The span of time from Thanksgiving to Christmas was such a fantastic part of my childhood! Baking cookies, making decorations, circling everthing in the Sears Catalog! The tradition in our neighborhood was for the local fire company to come around with Santa and we all would wait (I'm sure there was a schedule, but we never knew when it would be so we were on our best behavior!) for that special night sometime in December to sit on his lap and find out whether we were on the naughty or nice list! I remember my parents sneaking around making and hiding presents and getting "Bill, the gas station guy" to play Santa when we were teetering on whether to believe or not! We would sit glued to the weather report on Christmas Eve, as the weatherman could always pinpoint Santa's location with dopplar radar, and we would gaze out of our dining room window over the mountains to see the red of Rudolph's nose (which never moved because it was a tower with a red light on top to alert airplanes...why didn't we notice it any other time??!!) They would jingle a wonderful set of huge bells on a leather strap..of course riendeer bells when we were just dozing off to sleep!
And guess what? "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, I am my parents after all"!! When my son was younger, I went to great lengths to make Christmas magic! We put shoes out for St. Nicholas to fill with trinkets on the evening of December 5th. We would read every Christmas book known to man every night!! Cutting our Christmas tree, bringing it home and decorating it, always began with a special breakfast at the Redwood diner in Summerhill. We've baked cookies, made marshmallows, built gingerbread and other structures! We have made Santa's footprints by dipping my husband's boots in baking soda and "walking" from the door to my son's room and back and then to the tree. Here's a tip on that...don't use baby powder..Christmas snow has no scent and baking soda is easier to vacuum up! We've had a wonderful friend dress like Santa and videotape him putting down presents and exiting through the fireplace! We always baked special cookies for Santa and left them out with a nice big glass of milk with carrots for the reindeer just before bedtime! I'm sure there are many more that are slipping my mind!!
I love that part of Christmas! I've even gotten us an "Elf on the Shelf"! Now with a 16 year old, it's not quite as mysterious or necessary to be so clever about what we say or how we do things but I still play and he plays along...because he doesn't want ME to stop believing!!
