{"id":1994,"date":"2021-12-24T20:00:47","date_gmt":"2021-12-25T02:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1994"},"modified":"2021-12-24T20:00:47","modified_gmt":"2021-12-25T02:00:47","slug":"christmas-memories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=1994","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Memories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas Was Magic<\/strong><\/h2>\n

— Stephanie<\/p>\n

When I was a small child, my parents would put up the tree Christmas Eve and hang the stockings. So when I went to bed, everything was empty and barren. Coming down the stairs Christmas morning, the tree would be lit up and filled with decorations, candy canes and tinsel. Presents were piled high all around the tree and the stockings were filled, sometimes overflowing. A toy train would be chugging along, tooting its horn as it circled the tree on its metal tracks. It was easy to believe in Santa. The funny thing is I don\u2019t remember any one specific gift that I received as a child, it was the tree that was so
\nincredibly magical for me.<\/p>\n

This was a cherished tradition, passed along from my mother\u2019s family. It would have been wonderful if my children could have experienced this kind of magic, but with marriage comes compromise and their father wanted the tree up early and decorated so that he could enjoy it before Christmas. My parents enjoyed the tree well after Christmas, one year it was still up right before Easter. At that point, it was pretty much a fire hazard.<\/p>\n

My children probably wouldn\u2019t have relished the contents of my stocking. Every year there would be a quarter in the toe, an orange and the filling would be mixed nuts in the shell. There would be new socks and a plastic candy cane filled with chocolate candies, but that was it. For me, it was perfect. My kids, they would probably have considered it child neglect.<\/p>\n

My favorite Christmas was when I found a twenty-dollar bill at church a couple weeks before the holiday. No one claimed it so the minister gave it to me. That was a lot of money back then and I was able to buy my two older brothers, three older sisters and my parents all presents that year. Watching them open my gifts filled me with such joy. Yes, that was the best Christmas of all.<\/p>\n

The Christmas Bicycle<\/strong><\/h2>\n

— Marty<\/p>\n

For as long as I can remember, opening Christmas presents at the Ryan home occurred on Christmas Eve.\u00a0 Santa Claus came in from the basement.\u00a0 Odd, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 Of course, we didn\u2019t have a fireplace.\u00a0 My cousin made fun of us because their house had a fireplace and Santa could come in through the dirty old chimney.<\/p>\n

The big mystery on Christmas Eve was \u201cwho is playing Santa this year.\u201d\u00a0 It began with John Kenney and ended with Tom Meehan and a few other guys in between.\u00a0 I always waited to see Santa lift his faux cotton beard to take a shot of whiskey that he was offered in the kitchen, out of sight from the kids.\u00a0 I spotted this tradition by accident.<\/p>\n

One year, as the presents were being brought up from the basement, I noticed a gift that was too large for wrapping paper.\u00a0 It was a red and white 28-inch bicycle.\u00a0 That had to be mine.\u00a0 I focused on nothing more than that bicycle, waiting in unbridled anticipation of whose name would be called when that present was handed out.\u00a0 The owner of that bicycle was the last name called \u2013 Marty.<\/p>\n

The bicycle was leaning against the cupboard in the kitchen by the portal leading to the living room, where everyone was gathered.\u00a0 That was the first time I had seen the whiskey tradition.\u00a0 It was my annual ritual from that Christmas Eve until I left home.<\/p>\n

But the bike.\u00a0 What a beautiful bicycle it was.\u00a0 The frame consisted of three small, curved bars rather than the solid straight bar most bicycles had of that time.\u00a0 The handlebars were innovative as well.\u00a0 It was sleek.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t wait to get on it and ride.<\/p>\n

I was into assembling model car and trucks at the time, so I had paint for plastic models.\u00a0 Because I couldn\u2019t ride the bike in the winter, I brought it to the basement and carefully painted white stripes on every part of the red bike that made up the frame.\u00a0 When finished, it looked like a peppermint cane.\u00a0 My mom was not pleased.\u00a0 But, hey!\u00a0 It\u2019s my bike!\u00a0 Even though I didn\u2019t believe in Santa Claus, this bike was between me and Santa; mom had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n

I had that bike until I was old enough to drive a car.\u00a0 From the first warm day in late winter to the first cold day in early winter, I was on that bike.\u00a0 It had to be the best Christmas present a boy could want.\u00a0 That boy was me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas Was Magic — Stephanie When I was a small child, my parents would put up the tree Christmas Eve and hang the stockings. So when I went to bed, everything was empty and barren. Coming down the stairs Christmas … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[347,930,929,931],"class_list":["post-1994","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christmas","tag-john-kenney","tag-santa","tag-tom-meehan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1994"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1995,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994\/revisions\/1995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1994"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1994"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1994"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}