Candle holders clipped on the branches of our Christmas tree held little spiral candles. Though only slightly larger around than a pencil and scarcely three inches tall, they lit the tree on Christmas morning.
Homes brought hearts back for the holidays. Sacrifices sometimes had to be made, but you could hear laughter and long talks with love shared in a thousand ways.
Red and green were Christmas colors. Crepe paper streamers were attached to the ceiling of a room at the four corners and secured at the center with a little twist. The fragile paper held a red honeycomb bell to complete the canopy of decorations.
Ideas were not influenced by television commercials, but created with one’s own thoughts and conception of what was a gift.
Scent of freshly cut mountain cedar meant that very soon the tree would be standing in the center of a room, it’s branches reaching out to be adorned with cardboard cutouts covered with tin foil and draped with icicles for glitter.
Toy Land at the Department Store on a corner of Main Street opened soon after Thanksgiving. Children and their parents climbed the stairs to the balcony where an enchanted world existed for but a brief time.
Mincemeat was homemade and contained pork from hog’s head, fresh apples, oranges, lemons, dried peaches, wild plum pulp, green mustang grapes, raisins, vinegar, sugar, red corn syrup and spices.
Apples and oranges came in wooden crates and every family had fruit and nuts for Christmas. Sometimes these were the only special treats a family could afford.
Snow came to Central Texas on December 22, 1929. The rare palette of snow brought a beauty and calmness to the Christmas season.
The sights, sounds, smells, tastes and feel of Christmas spell memories for a lifetime.