holiday

A Christmas Story

I saw the ad for the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story on TBS and I had a few thoughts — which turned out to be pretty cool, because this week’s Monday Movie Meme is about favorite holiday movies.

My first thought was not about how that film, despite it’s having been set decades earlier, seems to ring nostalgic for so many of us (and interesting phenomenon that I do often ponder whenever I think of A Christmas Story, but rather how TBS has turned that film into a different kind of holiday classic…

You know, one of those films you associate with the holidays and family simply because it was on TV every year when you were a kid.

Scene From It's A Wonderful Life

Most of the Christmas movies and television programing hasn’t changed much; we’ve still got the animated Frosty and Rudolph “specials,” and Miracle On 34th Street, It’s A Wonderful Life, etc. Most of these are not as memorable — or more accurately, these films are not as tied to family holiday traditions because at Christmas time, we kids were preoccupied with our gifts. So while I fondly remember Rudolph, The Littlest Angel, and The Little Drummer Boy, I remember those pretty much like any other TV viewing event.

(Even now, watching Miracle or It’s A Wonderful Life is pretty much a solo couch potato event; momma’s down-time in a busy holiday season.)

But there are other holidays too. And television network execs take advantage of this time, programming us along with setting the program schedule.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Film Poster

For me, the phrase “holiday films” brings to mind those I watched with my cousins. Sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of the old console TV, we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang & Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory — I think it was Thanksgiving and Easter, respectively. (And I tried for years to stay up and watch The Ten Commandments at Easter too; only I never made it more than an hour before nodding off.) I do remember that sometime between the time we kids were expected to join adults in conversation and the age at which we became too cool to do so, the TV networks changed the holiday family films. (Don’t ask me what they were. Once my cousins and I mockingly went to watch Willy Wonka, and he wasn’t there.) I guess the network guys and gals had moved onto a younger kid demographic for their ‘new’ holiday family fun.

(This reminded me of the one Mother’s Day that one of the major TV networks ran Rambo or something equally disgusting. I guess the thinking was that men would stick around for family time if they could have a all the action and excitement of body count film to watch. But I digress.)

Thinking of how the films change reminded me that soon enough, TBS will stop running A Christmas Story. And that simple act will change family traditions.

It is this fact, and this alone, that has me finally turning the corner on an area of collecting I have been snobby about: film collecting.

I used to be offended when I had rented a booth in an antique mall and some guy was moving into his booth, stocking it with nothing but VHS cassettes. Those were not collectible, I thought to myself snobbishly. Collections are not simply amounts of something, they represent something more… A collection is more than a stack of movies, a shelf of books, a pile of CDs or iPod full of audio files. A collection, I vehemently believe, is attached to something more than simple consumption of merchandise.

Scene From A Christmas Story

But now, thinking back on all those movies that were once my family’s tradition, I see it differently. If I buy all those movies, they are significantly different than movies I like to have around to watch should the mood strike me. Accumulating the original Willy Wonka & Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is a nostalgic act — I’m buying back a bit of my childhood.

So, movie collectors, you have my apologies for having been an ignorant, stuck-up collector. Please don’t make me put my tongue on a flagpole.

This time of year there are lots of television shows, magazine articles and blog posts on decorating for the holidays. Just look at how awesome Wanda’s display of vintage holiday and greeting card boxes is on the mantel. I’m super jealous — and not just because I dig another person who collects empty old boxes.

Wanda's Mantle Display Of Vintage Holiday Boxes

Everyone mentions the fireplace, with family snuggled ’round the fire and the mantel laden with everything holiday, right down to the frankincense and myrrh. I’ll admit I have fireplace envy. Warm family moments of the emotional variety are nice, the winters here in Fargo are brrr-awful (you’d think they’d be standard up here, right?); but the real reason I covet a fireplace is for the mantel’s display space.

Not only does a lofty perch above the fray of family activity (including the wag of a dog’s table-clearing tail) hold out more hope for the survival of collectibles, but said higher placement makes the collection more visible — to my own appreciative eye and, hopefully, guests’ too.

But before I become a mantel-case, let me continue with some tips on holiday decorating which are also good ideas for display of collectibles in general — fireplace mantelpiece or no.

This year, I was delighted to discover how to put those empty vintage sleighs found at thrift stores to good use, holding non-seasonable collectibles.

Kitschy Poodles Go For A Sleigh Ride

The bad news? I feel a vintage sleigh collection coming on. (I can totally rationalize additional purchases because they are ’storage’ pieces.)

