The evening in Esther Short Park was alight with sparkling bulbs on beautiful trees. The message that Santa and his elves were in the area, and all present knew the true magic of Christmas was only days away, brightened the faces in the crowd. My thoughts drifted back to a time in the late 1940s, when my folks and I made a magical trip to Grandpa and Grandma’s Sherman County, Ore., home for Christmas.
Snow in the Northwest sort of comes and goes with a mind of its own, with one never knowing if a white Christmas will really be white or not. The not knowing of this year was no different. Yet, it was!
Our arrival with happy smiles, hugs around, and talk of cousins and other family members soon arriving to share this wonderful time only added to the magic in this little boy’s mind. The bite of the wind and white puffy clouds moving in from the west offered a message — if one was to give consideration to the weather.
I’m not sure which came first the next morning: the smell of Grandpa firing up the wood stove in the kitchen for his biscuits and bacon, or my yelling “Grandma — it’s snowing! Mom, Dad — it’s snowing!”
The quest for a tree was already forming in my mind, though a proper tree in “wheat land” might become a challenge larger than finding snow. There was an acre of locust trees south of the house along the lane. I would have to look there. And, as I remember, it was in this tract of trees that I found a little Charlie Brown-type evergreen.
After the tree-gatherers provided the tree, next came what to put on it for decoration. Mom said that we could pop some corn and string it, and make enough for caramel corn. Grandmother said, more thinking out loud than anything else, “There’s some old ornaments and candle holders down in the cellar.” Now my mind was really racing — we are going to have a real Christmas tree! But, what are these candle holder things?
Take care with candles
There was a very good reason to discontinue the use of real candles, even in holders on dry or drying evergreen trees. Fire was the ever-present danger of having a real lit candle burning on a tree. (Burning candles were replaced by electric lights as electricity became the norm, and even later by bubble lights that looked like the old candles. Now we have low voltage, low heat electric light sets that can safely light most anything.)
Grandma hesitantly agreed to place the decorated tree in the front parlor, a room that was only used when guests arrived and was seldom heated. The room had a kerosene heater and was arranged so the tree could be seen out the bay windows. The tree would only be lighted once and then the candles would be blown out.
What a picture that was. Grandmother at her piano; Christmas music arrangements set out to play; a beautiful tree now strung with draping strings of popcorn, a few 50-year-old ornaments, some bright ribbons, and a set of real lighted candles in their holders clamped to the tree limbs.
The picture dimmed as the moment retreated and Grandma instructed that the candles be put out. But, the light of the moment has lasted me another 60-some-odd years, and it was one time that Christmas presents didn’t rule. I’m not sure that there were any, though there must have been — I just can’t recall!
What a magical time!
