Holiday Memories Open House

[Babi]

Holiday Memories - Our 2011 Open House!
Stop by and share the Holiday with all the good friends on Senior Learn

We want to hear about your favorite Holiday memory. Hi, come on in, make yourself comfortable and share your memories with us - Welcome to our month long Open House on Dec.1  T'is the season to wax nostalgic about all the Holidays you celebrate this time of year.. Every party needs MUSIC!  Here is a Mix of Christmas songs. "4 AWESOME Christmas Songs" When you were young was there a Holiday play with music in your school? Do you find yourself humming a particular tune when you are shopping or out walking? Who is your favorite holiday singing artist? What's a party without GOODIES? Let's fill this buffet table with your favorites! What's your best ever Holiday recipe and tell us the story behind it? What are you planning for a Holiday treat this year? Are there special Cookbooks you pull out this time of year? Tell us, do you set a special table or treat yourself to a special Tea or a bottle of Wine? Did you ever send a package to a Service Man or Women for the Holidays or serve in a Soup Kitchen - tell us about it if you have. When you were young did you ever attend a Red Cross Holiday dance for servicemen? Did any of you help out at a hospital during the holidays? What were some of the toys you received? Do you remember a special time with a family member during the holidays?  Was there an Open House you attended when you were young? How about when you were an adult...or was there an office party that you really looked forward to attending? Does your town have a Community Christmas Tree? Have you ever visited the tree in Rockefeller Center?   A Child's Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas And what's a gathering of BOOK LOVERS without Books? We all have our seasonal favorite STORIES and POEMS. What are yours?  What seasonal stories do you still plan to read for the first time? Do you remember the Holiday stories you read to your children? Can you remember attending your first Holiday movie in a theater? What about the Nutcracker, is that or singing with a group, Handel's Messiah on your calendar? Did you look forward each year to a special Holiday movie or show on TV?

Me, too, MARYPAGE. Only I like my chocolates with nuts, crispies, and crunch
as well as caramel. Most creams I can skip. I make an exception, of course,
of the chocolate truffles.

[pedln]

This has been a trying week, solved now, fortunately, so it’s been great fun to read about everyone’s  traditions, past and present.  And I love the picture of the statue in front of your library, Barbara. The story I will save for later, as I have much catching up to do.

Nice, CubFan, that your grandchildren have stepped up to the plate with the cinnamon rolls.  That sounds like a tradition that will last forever.

Johann, I hope your recovery continues to go well.  You do need to move around a lot, don’t you. I know someone whose dr. wouldn’t let her play bridge for six months after such surgery because “all you do is move around the table.”

MaryPage, what a neat idea – the Christmas ball.  I’ve never seen one.

We never decorated early for Christmas – the tree was usually done on the Sunday before Christmas, I guess because everyone was home.  Packages would come in the mail, and my mother would put them under the tree, but with the brown mail wrappings left on.  Taking the mail wrappings off would come  later, with the order – don’t touch.  We were a family of Norwegian heritage, so Christmas Eve dinner was always Lutefisk (cod fish) and Lefse (made out of potatoes). The lutefisk had a butter sauce, but my aunt always made a mustard sauce for my uncle because he was Swedish. Lefse was one of my most favorite foods.  Never touched the lutefisk.  But oh, the cookies.  Traditional American ones, but also rosettes and another favorite Norwegian cookie – futeman – poor man’s cookie.  It was fried in oil.  I haven’t had it since I was a kid, but was reminded of it while eating the German blatkuchen, that I can sometimes find here in the German areas of SE Missouri, if I’m lucky.

Now I think we've had many  Christmas traditions  in my family, some old, some new.  All of them important and worth remembering.

[MaryPage]

Pedln, my Beloved was half Norwegian and half English.  He was from Minnesota.

CHRISTMAS RIBBON CANDY ALERT!   I went to Rexall Drugs today and found they had a whiz of a special in Russell Stover chocolates:  buy one box and get one FREE!  So natch, I stopped and browsed (and yes, bought).

Lo!  They have a special Christmas Box of beautiful ribbon candies.  Look for them, Steph!

