Clarabell the Christmas Cow

I know it's after Christmas, but this story I just found is worth sharing. The story was apparently first published in 1976 and has even been the subject of an animated film.

Christmas in Massachusetts

Everyone ought to read today's Mass Moments post about celebrating Christmas (or the lack thereof) in the state of Massachusetts. You'll learn a little about how our ancestors did or did not celebrate the holiday.

Christmas Eve

How did you and your family spend Christmas Eve?

There's not really a special way we used to spend Christmas Eve. When I was little, I remember that the weather man used to always let us know on television when he spotted Santa leaving the North Pole. Of course, as radar became the norm on local TV weather, they utilized that as well. Of course, I'd set out a plate of cookies and milk for Santa. Then I'd go to bed early. In my teen years, I remember assembling all my nephew's toys on Christmas Eve. Nowadays, I usually sneak out my parents' gifts on Christmas Eve after they've gone to bed.

Our church did not have a Christmas Eve service when I was growing up. My parents' church has one now. We went a couple of years, but it ended up being the same program year after year and was nothing special, so we haven't gone the last couple of years.

My plans for this year include watching old movies like White Christmas and the Bells of St. Mary's. I watched Holiday Inn this afternoon. I'll watch either the Lemon Drop Kid or The Bishop's Wife this evening. The other one is game for Christmas Eve or Christmas Day until all five classic movies I brought with me are viewed.

This is the final post in this year's Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

Christmas Sweetheart Memories

Do you have a special memory of a first Christmas present from a sweetheart? How did you spend your first Christmas together?

I call my cat my sweetheart. He traveled with me from Cincinnati to Amory on our first Christmas together. He was still adjusting to traveling at the time and probably cried for about the first three hours or so. He didn't know my parents or their house, and it took him awhile to get used to them. He hid under the couch and under my parents' bed when my brothers and their families visited. I had him a little stocking (hung on the mantel) that was filled with catnip and some toys. It was fun to watch him stretch up to get to the stocking.

Christmas Books

What Christmas is complete without a few good Christmas reads?



I'm sure all of us had a copy of A Visit from St. Nicholas (or Twas the Night Before Christmas) by Clement C. Moore that we read each year at our homes. I'm not sure whatever happened to the copy that I had while growing up, and I wish I knew who the illustrator was so that I could obtain another copy.



Then, we all know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge that Charles Dickens brought to us in A Christmas Carol. Even if you never read the book, you've seen a movie adaptation or play.



Kate Douglas Wiggin brought us another Christmas classic in The Birds' Christmas Carol.



O. Henry brought us The Gift of the Magi.



I decided to search my LibraryThing to see what I have tagged as a Christmas book. Some of the fiction titles in the list will end up being traded for credit at McKay's in Knoxville. Here's a quick run-down:



Debbie Macomber / Christmas Wishes



Jan Karon / The Mitford Snowmen



Cookies for Christmas (I think this is a small cookbook that came with my Taste of Home subscription.)



Anne Perry / A Christmas Journey



Dorothea Benton Frank / The Christmas Pearl



Marcia Evanick / A Berry Merry Christmas



Jeff Smith / The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas



Fern Michaels / Comfort and Joy



Rhonda Gowler Greene / Santa's Stuck



Janet Dailey / Mistletoe and Molly



Marcia Evanick / Mistletoe Bay



Christmas with Southern Living 1993



Carolyn Kramlich / Mary's Treasure Box



Toni L.P. Kelner / Mad as the Dickens



Valerie Wolzein / Deck the Halls with Murder



Valentine Davies / Miracle on 34th Street



Comfort & Joy (This is one of those Gooseberry Patch cookbooks someone gave me.)


Iza Trapani / Jingle Bells

I'm currently reading Murder Most Merry, a short-story collection that features a lot of well-known mystery writers.

I've also decided that I must not have tagged all my Christmas books as "Christmas" because there are a few picture books that I know I have that aren't in the listing. I just can't remember all the titles right now. I have one that is the neatest little picture book that shows how Christmas is celebrated in different cultures around the world.

