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Christmas memories
Friday, December 22nd, 2017 02:45 amOnce I stopped mucking with and moping about the unlit lights, it only took me about 3 more hours to finish decorating the tree and the other room. I didn't use the tinsel, as the tree looks good to me without it this time. (Or maybe I just don't want to bother, in spite of having stored the tinsel in a special way last year to make it easier to put up). I also didn't put the batteries in the hallmark light & sound ornaments, and I skipped putting up my glittery painted mirror pieces. It all still looks good anyway. Now I just need to put away the boxes and clean up.
Tomorrow, probably going out to watch Star Wars 8 with Qiao.
It's odd, how a few years of vivid Christmases as a child have imprinted themselves so strongly on my brain. How even now, thirty years later, I still feel compelled to put up a Christmas tree and such, all because of those long ago memories, even though they are so vague now. They became a part of my core, and they still affect me, even though the Christmases of adulthood, or perhaps rather the *me* of adulthood, are so empty and meaningless compared to back then.
A memory of liking to crawl under the tree, and look up at it from below. At the orange, blue, green, glowing, bigger Christmas tree lights of back then.
A memory of playing chess. I suppose that has nothing to do with xmas. But it was in the same living room as where we had the xmas tree at xmas.
The American Armed Forces newspaper (Stars & Stripes) always had a coloring contest around xmas-time. They printed some holiday-themed image (outlined like from a coloring book), which you could color in and submit, in hopes of winning. I don't remember if there was any prize. I never won.
My mom baked German Christmas cookies, and I helped. Ground up hazelnuts, mixed into a dough, refrigerated, then rolled out and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Baked, then iced and decorated. Then stored away in sealed containers, sometimes with pieces of apple, to give them time to soften up.
The excitement of getting presents. Of listening for reindeer hooves on the roof (nah, I never did that; above us was another apartment or the attic, not the roof). Of looking out the windows in the evening, looking for Santa. And for reindeer and a sleigh.
Of going on a road trip to visit our German relatives. The chatter of the people; the glow of the lights. The cold, desolate German winters.
Making hand-made Christmas decorations in elementary school. Red and green construction paper, cut into strips, glued into links for a paper chain to put on the tree. Paper cut-out snowflakes! Wrapping yarn into a diamond pattern around two crossed pieces of wood.
The thick sweet egg-nog in the tall round rippled metal cans. Iced Lebkuchen. The spicy sweet scent of Gluhwein. The Adventskalender, with pieces of chocolate or little pictures behind each day's door. The Adventskerzen, another candle lit each week. The angels singing, the little bells tinkling, the big church bells ringing.
Some winter / Christmas scenes from the "The Dark is Rising" book also managed to entwine themselves into my Christmas memories, such that when I think of Christmas, I often also get memories of those scenes from the book.
Tomorrow, probably going out to watch Star Wars 8 with Qiao.
It's odd, how a few years of vivid Christmases as a child have imprinted themselves so strongly on my brain. How even now, thirty years later, I still feel compelled to put up a Christmas tree and such, all because of those long ago memories, even though they are so vague now. They became a part of my core, and they still affect me, even though the Christmases of adulthood, or perhaps rather the *me* of adulthood, are so empty and meaningless compared to back then.
A memory of liking to crawl under the tree, and look up at it from below. At the orange, blue, green, glowing, bigger Christmas tree lights of back then.
A memory of playing chess. I suppose that has nothing to do with xmas. But it was in the same living room as where we had the xmas tree at xmas.
The American Armed Forces newspaper (Stars & Stripes) always had a coloring contest around xmas-time. They printed some holiday-themed image (outlined like from a coloring book), which you could color in and submit, in hopes of winning. I don't remember if there was any prize. I never won.
My mom baked German Christmas cookies, and I helped. Ground up hazelnuts, mixed into a dough, refrigerated, then rolled out and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Baked, then iced and decorated. Then stored away in sealed containers, sometimes with pieces of apple, to give them time to soften up.
The excitement of getting presents. Of listening for reindeer hooves on the roof (nah, I never did that; above us was another apartment or the attic, not the roof). Of looking out the windows in the evening, looking for Santa. And for reindeer and a sleigh.
Of going on a road trip to visit our German relatives. The chatter of the people; the glow of the lights. The cold, desolate German winters.
Making hand-made Christmas decorations in elementary school. Red and green construction paper, cut into strips, glued into links for a paper chain to put on the tree. Paper cut-out snowflakes! Wrapping yarn into a diamond pattern around two crossed pieces of wood.
The thick sweet egg-nog in the tall round rippled metal cans. Iced Lebkuchen. The spicy sweet scent of Gluhwein. The Adventskalender, with pieces of chocolate or little pictures behind each day's door. The Adventskerzen, another candle lit each week. The angels singing, the little bells tinkling, the big church bells ringing.
Some winter / Christmas scenes from the "The Dark is Rising" book also managed to entwine themselves into my Christmas memories, such that when I think of Christmas, I often also get memories of those scenes from the book.