[salan]

We lived in the country and would always go with my Dad to pick out the tree; which he would then chop down.  They were always cedar trees and my younger sister always wanted the biggest one she could see.  It wasn't the beautiful shape that the spruce and pine trees are; but to us, it was lovely.  Dad would cut the tree to fit the room and then make a wooden tree stand.  The big multi-colored lights would go on; then lots of glass balls, and tinsel icicles.  My poor mother was allergic to cedar and would spend the 5 or 6 days the tree was up sneezing.  Sometimes we would make green and red chains out of construction paper to put on the tree.  It always had a lit star on top.  We celebrated on Christmas day.  Santa's presents were never wrapped, but all the rest were.  Santa's gifts were toys.  The rest of the gifts were mostly practical and always new flannel gowns and slippers that Mother knitted.  The knitted slippers would always have 5 silver dollars in the toe.
Sally
'

[ANNIE]

Well, our Barb is off on her trip to visit her daughter and the grans in NC.  Have a lovely and lively Christmas.  Merry Christmas, dear friend.

I love the Christmas and with all those instructions from Mary Page, I think that I could make four small ones for my older grans with stuff that my husband and I found in a drugstore.  Just simple ones with money at the end.  Am I understanding it right, that you start with a small clear plastic ball?  I am trying to decide whether to give them fake money and a note saying that their check was donated to the homeless fund or the food pantry which can buy $5 worth of groceries for $1.  Something like that.  They are all in middle or high school and have all the electronics that they need and love.  Their parents are giving them ski club memberships for one of our close by slopes.
I have made lots of stuff for the grans over the years.  Blankets, kits to make fleece pillow covers and spend the day with grandma making them, jean bags made from rag bag throw aways.  With the legs cuts off about 3 or 4 inches down from the crocth and sew shut, they are quite neat to work with and the pockets are perfect for hiding lots of small things, like, kid scissors, crayons, puzzles, markers, dot to dot books, one book that they can read, just lots of things for making a child happy.  I made the handles using the seamed pants legs.  Our SL Ginny liked them so much that I gave her one for her expected grandson.

Our local NPR station was going to talk about Christmas food last week but the only one that I heard about was Tomato Pudding so I 'googled' it and found these:

http://www.npr.org/2011/12/02/143037931/tomato-pudding-taste-it-to-believe-it

http://www.google.com/search?q=tomato+pudding&hl=en&client=safari&rls=en&prmd=imvnsue&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=P3ThTsPHGenr0gGWoYXIBQ&ved=0CFIQsAQ&biw=1012&bih=553

There certainly many ways to make the pudding and they all look quite tasty.  Maybe I will put one out for our Christmas buffet.

[MaryPage]

MAKING THE CHRISTMAS BALLS

No, no!  It is NOT necessary to start with a ball of any kind.  You MAY start with a ball, of course, but my advice is start with the money, so it will be the very last thing discovered.  You can make a ball without beginning with a ball, just by being careful and clever about the way you wrap the strips of crepe paper to construct a ball.

By the way, if you do not want to purchase packages of red and green crepe paper and cut your own strips, which is what I prefer to do, you can buy those precut strips which are meant to make streamers in and on ceilings of rooms for PARTY decorations.  You know the ones I mean?  They come in circular bunches.  Craft stores and party stores all carry them.  Hobby stores usually, as well.  They are a bit wide for my preferences, but they WILL perform the job!

You sort of weave back and forth and forth and back with your hands in making these balls.  If you have EVER in your life made a ball of knitting yarn out of a hank of yarn stretched out in someone's hands or placed over the back of a straight chair, you already KNOW how to do it!  I started doing that at about age 5, because the women in my family knit a lot.

[Steph]

No, the Vermont Country Store ribbon candy is fat and tasteless.. I tried that several years ago. I dont like hard candy as a rule, but the whole family loved the delicacy and taste of the thin ribbon.
I used to make fudge for Christmas and divinity, bu since there is only me, I dont. My two daughter in laws make so many cookies, I generally dont make them either, although I saw a new recipe the other day that tempts me.. We will see. I am listening to Christmas music for the first time in the past two years. No opera though. He loved it so much and treasured all of the great tenors.