This is the grab bag post for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories.

OOPS - I missed a post somewhere! - Christmas and Deceased Relatives

Did your family visit the cemetery at Christmas? How did your family honor deceased family members at Christmas?

I can honestly say that I don't think we visited the cemetery at Christmas until I started genealogical research. Now, I usually visit cemeteries on my Christmas break. Why? Because the snakes are hibernating! It's the best time to visit them.

I don't think we had a special way of honoring family members although it was always sad on the first Christmas without someone we were used to have being around.

Christmas Music

What songs did your family listen to during Christmas? Did you ever go caroling? Did you have a favorite song?

We had a few Christmas albums at the house growing up. I know one of them had Gene Autry singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Another had a version of "I Saw Momma Kissing Santa Claus". I think there was one of hymns, and a Perry Como Christmas album.

Some of my favorite Christmas songs were the ones I heard when I was in the Tupelo Mall. Songs like "The Christmas Song," "Winter Wonderland," and "Let It Snow."

I have quite the collection of Christmas albums now too. Some of my favorites are Bing Crosby's White Christmas, The Carpenters' Christmas album (I am away from my collection at the moment and can't check the titles), Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas album (the original one - I haven't heard their new one yet although I did hear a cut from it on the radio today), Kenny G's Christmas album, Amy Grant's Christmas Album (the first one that had "Tennessee Christmas," "Heirlooms," and "Emmanuel" on it), and the Talleys' Christmas album from about 1989 - give or take a couple of years.

As far as favorite songs, as far as religious ones, I would have to say my two favorites are on Greater Vision's Christmas album. Both feature Gerald Wolfe, their lead singer. The two cuts are "Cherish That Name" and "O Holy Night." As far as secular, I have to go with Amy Grant's "Tennessee Christmas" as far as more recent ones. I love a lot of the classic songs too. I think it's hard to pick a favorite Christmas song, because I love most of them.

Caroling? Our youth group used to go. I was going to go in the park this year in Morristown, but I wasn't well enough yet to go. It sounded like fun.

Christmas Shopping

How did your family handle Christmas Shopping? Did anyone finish early or did anyone start on Christmas Eve?

I know of no one in our family that ever waited until December 24 to start shopping. I don't know when they shopped for me although I occasionally found evidence around the house in a "hiding place" or two that Santa had made an early delivery. We did a lot of the shopping for my brothers and their families in Tupelo. Mom tended to be one of those persons who thought everyone needed clothes for Christmas. By the time I was buying gifts, I made sure that my nephews and later my nieces had something besides clothes among their gifts. Before Amory had a Wal-Mart, we usually went to Fred's or to what was my favorite dollar store in town, V. J. Elmore's. This particular dollar store had a certain "smell" to it. They also had some loose wooden boards in the floor in the toy section. I think I just enjoyed the experience of being in that dollar store and looking through the little bins at all the toys they had. I think we had a store called Hi-Lo there for awhile, but I wasn't very fond of it. There was also a Sterling's Dollar Store that went into the Glendale Shopping Center by what was then the A & P. For clothes shopping in Amory, I remember visiting Black's. There was also the Dorothy Mae shoppe. I think that was what it was called back then. Another store in town that usually had better clothes was the Casulaire, but we rarely purchased clothes there. Their markup was probably 20% over what you'd pay for the same thing in Tupelo at Reed's. If we shopped for Dad, we'd usually start at Anthony's Men's Shop in Amory, but we sometimes ended up at McCullough Long McCullough in Tupelo or at Reed's. Mom would always have a few ingredients for Christmas foods that she'd have to pick up at McCullen's Grocery Store. They were the only store in town that had some of the specialty ingredients. They used to take orders from people and deliver them also. When the first mall came to Tupelo, we thought we'd hit the big time. It was anchored by Sears on one end and by Brett's on the other. I don't remember all the shops that were in it, but it was a lot of fun to shop in the mall. Later, a second mall came to Tupelo. They had a Woolco on one end and J.C. Penney on the other. I don't remember which mall had Kress, but it was like a super-size dollar store, if I remember correctly. Both malls would figure into our Christmas shopping.