Of course, sleighs are a bit seasonal… But the idea can be twisted. In fall, I could place collectibles in (and spilling out of) cornucopias. And, sticking with the transportation theme, perhaps I could move all my poodles into dump trucks.

Also at Gadabout, Katelyn Thomas shows how to use tiered stands to display ornaments; suitable for any season and any smaller collectible objects.

Katelyn's Tiered Ornament Collection Display

So keep an eye on the holiday decorating tips; who knows what ideas you’ll find for ways to display your collectibles?

Today and through the weekend, stamp collectors will congregate in New York City for the 60th annual  Fall 2009 Postage Stamp Mega Event.  Sixty stamp dealers an innumerable philatelists with meet at the New Yorker Hotel in Manhattan to trade their wares, see what’s new, and take in the sights and sounds of New York.  Of particular interest are the new stamp releases – this year, as in previous, the Fall Mega Event is the first place a collector can get the new holiday postage stamps.

The set of four, seen on the right, are the 2009 Winter Holidays stamps, depicting some common images of the Christmas season: a gingerbread man cookie, a toy soldier, a snowman, and a reindeer with a Christmas tree bulb hanging from one antler.   Designer Joseph Cudd of Greensboro, NC, under the art direction of long-time stamp designer Richard Scheaff, produced these stamps in a crisp contemporary design using rich cool colors.  For a more traditional style of Christmas stamp, the USPS will be releasing the Sassoferrato ‘Madonna and Child’ later in the month.  Since 1978, the USPS has released a postage stamp depicting Mary and the baby Jesus, primarily taken from a classic work of art.  This year’s stamp design is taken from a painting by Giovanni Battista Salvi, commonly known as Sassoferrato.   The Renaissance artist actually painted numerous similar paintings of the Madonna with Sleeping Child, all greatly desired by collectors, but this stamp depicts the Sassoferrato purchased by William Randolph Hearst in 1926.  In addition to the contemporary set and the Madonna and Child stamps, the USPS had planned on releasing a Christmasy stamp of an angel playing the lute, based on a Renaissance-era Italian fresco by Melozzo da Forli, but due to the stamp pricing schedule rearrangement, it was dropped from this year’s release schedule.

The ASDA stamp First Day events are holiday stamps, remember, so the two other major December holidays get their own stamps as well.  This year’s Hanukkah postage stamp is the 14th stamp for this holiday issued by the USPS, but is the first unique design in several years.   Unlike the 2d art of other recent stamps, this Hanukkah stamp is actually a photograph of a 3D menorah, custom metalwork sculpted by artist Lisa Regan of Garden Deva Sculpture Company in Tulsa, OK.   The menorah has a very modern style, consisting of concentric semicircles of rough metal, mostly a pewtery silver with accents in a bright copper.  I am actually disappointed that copies of the menorah is not available on her website.  The last holiday stamp this year, honoring the holiday of Kwanzaa, also pulls from modern art, this time Cubism.  Artist Lloyd McNeill created this striking stamp design, readily recalling the style of one of McNeill’s mentors, Pablo Picasso, depicting a father, mother, and child composed of crisp, bold solid colors, reminiscent of paper cut-outs.

Visually, I find the Kwanzaa stamp the most appealing, artistically, of this year’s holiday stamps, almost more worthy of being on displayed on a wall than on a stamp; as I’ve noted, I’d prefer the Hanukkah stamp on my mantle than as a stamp, but it, too, is a strong visual image for this year’s stamp.   The Christmas/Holiday stamps are a more traditional stamp, and probably more of what Grandma expects to see on the Christmas cards she receives, so I might be most likely to actually mail the Madonna and Child stamps.   The block of four stamps, of course, are the most mainstream, and the ones that will be the most common on envelopes this Christmas season; the USPS has done a good job of identifying the stamps of most appeal to philatelists and put greater artistic work into those, and as holiday stamps go, these are some of the better designs in recent years.   If you’d like your first-day cover of any of these, be sure to get to New York today or tomorrow: the ASDA Mega-Event is the only place to get them first-hand.