[MaryPage]

Well, do look for the Russell Stover box of special Christmas ribbon candy.  It comes in their regular size box.  Sure looks delicious on the cover!

[Babi]

 No Rexall Drugs arund here, but surely a Russell Stover promotion would be
in other drugstores as well. Here's hoping!

 How neat, SALLY. Your mother knew how to make the practical stuff exciting,
too. Five dollars would be a real bonanza for a child. 
 I had an aunt who made divinity every year, but no one makes it anymore.
So very sweet; I guess people are just too 'sugar' conscious these days.
Fudge has not dropped away, tho'...thank goodness!

 I try to put up what decorations I can fairly early.  If I'm going to do all that
work, I want to enjoy the results more than a few days!  Mine stay up until
New Years Eve.

[MaryPage]

We never made Divinity at our house;  we were strictly fudge and taffy people, and only pulled taffy once a year.  Jeepers, I make it sound as though we were strict in one religion and scorned all others!  But howsomeever, we never made Divinity.

People used to give us gifts of it, though.  None of us liked it much.  I guess that is one good reason we never made it, huh?  I never thought Divinity had much to recommend it in the looks department, AND it contained no chocolate.

I am feeling a warm and fuzzy nostalgia for Divinity at the moment.  Why?  I would not eat more than one  bite of it.  Guess I yearn a little bit for those long gone Christmases.

[MaryPage]

That drug store I mentioned was NOT a Rexall.  My Bad!  I think Rexall is dead and gone, but I was not present at the burial, so am not certain of what I speak.

It was a RITE AID, and here that same premises used to be a Rexall and I am an old fuddy duddy about keeping up.  But Heavens to Betsy!  It has been a Rite Aid for eons now!

And I saw the same Christmas ribbon candies boxed by Russell Stover in our CVS drug store and in our Giant Grocery.  So it can be found just about anywhere they sell Russell Stover, which is a lot of places.

[salan]

My mother made divinity, fudge, Martha Washington balls, and date loaf candy.  My DDH loved divinity.  I never cared for it.  She made it especially for him.  I did not like date loaf, either; but my mother did.  Fudge, yummm!  I am a chocolate lover.  I tried to make divinity several times for my husband, but it never turned out.  Mother always said that you had to make it when there was very little moisture in the air as it wouldn't set up otherwise.  I used to make fudge and Martha Washington balls and turtles.  However, I don't make candy anymore--mainly because my family only eats one or two pieces and guess who has to finish the rest???  I do make cookies and a delicious pumpkin/cranberry bread.  I also make pumpkin and pecan pies for the holidays.  I will probably start baking cookies and pumpkin bread next week.  They freeze well. 
Sally

[nlhome]

My father, a mechanic, used to make the best divinity - have not had any as good. He also made taffy and popcorn balls. We don't make candy here, and now rarely cookies, although my husband is known to make special sugar cookies and I have a pecan crescent recipe that my mother-in-law used to make. We make them now that she can't, but last year she didn't recognize them.

[CallieOK]

Sally, I finished dipping about 150 Martha Washington candy balls in chocolate just before I read your post!
My recipe has chopped dates, chopped candied cherries and chopped pecans - no coconut. 
Since you mentioned your mother liked date loaf, I wondered if your MW balls have dates in them.

[pedln]

Oh my, I haven't had Divinity in years. Love it. My aunt made it often -- as long as the sun was shining, as it did not do well in rainy weather.  We had fudge of all kinds all year long.  My mother and aunt were great do-it-yourselfers -- paint, wall paper, you name it, they did it.  BUT FIRST -- my aunt would make a batch of fudge or divinity or pinoche (kind of a butterscotchy fudge) -- and that gave them enough energy to last through whatever project they had.

[ANNIE]

Thanks, Mary, for explaining how to wind crepe paper for the balls.  One of your linked directions started by using an empty plastic ball with an eye at the top for hanging.  
Like you, I helped wind many balls of yarn as my mother was an prolific knitter.  We used to say, "Don't stand still too long or mom will knit you into one of her many creations!"  We were the grateful receivers of afghans, slippers, sweaters, hats etc etc.   Crochet is my bailiwick but I have made many things for my grans who live nearby.  Same things that mom knitted, I crocheted.  One of the very favorites were girls' hats with long braids.  They were in a lovely purple color with other colors, like confetti, spread throughout.  I also made boys' hats that year in the same yarn.  We have a picture of the four kids wearing them.