When I went to college, I began shopping in Memphis for Christmas. There was a lot of variety there. I will never forget my first year living in Cincinnati (the first of two times). I was in graduate school, and my roommate and I went downtown where we hit the bargain basements of L.S. Ayres and Shillito's. We also went through the main stores and through some of the indoor malls downtown. Our arms were full, but we did almost all of our shopping in one blitz. After the downtown shopping was not as good, I tended to do a lot of shopping at Kenwood Towne Center. Tri-County Mall or some of the buildings on the outskirts of it is where I'd usually finish it up in the evenings after my major blitz.

Here in East Tennessee, the Tanger Five Oaks Mall in Sevierville is my favorite place to Christmas shop. If they are out of something, I can usually get them to call the Pigeon Forge store (usually in either the Red Roof mall, the Belz mall, or the other Tanger shopping center). I, of course, have a few places that I always want to visit around Christmas time whether or not I buy anything. One of those is One More Stitch which is the cross stitch shop here in Morristown. One is Cracker Barrel's store. They have great ornaments for gifts. Another is the Robert A. Tino gallery in Sevierville. He's a wonderful local artist. I really like to catch the open house sale where you can get 8 x 10 framed prints for $25. Some of the frames are really cool, however, his artwork is exceptional. Le Gourmet Chef in the Five Oaks Mall is one of my favorite shops. I bought Wusthof knives there one year for Mom and for me. I also like some of the gourmet food items they have. I can always get Cafe du Monde beignet mix there. They have some of the Barefoot Contessa's products there as well. Of course, taking a break during shopping to enjoy Starbuck's or Ben and Jerry's is part of the shopping experience!

Christmas Stockings

Did you have one?

Yes. It was made by my Aunt Daisy for me before my first Christmas. She had stitched my name on the white "cuff". It was a soft felt-like material. It had a green ribbon string.

Where did you hang it?

It hung on the doorknob of the living room most of the years. We didn't have a mantel or a fireplace when I was smaller.

What did you get in it?

Mostly fruit and nuts. However, there would also be chapstick, jewelry, or other small items at times.

Christmas Church Services

Did your family attend religious services during the Christmas season? What were the customs and traditions involved?

I grew up in the Bible Belt. We went to church every time the doors were open, so yes, we attended any services held during the Christmas season. However, we did not have Christmas Eve services at our church unless it happened to fall on Sunday night or Wednesday night while I was growing up. About the only tradition at the church in which I grew up was the children's Christmas pageant. Once in a blue moon, we might put together a cantata, but it was rare. As a musically-inclined person, I wish we had done more musicals or cantatas, but realistically, I know that the talent just wasn't in our church to pull one off.

In fact, it was not until I moved to Cincinnati in the mid-1980s that I even knew what an advent wreath was. I guess the church in which I grew up considered that too Catholic or something. All, or maybe I should say most, of the Protestant churches in the Cincinnati area observed Advent. I was told it was because there were so many Catholics in the Cincinnati area that there were many former Catholics in all the churches to which this custom was very special. Now that I'm back in the South, I have to admit that I do sometimes miss the way Advent was celebrated in that area.

When I was in Cincinnati, one of the other "new" traditions for me was a "Chrismon" tree. This was a tree that we'd decorate each year with symbols that had to do with Jesus. I remember cross-stitching Alpha and Omega (the Greek Letters) one year for it. All the symbols were in gold and white. There was a special Sunday evening service where the tree was decorated. We have a Chrismon tree at my church in Tennessee, but I'm not sure who decorates it. It just usually appears by the first of December.

