Christmas Memories

Four children and a dog on Christmas

I have been thinking about my parents and the Christmas magic they created for us as children a lot this year.  My mom’s aunt and uncle, Aunt Nini and Uncle Will, moved into our house when I was two.  Uncle Will died just before my third birthday, and Aunt Nini lived with us for another sixteen years or so.  That was an important fact in helping Mommy and Daddy create the magical Christmases that I love to remember.

Mom was the only one of her siblings to marry and have children.  Mom’s sister, Fran, became Sister Mary Melita (later Sister Frances Dunn), a missionary nun, so we had limited opportunities to spend time with her, although every time was a treat.  Mom’s sister, Mary, lived an exciting life all over the United States, but was usually home for Christmas.  My grandmother and grandfather, Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop (Pop-Pop died in 1964), lived around the corner from Mommy and Daddy.  Bill, Dot and Genny lived at their house until the late 1970’s.  All of this contributed to the magic.

Mommy and Daddy really had to pinch pennies when we were children, but that didn’t matter at Christmas because Mom-Mom and Pop-Pop and Uncle Bill, and Mary Dunn and Aunt Dot and Aunt Genny all contributed to making our Christmases amazing.

Mommy and Daddy would put us to bed before going to Midnight Mass.  Aunt Nini and Uncle Will ( and then just Aunt Nini) weren’t Catholic, so stayed home with us while we slept.  When Mommy and Daddy got home from Midnight Mass, they would wake us up and tell us that Santa came while they were at church.  In actuality, the presents were all stored at Mom-Mom’s house, and the army of aunts and uncle brought everything to our house and set it all up around the tree.

Four sleep-tousled children would come downstairs to a wonderland of gifts, and each of us would have an adult assigned to us to help us open our gifts.  After the gifts were opened, Mommy and Daddy would serve a breakfast casserole, and we would all go to bed, virtually ensuring that we would sleep in the next morning.  At least until after eight o’clock.

On Christmas morning, Mommy and Daddy would take all of us to a later Christmas mass.  Then to Mom-Mom’s for dinner, and then to Aunt Frenchy and Uncle John’s house, and then to Aunt Delores’ house, before coming home on Christmas night.

There was something so exciting about thinking that Santa timed his arrival just right so that Mommy and Daddy didn’t see him.  It was such an incredible gift Mom gave to her childless siblings to have them share in the magic that only children can bring to Christmas.

I’ve mentioned before in my Christmas messages that it can be easy to get lost in the melancholy at Christmas.  Missing loved ones who are no longer here.  I’m getting better at celebrating the magical memories I was blessed to create with the people I love, and focus on those memories rather than the fact I can’t make new memories with some people.

My wish for you this Christmas is that you too can bask in the warmth of wonderful memories.  I hope your heart is filled with love, present and past.

May the eternal gift of the Christ child light your Christmas morning with magic, this and every year.