which, in the summer, we often used as a fort or a place from which to sell Kool-Ade. Above this porch was a very large window which permitted the occupants of that second floor room a view of the highway. While my sister remembers living in that room for some time, my memories of my time in that house place my brother and me in that room.

Concerning decorations, my father would outline the house with large blue lights. It always looked great. Dad also had a large painted display which featured Santa, his sleigh full of toys, and some reindeer, especially Rudolph. Rudolph is pictured licking a candy cane but the highlight of the display was Rudolph’s nose. It was actually a red light which would flash. I seem to recall him saying once that it was painted by some high school student of his but I am not certain of that. This display ultimately ended up on the garage door of the house on Hanft. While on Van Buren, though, dad would attach this display outside the second floor window making it impossible to see out of our bedroom during the month of December. I never cared since I knew the presence of that display meant Christmas was near!

I do not recall if dad had his “Christmas Card” display when we lived in this house. There are times when I think it was in the front yard to the left of the house. However, there are other times when I don’t remember it being there at all. If the Card was there, it and the Rudolph display were the only outdoor decorations I remember.

On the inside, though, there were many decorations. We may have had some flashing red bells in some of the windows and I am pretty certain we had some wreaths on the doors. In our living room (the room you entered from the porch), was our Christmas tree. Mom and dad always had a real tree until some time after we moved to the Hanft home. I remember going with dad to a tree lot at least once to get one. My dad would string the lights on it and my mom would do the rest. She would cover it with ornaments and then put on the icicles! She would lay them on the branches very carefully and, by the time she completed this effort, you could barely see the green of the tree at all!

Under our Christmas tree was always a fun place to be. My dad would set up his “O” gauge model train so it would travel around and around the tree. I remember sitting for hours on the floor on many December days running that train.

The tree itself was fastened to the ceiling of the living room by wire and hooks. Those hooks remained up all year. I never asked why they wired the tree that way but my sister says it was because (1) we always had a dog running around and (2) my brother and I were always under the tree messing with the train (or presents!). Maybe the dog (or we) knocked it over once and once was enough for my dad!

Also in the living room, sitting straight across from the tree, was a cardboard fireplace. The home did not have a real fireplace so my dad sat up one of those fake ones. I’m pretty certain we had more than one though the years. Those things even came with a fake log display which, when plugged in, would light up and give the impression of a real fire burning (not a very good impression, though). We would hang our stockings on this fake thing, at least for some of our Christmases. Having dealt with some of these contraptions over the years as a father, I’m sure my dad fastened it down in some way or added some type of weight to offset the stuff which went into the stockings on Christmas Eve.

We moved to the house on Hanft Street when I was 10. Dad and mom had that home built as they wanted it. There was a real fireplace in this one which included a mantle! The old cardboard fireplace made the trek to that house and I seem to recall it being in the hallway for a couple of years.

Of course, decorating the Hanft house was much more involved than the Van Buren house. My dad changed his lighting scheme from all blue to multi-color lights (though, at first, they were large bulbs). He ultimately installed permanent hooks for the light strands to make it easier every year. Lights around the windows were also part of the display.

It seemed to me dad would add an outside decoration almost annually. Most of these he made in his workshop located in our basement. I doubt I remember all the things he put up outside at this season. It was customary not to put up anything until the day after Thanksgiving. But, on that day, rain or shine, we put up virtually everything! It made for a long day.

If you stood at the corner of Hanft and Lela Drive and look at the house, the huge nativity set was to the left of the house. Some of the figures were almost as tall as me. Dad built everything in this display and had to repair some of it from time to time. You always hoped there was no wind when you were setting up the nativity. Dad usually completed the display by throwing around some straw though I do not know from whom he bought it.

Moving to the right, you would see the Christmas Card and then a single display of some Christmas Carolers. Near the top of the chimney was hung a sign reading “Noel”. The Rudolph display occupied the outside of the garage door. Some lights were strung up the flagpole so that it gave the impression of being a tree. Continuing to the right were the Snowmen family with papa snowman moving his lantern up and down. There was also a display of three train cars carrying gifts. To the right of the house was a Santa display in which Santa and his reindeer giving the impression of them taking off into the night. On the right side of the garage were the elves in working poses, fastened directly to the garage. I’m certain I have forgotten some.

Mom’s tree, as we called it, was in the double window corner of the living room facing Hanft Street. This enabled everyone coming down the street (or at school) to see the tree. This tree began as a real one but, at some point, became artificial. Mom decorated it as she did the ones on Van Buren.

The mantle was transformed into a Christmas scene with lighted houses and other figurines. Dad built a board which would set on the mantle for this display. The board also contained hooks on which the stockings were hung. A musical bell was hung from the ceiling above the washer and dryer. Lighted Christmas trees and other displays were in every room of the house. I believe there were lighted bells hanging on the inside windows as well. On top of the TV was a small candy dish in the shape of a stocking. Mom later put gumdrops into this dish which Jeremy discovered one year when we were there. I wish I could remember all the decorations on the inside.

One of the special things we did each Christmas season was to make an evening trip to downtown St. Louis. Back in the 50s, St. Louis had such stores as Famous-Barr and Stix, Baer, and Fuller, stores which put Christmas displays in the first floor windows. We would stand in front of those windows for many minutes, along with most of Missouri, it seemed, and watch all the action in those displays. Then we would head for the department stores to see Santa and to shop.