As an adult, I've always been a part of the music program at whatever my home church was at the time. I participate as a choir member in the musical we are doing that year. I've already mentioned The Living Christmas Tree. That is what we do at the church where I'm a member now. It combines a musical and drama, and I sing tenor. [I came down with a cold this year right before the Living Christmas Tree. Our music minister saw me on the night of the first performance after I'd been out for both dress rehearsals and asked how I was. I opened my mouth and started talking. He said, "Oh, my, you're a bass." He asked last night if I was better. I told him that I might be up to baritone. He laughed.] Tonight is the last performance for this year. I believe that they will place it online, and if that is the case, I'll post a link when it is available. I just haven't been able to find the picture from a few years back that I used to have.

Next Sunday, I'll be singing at my Mom and Dad's church. I will probably sing "Cherish That Name" and "O Holy Night."

Christmas at School

What did you do to celebrate Christmas at school? Were you ever in a Christmas Pageant?

I really don't remember very much about Christmas celebrations at school. I believe we had parties in the lower elementary grades right before we let out. We sang a few Christmas songs in music class. By the time I was in middle school, I was in the band so we were part of the Amory bands Christmas program each year. In high school, we had all the area Christmas parades in which we marched. (I played piccolo in marching band.) It was terribly cold at times because in order to be able to move my fingers on the keys, I had to cut out the finger-tips of the gloves. However, we never had to do this.

I don't think the schools ever had Christmas pageants. Those were left to churches in the area, and yes, I was always in the pageant. I was usually the main angel because that one had the biggest part to memorize, and I had those lines "down pat."

Nowadays, Christmas in the world of higher education usually means food. We bring food for parties for various groups. We have a catered meal for all of us faculty members. We sometimes have white elephant exchanges. We exchange small gifts--usually either baked goods, candies, ornaments, or similar items. I take the college girls who work in my department out to the Designer Moments Tea Parlor for a little more elegant lunch than they would get in the college cafeteria. Most of all Christmas means that a much-needed break is coming! We need time to recover from the fall semester before beginning the spring one.

Living Christmas Tree

Tonight is the first of three performances for this year's Living Christmas Tree presentation. This year's theme is "A 1940's Christmas Homecoming." We are using music from two other books as well. The handbells will be ringing as people enter. We (the choir) will begin the evening in our formal attire on the stage where we'll sing a few selections. Then, as the choir leaves to get ready to climb the tree, Jane Greene Johnson who used to sing with the Speer Family will sing on Friday night and Saturday night and Gerald Wolfe who is the lead singer with Greater Vision will sing on Sunday night. The choir will load the 11-tiered tree. The artificial greenery can be kind of prickly at times. There is just barely enough room for a person to fit between the front and back of each row. I understand that we have more room than a lot of churches have in theirs, but I'd sure hate to be in a tighter space than the space we have. Those who are under 6 feet tall stand on taped-up cardboard blocks that will adjust our height so that we are about 6 feet. We wear metallic capes that make us look like ornaments in the tree. This year we are wearing the gold ones. (We have some silver ones which I like better but are more prickly to wear.) There will be a drama that accompanies the music. The harmonies are very tight, as you would expect in 1940s music. The entire presentation takes an hour and a half at most. We begin working on the music in late August or early September. There are numerous bonus rehearsals. It's a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. Our presentation is televised locally. DVDs are usually available later. There are over 2000 bulbs on the tree. I thought I had a picture of the tree from a previous year, but I can't seem to locate it. If I find it, I'll upload it later.

Fruitcake Update

If it had not been for the sender box on the label bearing the name of a neighbor, I would have thought one of you had decided that it was time for me to have the experience of re-gifting a fruitcake. Well, thanks to my neighbor, I'll now have that experience. The UPS man came with a box containing one. I kept hoping as I saw the round tin (knowing the place it had been purchased) that it was Moose Munch or nuts. As far as fruitcakes go, it should be a pretty good one since it came from Harry & David's. My choir section is supposed to take chips and dip to the choir party tonight. I haven't come up with a dip to make from a fruitcake. If I sliced it very thin, I could fry the pieces, but I don't think they'd be very good chips. That leaves me with the option of re-gifting it. So . . . who will be the (un)lucky recipient?