When we lived in Austin, TX, our yard was full of pecan trees.  After picking them, shelling them, I made divinity and wrapped it around the pecans.  Worked pretty good and they were in 3 or 4 light colors.  I shipped them in egg cartons also loaded with just unshelled pecans.  I also made other Christmas candies to ship up north, using the egg cartons again.  I wouldn't even think of using those egg cartons today but it worked in -53!

My MIL introduced me to date nut bread and I still use the same recipe.  Sliced and spread with cream cheese, its just delicious, IMHO.  My special thing for Christmas is Creme de Menthe bars.  I make, at least, four pans of them every year and give them in pretty tins to my hairdresser and several other friends plus some family members.  They depend on my doing this every year and are very vocal about it in early December.

On Saturday night, after pizza, salad and a birthday cake for their dad, our grans along with their parents, will help us put up our tree.  Its artificial but a good one.  And Granpa has to first do the bubble lights.  I think we might play dominoes while he works away.  Hahaha!

In Columbus, there was  a delight filled candy store where they hand made the most delicious candy canes.  They had butter in them and were hand pulled and twisted.  One had to order them weeks ahead of Christmas.  Hmmmmm, good!

[MaryPage]

Do any of you play "Christmas Eve Gift!?"

I had read of this custom in one of the books by Lella Warren, I think it was her Foundation Stone, but it may have been Whetstone Walls.  These books were set, as I recall, in Alabama.  I may be mistaken about that, as it has been many, many years since I read them.

Anyway, apparently it is an old Southern custom in some families that goes back to the 19th century.

At any time on December 24th, you try to catch everyone else you meet or speak with on the phone or what have you by chirping out:  "Christmas Eve Gift!" before they say it to you.  The person caught has to give you a gift of some kind before the day is over or as soon as they next see you and can deliver the gift.  The same goes for you:  you have to give a gift to each person who catches you.  This rule goes for the whole 24 hours of Christmas Eve, but any specific person you have already caught cannot be caught by you again until next year, and vice versa.  There is only one chance per person.

My second husband was from Dallas, Texas, and he introduced this game into my family.  We all play it AVIDLY.  The present, again in our family tradition, does not have to be an expensive one, but it must be wrapped.  Not necessarily wrapped well, and not necessarily tied;  but wrapped.

The children often gave one another sticks of chewing gum.  Wrapped.  In Christmas paper.  Did I say in Christmas paper?  It must be in Christmas paper.

To give you an example, my mother-in-law stopped her car at a red light in Dallas one Christmas Eve.  She was astonished to see one of her brothers stopped at the light in the lane right next to her.  She rolled down her window and yelled "Christmas Eve Gift" to him.  He was LIVID at being caught, and had quite a way to go to get to her house.  Nevertheless, just before dark that evening he showed up at her door with a gift just barely wrapped in poinsettia tissue paper.  It was the raw, bloody neck of the turkey his wife Laura, my husband's favorite aunt, was roasting the next day.

John Paul did everything right.  That is how you play.

Actually, I have been known to surprise some kinfolk with fairly decent, even valuable presents!  Not often, but it has been known to occur.

My daughter Debi did her Junior year at the Sorbonne, and we could not afford for her to come home for Christmas.  So family friends who were stationed in Germany invited her there.  My husband David carefully explained Christmas Eve Gift to them, and they were all ready for Debi!  Even the German maid played it with zest.  Who knows?  Maybe there are some Germans playing it yet, and that was back in the Seventies!

[Steph]

Aha, so that is where Christmas Gift came from. When I lived in  Columbia,SC and was working,, that was a popular thing at the Bowling Center.. It baffled me and I am glad to hear where it came from. Not much fun when you are running into hundreds of people all day long.

[salan]

Mary Page, We play Christmas Eve Gift every year.  I am from the south, but never heard of this game until I married.  My husband's family has always played it.  They have done it for generations.  No gifts are given; the pleasure is in "catching" someone.  I rather like the idea of gifts being presented. 