It was in Famous-Barr where we actually visited “The Claus”. Usually he was located in one of the upper levels. So our family would ride the escalators, which my brother and I loved, to that floor. Next you had to walk through the “Winter Wonderland” display on that floor until, finally, you were face to face with the man in the red suit! I sat on that poor man’s lap for far too many years. When I was real young, I wanted to do so as does every child. But, when I was older, I did so only because that’s what mom wanted. It was a bit embarrassing when kid was bigger than Kringle!

My parents would then turn my brother and me free to roam the store. They would go off to shop and we would head for the escalators. We would ride them all the way to the top and then all the way back to the bottom. I think there were times we even played “Hide and Seek” on those things. I must admit I never enjoyed going shopping with my parents EXCEPT on the Christmas trip to St. Louis. It was always fun.

Our Christmas celebrations were ALWAYS on Christmas morning. My parents would put us in the car on Christmas Eve and we would drive around the town looking at Christmas lights. Most of that ride, though, I was thinking of all the excitement awaiting us the next morning! Once we returned home, we would go upstairs to our room and try to go to sleep. That was next to impossible. There were Christmas Eve evenings which were spent by my brother and me in lengthy discussions about what Santa would bring. There would be moments during these discussions when we thought we heard Santa on our roof!

I believe both my brother and I would ultimately fall asleep. But we would also awaken very early (5 a.m. or so). We did not go downstairs without mom and dad. But when the signal was finally given, we would race downstairs to enjoy all that Santa had left. I don’t remember much organization involved when it came to the gifts. Those gifts which came from Santa were already open and on display when we arrived on the scene. We could begin playing with those immediately. We would also get into our stockings at any time. Furthermore, Santa would leave an abundance of candy canes on our tree and I remember enjoying one of those before breakfast on some Christmas mornings. Sometime later we would have the gift hand out and the paper would fly. I could be wrong but I do not recall anyone waiting to watch one of us open a gift. I think it was a “free for all” once the gifts were distributed.

We would play with our toys all Christmas day. I never wanted to stop and eat which was unusual for me to say the least. There were times when I remember falling asleep on the floor for a while but, once awake, the playing would resume.

At some point during the day, our cousins, the Pitchfords, would arrive. While we enjoyed having other kids to play with, we learned early on to “put away” some of our special Christmas gifts before they arrived. If one failed to do so, one might find that gift somewhat destroyed by the end of the day!

As I said earlier, my parents always gave me far too much. I would usually get almost everything I asked for plus some items I never expected. Over the years, though, there were certain Christmas gifts which stood out. To be honest, I don’t recall receiving ANY books on Christmas until I was 14. Anyway, here are some of the ones I still remember:

1. My table hockey game which used the rods to control players and shoot. The year I got that gift (it was at the Hanft house), we played it all day. I played it with Keith. I played it with my cousins. I played it with my uncle. Without question, it was the greatest gift I ever received as a child.

2. My Disneyland play set (also a Hanft gift). I am pretty sure I received this gift for Christmas 1961. The summer before was our first summer spent in California. As part of that trip, we made our first visit to Disneyland (which, at the time, was only 6 years or so old). It was so much fun. Some company marketed a Disneyland play set that year. It consisted of plastic models of some of the sites at the park, some of the major rides, and some of the Disney characters. I believe it contained the Castle, the Matterhorn, the jungle cruise, a space ride, and so on. It was fun setting it up, moving things around, and creating your own park.

3. The Alamo. This play set featured a medal building with a drawing resembling the front of the Alamo. There were plastic walls you could build around it plus many plastic soldiers fighting for Texas as well as Mexicans. If I recall correctly, there were also some small cannons which would launch small plastic balls.

4. My Roy Rogers cowboy outfit. I was only 4 ½ on the Christmas that I received this gift, but I do remember getting it. At that time I was a big fan of Roy Rogers who had his own television show. I was also quite interested in cowboys. Needless to say, getting a hat, boots, guns (with holster), and other items for Christmas was terrific!

5. A Drive-In Theater. This small plastic toy was arranged in the form of a drive-in movie theater. It had a removable screen at one end and a “concession stand” at the other. Between the two were “parking stalls” with “speaker poles”. A couple of toy cars were included. There was also a board announcing the double feature (you had a pair of double features from which to select) was playing that day. What was fun about this was each of those listed “films” were actually a 6-8 frame film slide which you place through the concession stand and projected on the movie screen.

6. Bell’s telephone. This was a model of Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone which required assembly. However, once you got it together, it would actually work.

7. Chess Books. I joined the high school chess club my senior year and was absolutely horrible. I knew how to move my pieces but nothing about chess strategy. My father bought me some books on chess openings and gave those to me on Christmas 1964. I devoured those books over Christmas break and they radically changed my play. By the end of my freshman year, I was #2 in school and ultimately was the school chess champion for 3 years.

8. Radium. Yes, radium. I liked this gift only because of its uniqueness. It was actually some type of experiment in radioactivity which I think dad bought from some science company. As far as I remember, I never actually performed an experiment because I could never quite figure it out. But part of the package was this small container (was it lead lined?). Attached to the underside of the lid was a needle like object. At the tip of that needle was a small amount of radium. I loved looking at that radium and showing it to friends when they came over. I wonder if I poisoned myself or others doing so? I wonder what ever happened to that kit? I use to keep it under the basement steps in the house on Hanft Street.

I know there were many other gifts I enjoyed receiving but those are the ones that come to my mind when I think back on my childhood Christmases.