Christmas Memories

Almost every radio station I listen to these days is in full Christmas music mode.  I am loving it! 

 

Every song I hear is bringing back some absolutely wonderful memories of my childhood.  

 

When I was a little mite, my grade school would have Christmas pageants. Those pageants consisted of beautiful homemade costumes, poor acting and  lots of Christmas carols sung off-key by hyperactive children in 1st - 6th grades. 

 

It was a big event for us.  We started practicing in November and December, every afternoon during the week.  We learned our lines, or tried, sang about jingle bells and the twelve days of Christmas, and had a lot of fun skipping out on classes in the afternoon and misbehaving while we were not on stage.   We had a lot of work to do in order to be ready for the grand event the week before Christmas and somehow managed to pull it off, much to the delight of our parents.   

 

One particular Christmas pageant had me cast as a Christmas card (one of six). I believe I was in either 2nd or 3rd grade.  My costume was two pieces of tag board strapped together.  A scene having to deal with Christmas needed to be prominently displayed on front and back. 

 

 Luckily for me, my father was a self-taught artist who loved to dabble in oil paints.  Once he learned what my costume was to be, he spent hours sketching a design he thought would be appropriate for a Christmas pageant.   He would disappear for hours during the evening to work on this very involved project.  

 

 He wouldn't let me see what he was sketching in the "cooler" (his term for the basement where he had his office).  I even tried to sneak in to his office get a glimpse, but the door was conveniently locked - locked doors never occurred in our home. 

 

This was getting serious.

 

Every time I would ask what it was, he would just smile and say, "it's a work in progress."   

 

The day of dress rehearsal came and I needed to have the Christmas card costume at school with me, but he wouldn't let me take it on the school bus.  He promised that he would bring it to school in time for the dress rehearsal.  He did as promised.  When it came time for me to suit up, he was the one there (along with mom) to place the card over my shoulders. 

 

The front of the card was a beautiful,  snowy, forest scene with trees of many sizes and shapes off in the distance.  In the foreground  was a small evergreen brightly colored with lights.  A star was brilliantly displayed on top, it's glow reaching up to the heavens.    

 

The back of the card was equally as beautiful and of the same design, but with a manger scene showing beside the brightly lit tree.  

 

Everyone was ooo-ing and ahh-ing at the card.  I was the envy of all of my classmates. All I remember is the feeling of pride I had at wearing something that my father had made for me.  I was over the moon. Even more so when, on the night of the pageant, I stepped out on stage in my Christmas card costume and heard the gasps and claps from the audience. 

 

The love of my father was put in to that Christmas card costume.  I'm not sure who was beaming more, him or me. 

 

That memory can bring tears to my eyes to this very day.  

 

It is not the biggest, shiniest, most expensive gift that matters.  The  handmade gifts made and given out of love are the ones that are most remembered and treasured always. 

 

Sherry