Callie, my Martha Washington balls do not have dates.  They have coconut, almonds and choc.  They are rather like almond joys.

AdoAnnie, I like date loaf bread, but date nut candy.  My mother would make the candy and roll in in a log, then roll it in powdered sugar.  Then she would roll it up in wax paper and refrigerate it.  She would take it out and slice it before serving.

Sally

[Babi]

 Ah, yes..the pecan crescent cookies. I had forgotten about those. I used to
make them occasionally. And of course, the pecan pie is traditional for our
holidays. Lord knows we have lots of pecans in Texas.

 I must confess to envy of all of you who are still able to bake batches of
whatever. I am beginning to worry whether I'll find enough 'good days' to
finish my small Christmas shopping, and Valerie has had to take over most of
the cooking. What a drag! 

[ANNIE]

Oh, Pedl'n, Penuche fudge is my husband's very favorite fudge and I make penuche icing all the time for over chocolate cake.  Hmmmm, good!

[ANNIE]

So now we all know how to play Christmas Eve Gift so how many of you are going to try it?  Sounds like great fun!

[Steph]

Not I.. I will be at my sons and will not see anyone all day except them.. I used to love to go caroling. Where I grew up there were all sorts of youth groups who went caroling and one of the places we went , was the jail.. I am amzed now , but then,, We were allowed in the halls between the cells and sang our way through the small jail..There was a lot of applause. As kids it was our favorite place.. Scary and fun at the same time. We also went to the state hospital ( that no longer exists). Mostly quite old people, but some others who were sort of unnerving. Strange the things you remember. As an adult, we only caroled in neighborhoods..Easier, but not more fun.

[Babi]

 Not I, ANNIE.  Don't want to be a Scrooge,  but I've got enough problems
just trying to complete my Christmas shopping for family, never mind finding
a 'gift' for any passerby with a big grin and a 'gotcha'. 

[MaryPage]

Oh, OH. OH!  Watch This!  Watch and listen CAREFULLY all the way through!

It will thrill your heart!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH8FvERQHtM

[Steph]

I still like the one overseas where the entire orchestra came to the train station.. How the heck they got the tympani and the harp in there was amazing.
Today starts Chrstimas parties for different groups.. Two in one day, lunch for a widows group and dinner for the friends of the library.. Wish it was spread out more.

[Babi]

 I'm afraid I've never been much for parties. (Excepting the childhood birthday parties, of course.)
 Most of the adult parties seemed to consist of drinks and gossip, neither of which I cared for.
 I do hope to make the Volunteer's Breakfast at the library at the end of the month.  And any
family gathering is a pleasure and a comfort, even if I can't follow the conversations.  It's a joy
 just to sit back and watch them chatting and laughing together.

[ANNIE]

MaryPage,
I love the choir singing!  Very nice to have that happen in one's mall!  No one's done it here that I know of.  Thanks!
Here's one of my favoites by St Luke's Bottle Band:  Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS0C2CizbFA

[salan]

No one here has mentioned fruit cake.  Do any of you eat/make it?  My grandmother made fruit cakes every year.  She always gave us one for the Christmas gathering of family.  She put in lots of pecans and it was very moist.  I liked her fruitcake.  My little sister always picked the pecans off the top and ate them.  She also did this to pecan pies--most aggravating (but then, aren't most "little" sister pests??).  I don't care much for fruitcakes now.  Most of them are too dry, and I'm not a fan of candied fruit.

I'm in a reading slump.  I haven't read anything this month and have had to re-check my library books.  I usually like light fluffy feel good Christmas books for December reading.  I am having Christmas at my house this year; and have been busy decorating the house and tree.  All presents are bought.  Now I need to wrap them and put them under the tree.  I give my daughter and her husband money; but I always buy them a gift to put under the tree.

Sally

[MaryPage]

Oh, Annie!  That was WONDERFUL!  Thank you so much!

I love fruit cake, but no one makes it as good as my grandmother used to, so I don't eat it any longer.  I sent to each of the fancy catalogs offering it, but no way was any of it as good as it looked in the photographs.  I do not bake at all.

