Christmas Traditions for Kinsey

To my Granddaughter “McKinsey”                      Dec 2, 2012

A Christmas Tale

Dear McKinsey;

I have been thinking about your letter and trying to remember what it was like when I was 7, wow, WOW, WOW, that was a long time ago.  I am having a hard time remembering that far back, however I was hoping it would be OK to put a few things from my childhood that would include from my earliest recollections to when I left for college at age 18 down instead. You might find them a little of interest as well.

You asked for several things specifically so I will put these into the areas you requested as much as possible.

1.     How are you? Well I am doing great. I am loving life and working hard and trying to be good. (That was included so that if Santa happens to ask you about me you can let him know I am trying to be on his “nice” list not the other one.

2.     How did I spend the holidays when I was your age. Well I am going to write it as a general progressive age as I explained earlier.

A.   When I was young like you I had a great time during the holidays going up on the hill behind our home in Duchesne and tunneling into the snow that would blow off the bench and over the cedar trees that grew on the hill. It was fun because we could go into the snow drift and then find an area under the trees where there was no snow and it would be like a little bear den inside where it would be surprisingly warm and cozy. I remember burying a treasure chest one time but for some reason cannot ever remember when I dug it back up if I did.

B.    Since I lived on a farm we had things that most other children did not have access to and in the same way we didn’t have other things. What I am specifically referring to here though is snow sleighs or discs like the plastic ones now. My father however made up for the difference by taking an old disk from one of the worn out pieces of farm equipment and welding two metal pieces onto each side for handles. We then dragged that old metal disc to the top of the bench and would ride down through the trees on the snow. It wasn’t a real easy task however at first since it probably weighed at least what we did and maybe more. We had to take turns dragging it to the top of the hill. Then since it was so heavy it rarely would go down the hill until we had dragged it to the bottom several times thus packing the snow to where it was solid enough that the disc wouldn’t just sink into it and stop. It was a lot of fun though after we got the trails made and we would ride it two or three times down the hill before we were way too tired to continue. That wasn’t all bad though because then the trail was already made for the next day, unless it snowed again.

C.    Until I was 8 I had to do the dishes with my sisters and so part of the day was also spent doing household chores like the dishes.

D.   We also had a little pond on the lower part of our property that was about a half mile from the house. We would go there in the break from school for Christmas and ice skate on that little pond. Except for one year when it didn’t freeze and when we all went down there (my brothers and sisters and I ) we were disappointed to find it dry with no water and no ice. I remember that day well because I thought that since I couldn’t see water in it then I could just walk across it and as my family watched (while laughing as well probably) I walked about 5 feet into it and then sank to my knees in mud. I was a surprised, mad, little boy.

E.    After I was eight and had a fight with my sister, Leesa, when we were doing dishes. I became old enough to do the real chores, milking and feeding the cows and feeding the other livestock that we had after that day. So then my time all year as well as the break was to go out at 6 am and milk the cows and feed the livestock and then repeat that chore around 5 again that night. (I soon regretted having gotten old enough to do chores like my brothers.)

That pretty well takes care of that section. If I think of more then I will come back to it. Oh and if you want to know more about the fight with Leesa I think it is on my blog somewhere. Look for something about a sugar bowl lid and me pretending I was hurt when she threw it at me and hit me in the head with it. It was the last time I ever did dishes when the girls were there.

3.     What kind of presents did you get?

A.   One that I remember from, probably about the time I was two or three, was made by my grandmother Poulson (Nana, as we called her.) We had an old couch and one year mom and dad bought a new one and so Nana took the fabric off of the couch and made us each a stuffed animal (your dad might remember having seen it since I still have it somewhere I think). It was suppose to be a bear and so it was a two dimensional piece meaning that it was flat and had three legs. One at the back, one in the center, and one for the front leg and they were all on the same level. It was grandma’s best effort to make it flat so they could be like pillows yet get some stuffing into them. I loved that old bear as you could probably guess since I still have it somewhere unless your grandma finally succeeded in throwing it away.

B.    I remember getting a small thought book in our stocking every year. They were full of small stories or thoughts since we would have to give talks in church they were given to us so that we would have things to help us write our talks. We had Sunday School for the children on Sundays (like primary now) and Primary during the week so we had lots of opportunity to give 2 and a half minute talks. (See above)

C.    I remember getting a brand new large toy dump truck, in fact I think it was in the shed for several years here as well. Anyway I ended up with it but it was actually given to my brother and I both as a joint gift for the sand tire (an old tractor tire filled with sand that we played in.)

D.   I also remember getting a plastic model car kit each year that we would put together for a few days following Christmas while still not in school. I forgot to mention that in the first list. I have some pictures of at least five of them that I will attach to this email letter. Maybe I will snail mail this and if I do I will just send the pictures in an email since I don’t have printed copies of them.) (see below)

E.    I received an Brownie Starlite  Camera outfit one year. My first real camera and you know where that got me. (see below)

F.    I also received a pencil holder that I helped dad make for the rest of the family as well. We made one for each person. We worked out in the barn for several days cutting small blocks of wood from a cedar branch then peeling off the bark and drilling the holes and then varnishing them. I had a lot of fun with dad and my brother Lynn as we made those gifts. (see below)

G.   We always had a few pieces of hard tack candy, nuts of all kinds and an orange in our stockings. Once in a while there would be a piece of chocolate candy as well. Mom use to threaten that she would put coal into our stocking if we didn’t behave well enough. I think she would tell us that was so she could remind us of when she was young and her mother actually did give her only coal one year because she had earned it as she would say by not having been obedient to her mother. We were lucky enough to never get any. Once in a while there might be an apple as well depending on how well the apples were in the cellar that year which we had picked from our own trees in the yard that fall.