I vividly remember getting ready to go to my grandma’s house on Christmas Eve! Our family consisted of mom, daddy, my older brother Mike, younger sister Vicki and me! We would all get dressed in our “Sunday best”; the girls in dresses, my dad and brother in a sport coat and dress slacks; often a tie. Mom was clever because she’d pack more casual attire for after dinner so we could be more relaxed. But she tried to impress upon us how important it was to dress for the occasion.
Mom tried to ‘hasten the pace’ and keep us on some type of schedule, but usually one of us would pose a problem. Oftentimes it was Mike. He was not a ’social butterfly’ by any stretch and would balk at the idea of getting dressed up, or being told to put his sports collectibles away for the night. He hated it when the aunts and uncles would make comments such as ‘how you’ve grown since last time we saw you.’ Often it was only a few months since we’d been together, but Mike seemed to be a ‘constant grower’, which was an exception in our family. Dad was only 5′9” and Mike ended up at 6′3”! But somehow, we’d all be ready to go, presents neatly stacked in the trunk, mittens located and coats on, ready for the ride.
Of course, we sang carols along the way, all the favorites! The windows would be pretty steamed up by the time we got there. In attendance were my grandparents, 5 sets of aunts and uncles, 8 cousins, a few good friends of my grandparents that we’d call “aunt” and “uncle” out of respect.

The house was always warm and welcoming, a real Christmas tree with lots of ornaments (many of which I wish I had today), a fire in the fireplace, decorations everywhere. My grandparents lived in the upper of a duplex that my aunt and uncle owned and the celebrations were held in the lower part and basement. (I was much older when I learned that my grandparents had borrowed my aunt and uncle the money for the house with the proviso being that they could live there as long as they wanted. And both grandma and grandpa lived to be in the late 80’s.)
We’d start out going up to grandma’s place and turning the stairway, we’d always rush quickly past her sewing room. She had a dress form near the window and we’d always imagine she was a person standing by the window – at the time, pretty darn spooky! We’d enter the room, getting hugs from everyone. We were a very affection family. (Years later, my new sister-in-law would comment “you people hug every time you leave the room to go to the bathroom!”) I loved to sit in the big chair by grandma’s crystal lamp. It had a really pretty pattern, looked like prisms. I found out that when my parents were newlyweds, they had given it to my grandparents for Christmas. And as luck would have it, my grandma gave it to me for our home when we were newlyweds. We have it in our bedroom and it still makes me smile to look at it. It is a treasure.
When everyone was there, we’d have a toast to “Merry Christmas” and “Happy New Year” and the kids would have ginger ale in a fancy wine glass so we’d all feel special. It bubbled like champagne and tickled your nose. Then came the moment we’d all waited for – opening of the presents! One year was really special.

My grandparents gave each of their 6 children an envelope (this was way before the times of giving gift cards, so no one had a clue what was inside.) I clearly recall all of the adults hugging, kissing and even crying when they opened them up.

The kids were confused and nothing was said for quite a while. I found out several months later that my grandparents had decided to give a little of the ‘estate’ early so they could actually watch the faces of their children, rather than being gone and unable to do that. They gifted each couple $1,000, which was huge in those days and still is a lot today. We got a new TV, one that did not need to be pounded to keep the picture still, and each of us got a new winter coat, even mom, who often was the last to get new things.

I think of that often, the concept of being able to see the reaction ‘in person’, it was a wonderful gesture and for my grandparents who came here from Austria in the early 1900s with virtually the clothes on their backs and a duffel bag, this was quite an accomplishment.
After the gift-giving we’d head down to Uncle Al’s basement/rec room for dinner.

Nicely decorated with a tree, lots of lights and the Christmas cards all hung on a ‘line. There’d be more toasting (a few of my uncles probably really got ‘toasted’) and they’d play the stereo and we’d dance for hours. About midnight it was time to go home, exhausted, happy and filled with more memories.
Today I sit here smiling, waiting for my family to arrive. Two beautiful daughters and their wonderful husbands, five gorgeous, beloved grandchildren, all ready to be hugged and welcomed. We try to keep some traditions but I am looked at in disbelief when I suggest Christmas carols, especially by our youngest granddaughter who suggests that we ’sing tomorrow grandma.’

But the gift-exchange, story telling and reminiscing go on for hours. I look at each one and thank God for them and for having these sweet memories, from the past, and the present.
Wishing all who read our blogs a wonderful holiday season and marvelous memories.