Fruitcake

Did you like fruitcake? Did your family receive fruitcakes? Have you ever re-gifted fruitcake? Have you ever devised creative uses for fruitcake?

Fruitcake: the original gift that keeps on giving.

I don't have a lot of use for fruitcakes. I think that Kirk Talley in his "Fruitcake" (recorded on his Talley Ho, Ho, Ho album in the late 1990s) gave some of the best potential uses for fruitcakes when he suggested using them as doorstops or paperweights. I haven't checked to see if the song is available for download on iTunes, but you can purchase it via Kirk's store or get the song itself at Walmart.com for 88 cents. Trust me; the song is worth the 88 cents. I won't tell you what he eventually does with the fruitcake, but he's got some other creative uses in the song.

One of the salesmen who called on Mom at the hospital gave her a fruitcake one year for Christmas. Mom was working one night when we needed to take some sort of dessert for a Christmas event at the church. Dad called Mom to see if we could take her fruitcake to which she readily agreed. It was one of those fruitcakes that was in a narrow rectangular gold box. One of the men in the church asked Dad to get him "another glass of that fruitcake." Apparently, it was well-soaked. I think that's the last time we ever took fruitcake to church.

I've been fortunate that I've never received a fruitcake that I've had to regift. I would, however, give it to someone who eats fruitcake if I did receive one. I can eat a few bites of fruitcake if I'm in a social situation where it would be rude not to do so, but it is far from being my favorite Christmas food, and I could never make it through a whole one.

Blog Caroling

footnoteMaven has challenged us all to go blog caroling. They carol I've chosen is a hymn that has been a favorite over the years. The song was originally written in Latin and entitled "Adeste Fideles" by its author John Francis Wade (1711-1786). Wade made his living copying manuscripts. He was reportedly an excellent artistic calligrapher. This hymn was in a manuscript he copied in 1750 which was sent to a college in Lisbon, Portugal. The song was translated into English by Frederick Oakeley (1802-1880).

O Come, All Ye Faithful

O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem;
Come and behold Him; born the King of Angels;

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ, the Lord!

Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation,
O sing, all ye citizens of heaven above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest;

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ, the Lord!

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning,
Jesus, to Thee be all glory given;
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing;

O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
O come, let us adore Him,
Christ, the Lord!

Source of background information: Brown, Robert K. and Norton, Mark R., eds., and comps. The One Year Great Songs of Faith. Devotions written by William I. Petersen and Randy Petersen. Carol Stream, Ill.: Tyndale House, 2005.

Christmas and the Arts

Did your family attend any special events or performances during the holidays?

Amory, Mississippi was not exactly the arts capital of America. We, of course, had the usual Christmas pageants at church, but ours was very simplistic and followed the same format every year. When I was in band, we had Christmas concerts every year. I really don't remember attending anything more extravagant than those two events growing up.

As an adult, I've directed children's musicals and such and participated in cantatas at previous churches and in the Living Christmas Tree at our church (which by the way is coming up this weekend). In fact, I'm missing the dress rehearsal as I type this because I have been trying to come up with a way to ebb the flow of my nose since yesterday. I'm really proud of my children's choir, and the way they performed for last Sunday night's program! They did a great job.

Charitable / Volunteer Work

Did your family ever volunteer with a charity such as a soup kitchen, homeless or battered women’s shelter during the holidays? Were you able to make the holidays special for someone less fortunate?

I've shared previously (in the ornament post) about helping out at Operation Christmas Child. Our Sunday School class always adopts at least one family at Christmas, and I've purchased things for them. I've helped at soup kitchens as part of church groups before, but there is one Christmas where our family helped a family in need that really stands out.

One year Mom had a new employee in her department at the hospital. Mom knew that this person was having trouble making ends meet and that her children were not going to have a very good Christmas. She sent Dad and I out shopping for toys and gifts for the children because she wanted the children to have something that Christmas. I remember picking out dolls for the girls, but I know we got some other toy for each of them too. I think we got a Tonka truck or something similar for the boy and probably something else as well.