H.   That pretty much sums up what I remember other than the new shirt, pants and socks that we would each get from the Sears mail order catalog. (Yes, there were usually under clothes as well.) New clothes made up the bulk of the presents under the tree each year. 

4.     What kinds of games did you play or songs did you sing?

A.   We usually had one or more puzzles that we would work on that were set up in the family room during those days at home. We seldom watched TV since all we had was an old black and white one that didn’t get very good reception.

B.    We had games like “Monopoly”. In fact I think that was the only game we had until several years into my teenage days when we received  “Clue” as a family Christmas gift. We did have a few card games like “Old Maid “ and “Fish” that we would play as well but mother would never allow face cards in our home so I knew nothing about those kinds of games, (Kings in the corner, Solitaire, Etc.) “Phase 10” and the other ones like that had yet to be invented.

C.    Songs were usually Christmas ones at that time of the year and hymns the rest of the year. We always sang “Silent Night” and the other traditional hymns that are written about Christ and Christmas. My family loved to sing around the piano on just about every Sunday evening in the year and usually it was just so we could get Dad to sing “He’s my brother’ or “No Man is an Island”, and then there was one about the great deep where he would sing a deep base line for us. I cannot remember the name of that one at the moment. (It might be “The Mighty Deep.) My sister Alma taught me to sing the Alto part to “Love at Home” when we were asked to sing in church for Sacrament meeting one Sunday and then later several other songs as well. We were able with 7 children and my parents to do pretty good 4 part harmony.  

My dad had a very beautiful base voice and often would sing at funerals throughout the county of Duchesne with three other men as a quartet. So singing songs was a very important part of our family.

5.     Did you have any special family traditions?

A.   I guess I just answered part that question when I wrote about the songs.

B.    We also had traditions of baking cookies and bread to pass around to friends and neighbors in town. We would make quite a lot of cookies but it was never enough. It was fun though. Once in a while we would also make some candy and my favorite one to make was “Animal Candy” a hard tack candy with a name that never made sense to me.

C.    We would also go caroling on wagons loaded with hay and pulled by a tractor. It was fun but usually very cold so we enjoyed hot chocolate after we got home.

D.   We also had a tradition for a few years of my life while Nana was still living. She would come up from town (dad would always go get her) and watch us open our Christmas presents. One year however she was in bed for several months in mom and dad’s bedroom. She had suffered a stroke and we were taking care of her. We would always come home from school, get off the bus and run in to see grandma laying in bed. It was hard for me as a ten year old to see her that way but she was so very special to us. That was 1963 and I remembered President Kennedy was assassinated that year. Well just before Christmas Grandma had taken a turn for the worst and she passed away the on Dec 26^th. Mom always felt like she had held on long enough to get past Christmas so she wouldn’t spoil it for us.

E.    One other tradition of sorts that wouldn’t or shouldn’t be classified that way was the annual forgetting of Santa to bring out one or more presents. Actually I don’t really remember if it happened more than the one time but it did happen that year that he left it under mom and dad’s bed and it was forgotten by mom and dad. It was a tether ball and pole with stand that dad had obviously helped Santa make for the present of the ball so we would have a place to play with it when we got it. Mom forgot it until nearly half way through the day.

F.    Of course we always had Family Home Evening on Christmas Eve when we would sing the songs and read the story from Luke chapter 2 of Christ’s birth. It was always a part of our Christmas that I didn’t like at first but later became aware of how special it really was for me. I know that Christ lives and am so thankful for His gospel and all that His atonement means to me.

G.   Another tradition that I had for only a few years was the going to bed and then going into my sister’s room and looking down through a hole into the front room so we could see Santa. He never came while we were watching through that hole though and must have been alerted to it by mom and dad. It was a square hole about 12 inches wide and across. It was a hole that was put there when the home was built so that the warm air from the wood-burning stove in the family room could heat the bedrooms. By the time I came along in the family though dad had installed a coal furnace in the basement so the wood burning one in the family room had been moved to the shed but the hole was still there. I only had it for a few years since I helped dig two room under the family room that then became my bedroom and study room.

H.   Along with the rooms upstairs though was always the tradition of sitting on the platform at the head of the stairs while waiting for mom and dad to get up and say we could come down to open the presents in our stockings. Then we would go back up and get dressed for the day and at that point go do the chores (or before I was eight) wait for dad and the older boys to come in from choring as we called it. We always had to take care of the cows and other animals so that they wouldn’t suffer while we opened presents. We would also eat breakfast after chores were done before opening the presents under the tree.

I.      Another tradition that I just remembered was going to Roosevelt about 30 miles from Duchesne to buy presents for each other. We were usually each given $5.00 to buy for 8 other people. I remember the only way that would happen was to go to the “5 and Dime” store in Roosevelt where little gifts would only cost 50 cents or so.

J.     I guess that it wouldn’t be considered a tradition by most people but there was the annual day spent looking through the sears catalog and telling mom which shirt and which pair of pants we wanted and then having to try and figure out the right size to order. Not real fun but we did get to look at all the toys and at least make our wishes even though we seldom got any of them.

Well that is about it. I hope you have not been too bored by the length. I am known to write a lot when given the chance and it can get boring to a 7 year old. Your dad may have to explain a lot of it to u as well or we can video chat and I will explain it too.

I love you very much and tell your teacher thank you for giving you a writing assignment that would make me take a wander down memory lane. It has been fun. Remember to look at my blog to see the pictures and I will also put this with it so that it is recorded in my history as well. It also appears that I was able to remember that long ago, wow. WOW, WOW that is amazingJ

Love,

Grandpa Poulson