As we get closer to Christmas, memories of “Christmases Past” come to mind. Most of them are heart-warming, some bitter-sweet, others chuckle-worthy.
Our family consisted of a mother, father, older brother, me in the middle and a younger sister. Pretty typical for a family of the 50s and 60s and my childhood was happy and uneventful. We began to prepare for Christmas right after the last remnant was plucked from the Thanksgiving turkey (we’d leave it out over night, nibble on it until morning and no one ever got ill.) The tree was always a fresh-cut one, purchased in the village we grew up in and usually dragged in the weekend after Thanksgiving.

We had a lot of ornaments, many from my mom’s family from Germany. I still have a few of them, but many were delicate and lost through the years.
We always had bubble-lights on the tree too, and lots of tinsel. My impatient brother would just grab a handful and ‘toss it anywhere.’ Mom and I would be very fussy, placing one strand at a time, giving the tree the look of icicles. We’d have to go back over my brother’s handiwork when he was through! Once the tree was done, we’d go to the windows and put up the ’stencils’, that were made with “Glass-Wax.” You would sponge these onto the glass and they’d leave all sorts of decorations. There were bells and trees, snowmen, ornaments and Santa Claus. They always looked so cheery.
We would also decorate with ceramic bells – they were all over the place, on shelves, in curios and such. Mom said bells were so lovely; her favorite Christmas carol was “Silver Bells” and we still play the one by Johnny Mathis every year.

The best thing about decorating for the holiday season was that the whole family was involved. Nobody complained or said they did not want to pitch in. And there was always Christmas music in the background. It played on the big console Magnavox that was mom’s present one Christmas. It came with a bonus of 50 record albums and she picked a lot of them with a holiday theme.
Once we were done decorating, we’d put our gift lists together. They were usually pretty simple. My dad owned a small auto body shop and although we never had a clue, we lived pretty much from paycheck to paycheck. My mom stayed home to keep the house spotless, make wonderful meals and be there for us when we got home from school. My kids say I ‘grew up in a bubble’ because I never knew that we had very limited means.
On Christmas Eve we would pile in the car and head to grandma’s and grandpa’s house. They lived only 20 miles away but it seemed to take forever. We would sing Christmas carols along the way which made the time go faster. One Christmas Eve we were barely out of the driveway when my brother asked “what is that horrible smell?” Indeed, there seemed to be some odor, but we could not put our fingers on it. When we got to my grandma’s house, my aunt asked what that smell was so we knew it was not our imagination. Then we all looked at my kid sister, Vicki, for that’s where it seemed to be coming from. Well, years ago when you got patent leather shoes, you’d put Vaseline on them to keep them shiny and supple. She was about 5 years old and had wanted to help so she polished her own shoes. Where she erred was in using Vicks’ Vapo-rub instead of Vaseline! We all laughed about it and said she’d never get ‘cold feet.’
Another funny memory was from a Christmas Eve when my sister was about 7 years old. She came running up to my mother and said she was worried about Uncle Freddie, she said she thought he was dying! Mom said she should not be upset, that he was not sick! My sister replied “oh, yeah, well then how come Aunt Marion says he has a bug up his butt?” HAA! We told that one for years to come.

My Aunt Marion was a real hoot. If there were pictures in the dictionary, hers would be next to the word “feisty.” She was just full of it. If I had a nickel for every time her husband said “That’s not very lady-like, Marion!” I could have retired years ago.
My Uncle Al was also a real character. He and his wife, Mary, actually owned the house, a duplex, where my grandfolks lived. They had the lower unit and Christmas was held in their neat basement. It was always festively decorated and my Aunt Mary was a fantastic cook. She was never afraid to try unique recipes and things were always nicely presented. A class act! One time my Uncle Al gave me a toothpick with ‘chicken’ on it and said I should give it a try. It was good, and I asked for another. A little bit later I heard him tell my dad it was actually rattlesnake meat, but it TASTED like chicken. A not-so-fond memory, but always fun to share with friends!
It was always so wonderful to be at grandma’s house – the smells, the music, lots of hugs, so many smiling faces. Grandma would always make you feel that you were special; definitely her favorite. She’d always sneak me a loaf of her cinnamon bread or yummy snickerdoodle cookies when we were leaving. She’d tele me to put the bag under my coat so the others would not notice it. Years later, when comparing notes, I found that she’d do that to every one of us. We all laughed about it. Yes, Christmas when I was growing up was magical! It was an exciting time, wondering what you might be getting from Santa Claus, long after you should have believed. Now that we are the grandparents, we try our best to do the same for our grandchildren, letting them hang on to the ‘fun parts’ as long as they can and helping them making their own sweet memories.

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