[Steph]

 I used to make a lovely fruit cake.. all pecans and candied cherries and lots and lots of bourbon to marinate it in cheescloth, but my children hated it and I simply do not do it any more.. I may make a few cookies, because I found a new recipe I would like to try.
Was listening at lunch to a description of a Chriistmas house tour.. Whew.. A house entirely crammed with Santas of every description, even the garage..
Another house entirely white,, walls, floors,s furniture.. and filled with the little villages.. Oh me, I guess I have never been a believer of Christmas decorations on that level. But irealized after reading a cousins email, that she is as well. Entire house, including bathrooms..Oh me..

[Babi]

 I don't care for most fruitcake, SALLY. As you said, too much candied fruit.
But there is a 'golden',or 'white' fruitcake that is really good. Unfortunately
they're not what you usually find available in the markets. I could order one,
but since I'm probably the only one in the family that would touch it, it
doesn't seem practical.

 You remind me of a company dinner I once attended, STEPH. The dessert was
whiskey cake, something I'd never heard of. Well, the whiskey was quite
pronounced. I think everyone was a surprised,or maybe the silence was people busily gobbling it down.  In any case, the head of the company stood up at the front of the banquet room and calmly announced, "There will be no seconds on the cake!"

 Speaking of bad Christmas decor, there's a yard in our neighborhood that is a real
eyesore.  The front yard is chock-full of blown up Santas, snow globes, snowmen,
...you name it. All so crowded together it looks like a jumble sale, and several of
the them knocked over and lying on the ground.  I have to wince and look away
whenever I drive past.

[MaryPage]

Steph, that is the way my grandmother made it!  She made lots of them in the fall and put them in tins and put them on a shelf halfway down the stairs to the basement.  That way, it was easy for her to go down the steps to that place and open each tin and pour more bourbon over the cheesecloth to keep the cakes moist.  And to preserve them.

Oh My, but they were Good!

[JoanP]

Babi - I think you're describing my son's yard in North Carolina!  I have to tell you something about those blown up Santas lying on the ground.  I recently learned this.  You plug them in and they fill with air.  When not in use, you unplug them and they collapse into a pile on the ground until the next time you plug them in.

Every year I purchase a little package of Claxton Fruit Cake - That's a close as I get to the real thing. (No one else in the family understands what I see in fruitcake.)   What you are describing is something I've never been fortunate enough to taste.  So, I guess I don't really know what I'm missing, do I?

[bluebird24]

salan
you can try reading a story online
http://www.gutenberg.org/

[Steph]

I do remember inItaly being served some sort of whiskey cake. It packed a punch.. I think the frosting was pure liquor.. Limoncello of course. It was excellent, but one piece was quite enough.
Several of the local churches are into living nativity scenes.. Starting this weekend, some of hem will do it every single night. Granted it is Florida and not cold.. Oh well..

[Babi]

  I can't even offer you a recipe, JOANP.  I only tasted that truly delicious fruitcake because a
neighbor made then and gave me one.  I could have asked for the recipe, but as I recall there
was a delicate hint that it was one she did not share. 

[ANNIE]

We were lucky enough 30 yrs ago to be introduced to Texas Manor Fruit Cake by the high school band director.  The members of the band were selling the fruit cakes to make money for appearing in a parade in Florida. I can't remember just where but I do remember the fruit cakes. I had never liked fruit cakes until I tasted these.  I ordered about 10 of them as gifts and after Christmas received not only thank yous but questions as to where we found such delicious ones. At the April band boosters meeting, the band director said that he was still ordering those cakes for folks who liked them so much.  Needless to say, the band made their trip and it was all paid for by the diligence and hard work of selling fruit cakes.  Tee hee!

I actually found Texas Manor page:

http://www.yahoocake.com/Texas-Manor-Fruitcake-Stollens/products/3/

[bluebird24]

http://southernfood.about.com/cs/christmasfood/a/fruitcakes.htm

found with goodsearch.com

[bluebird24]

http://www.chabad.org/holidays/chanukah/default_cdo/jewish/Hanukkah.htm

found with isearchigive.com
not jewish