The ghosts of Christmas past come calling

Every year about this time things happen that prompt flashbacks to those Christmas memories of yesteryear.

I was watching the classic 1954 musical “White Christmas” for the first time ever the other evening and it wasn’t Bing Crosby’s crooning that made me nostalgic. It was the Christmas trees in the background as the cast sang and danced their way through the film.

The Christmas trees looked exactly like the ones I remember decorating in the late ’50s and early ’60s — lots and lots of tinsel and those huge colored lights with bulbs about the size of an adult thumb.

For some reason those trees triggered memories I’d long forgotten, such as how I’d admonish my middle brother for seeing how much tinsel he could get to stick on the tree by throwing big blobs of it all at once.

Applying tinsel was a tedious task and he just didn’t have the patience for it. If you strategically placed it piece by piece, the end result was stunning.

Taking the tinsel off the tree — because Mom made us save it and reuse it from year to year — was as big a job and not nearly as fun because Christmas was over for another year.

It occurred to me as I analyzed those trees on the movie set that it was the first time I’d seen those telltale tannenbaums in color. All of our photographs of Christmases past are in black and white.

By the time our kids were decorating trees, the tinsel, huge lights and uniform ornamental colored balls were long gone, replaced by the miniature lights and a wide array of custom-made ornaments, namely what the girls had made in school that year.

Another flashback happened at the Sunday school Christmas program during church last Sunday. For the first time in recent memory the children portraying the long-ago manger scene during Christ’s birth were decked out in costumes, complete with angel’s wings and shepherd’s staffs. The scene brought me right back to my own Sunday school programs of bygone days.

Those pageants were a big deal back in the day and we always wore costumes and memorized our parts. I was almost always a part of the heavenly chorus of angels because I could carry a tune. I’m still nursing a grudge because I never once got to play Mary, but in hindsight that may have been a ho-hum role because she just sat there with the Baby Jesus.

Afterwards we exchanged gifts and received the requisite bag of unsalted peanuts in the shell that also included two pieces of chocolate, some hard candies and an orange. The goody bag never veered from the norm.

Now that we’re empty-nesters with no grandchildren yet, the Christmas seasons are much more serene, and I think that’s a good thing.

When I remember the years our daughters were young, it was a blur — a marathon, really — of piano recitals, school and church programs, youth-group caroling, baking, sledding parties and any number of other holiday activities. Those were great times, but I remember being utterly exhausted by Christmas Day.

These days I like having time to contemplate the reason for the season, as they say. It gives me a chance to fully appreciate my many blessings. My wish is that every one of you have the chance to slow down, catch your breath and bask in the beauty and wonder that only the message of Christmas can bring.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.