I had been doing genealogy for several years, when I made an email contact with a lady doing research on our Harris line. As we began to talk, this newfound cousin was the mother of those kids we helped out. She turned out to be Mom's second cousin twice removed or my third cousin once removed. She was able to share with us how grateful she had been at that point in her life for our generosity that Christmas, and we got caught up on where life had taken her after she moved away.

Holiday Travel

Did you travel anywhere for Christmas? How did you travel and who traveled with you? Do you remember any special trips?

Growing up, I rarely had to travel anywhere. I was much younger than my brothers so they were the ones who got to travel to come home to my parents' house. I really don't remember travelling anywhere for Christmas. I have a vague recollection of going to my brother Jim's house one year because I seem to remember eating the Virginia ham that he always had and putting together some of his kid's toys. However, it was like most other Christmases.

Of course, I've travelled most of my adult life to my parents' house for Christmas. There was one memorable trip. I was living in Cincinnati, and I didn't get off until around noon on Christmas eve. I always took a half-day on Christmas eve though so that I didn't have to travel late into the night. On that particular December 23, I was closely monitoring the holiday weather as I worked. When I got home that evening and saw where the storm was and where it was headed, I saw that if I waited until morning that I was not going to make it home for Christmas. I packed my bags and Brumley's things, took a quick nap, loaded the car, and left at 7 p.m. Eastern and drove overnight to Mississippi. It snowed on me the last hour and a half of my drive. Shortly after I got to Mom's the power went out there. As I watched the news the next morning, I noticed that there was severe icing and interstates closed along the route that I had driven the night before so I knew I'd made the right decision to get out of town while I could even if I did run short on sleep. There were still bad power outages all over north Mississippi that next morning, and we thought one of my brothers was going to have to bring some of the stuff from his freezer down to Mom's so it wouldn't spoil. I think his power came on before it got too critical, but it was out for a long time by usual standards. I always think of that as the Christmas I almost didn't make it home for Christmas. Yes, we did have a White Christmas that year--something very unusual for Mississippians.

Christmas Gifts

What were your favorite gifts, both to receive and to give?

I think that this has changed over time. When I was a little girl, I always looked forward to my Christmas doll. Later, it would have probably been board games. Now, I love handmade gifts or gift cards to Amazon.com, Borders, Barnes & Noble, BooksAMillion, and/or Starbucks. You get the picture?

I would love to be able to cross-stitch a lot of my gifts, but I don't have the time. I like to make food goodies. I give a lot of ornaments as gifts, particularly to colleagues at work. (This year I also gave them to my children's choir.) I give subscriptions to Southern Living to several family members. Mom used to provide them, and I picked them up after she decided not to do them. I also give a lot of gift cards, especially to people who live at a distance and don't make it home. It's easier to send a gift card than to pay a fortune to mail a package.

Brumley is happy as long as he has catnip and some of the little shiny craft pompoms to bat around. I love trying to find something special for him, but you know how cats are. They just don't get excited about anything for which you want them to get excited. I bought him a "bird" last year. It was a bluebird that looked a lot like the ones in the yard, and it even made the bird's call. I got it at the Bass Pro Shop. He occasionally plays with it, but not often.

Christmas Parties

No parties for us. The closest thing to a party was the family getting together. One year we had a lot of us there. The neighbor came over to take a photo of the entire family. (The picture shows 14, but I think that I had some aunts and uncles there too.) We stood at the end of the living room where the piano was. We heard a “crack” in the floor, and the men went investigating and discovered there was a termite problem.

"This is the "picture that broke the floor." After I looked at the picture, I don't think this picture was made at Christmas, but probably in late summer. Notice the light clothing! Also the "baby" in this photo was born in mid-June so a late summer date is probably more likely. It's strange how we remember certain things happening at times of the year when they did not.

I do remember Christmas parties back in elementary school. I don’t really remember what we did back then, but I remember it was on the last afternoon before we got out for break.

Of course, I’ve attended many parties as adults. I’ve got at least four to attend this year.

Visit the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories at Destination: Austin Family for more entries!