CHRISTMAS IN THE 1950'S

 We went to school for half a day on Christmas Eve in the 1950's. But of course we didn't do any schoolwork that day; we had a Christmas party in our classroom.

In the early morning, before the party began, we'd play games. They'd be games we could play at our desks, guessing games, the gossip game, and such. And we'd have an extra long recess outside, running off our excitement.

Most years, before the party began, the teacher would let us move our desks to the perimeter of the room so we wouldn't be sitting in rows. And once we were set up, the teacher would give us the gifts we'd all brought in for eachother. We'd chosen the name of a classmate by picking the names out of a hat a couple of weeks before. Why is it most of us liked the presents we brought rather than the gifts we received?

Then the teacher would give us each a small gift from her, and after we'd opened them we insisted she open the presents we'd put on her desk that morning.

During all of this there'd be Christmas music playing softly in the background, from someone's record player set up on the back counter.

There was always at least one mother at the party, mainly to oversee the refreshments. She'd assign someone to hand out napkins and then more kids to carry around platters of homemade cookies, homemade cakes, homemade cup cakes and homemade fudge, as well as candy canes and cider. There was always a lot of food.

Christmas Eve was most definately the best day of school, with music and goodies and presents and lots of good cheer. We could talk and laugh and giggle to our hearts content, and we knew we were going to have a long vacation.

It would be early afternoon when we got home from school, and Mom would be in the kitchen baking my very favorite Christmas cookies. She colored half of them pink and half of them green and I couldn't wait for supper to be done so I could have one.

Mom only made these cookies for Christmas, and they're one of my best memories of the holiday. These cookies melt in your mouth. Here's the recipe:

4 1/2 cups flour

2 cups butter

3/4 cup confectioners sugar

2 egg yolks

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon almond extract

Grease your cookie sheets and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

With an electric mixer, cream all of the ingredients together except for the flour.

Once the batter is smooth, begin adding the flour a cup at a time. It will be a thick dough but you don't want it to be sticky in your hands.

Divide the dough into two parts and work in some red food coloring in one half, some green in the other.

Now pinch off some dough, about the size of a walnut, and roll it in your hands until you have a nice round ball. Fill the cookie sheet with the balls and then flatten them with the back of a fork.

They'll need ten to fifteen minutes to cook. Check the bottoms - the cookies are done when the bottoms are golden.

These cookies are very soft, so let them cool on the cookie sheet before putting them on a platter. They are also a dry cookie, so you'll want some tea or milk or coffee with them.

We didn't do a special Christmas Eve supper in those days. Dad came home from work and we ate soon after and then it was time to put up the Christmas tree.

Some people put their trees up earlier, but we put ours up on Christmas Eve and took it down on New Year's Day. That's the way Mom's family had done it and she wanted to keep to the tradition.

Dad brought the tree in from outside, set it up, and strung the lights on it. In those days they were the big colored lights and they didn't sparkle as lights do now, but there was something wonderful about them.

Then it was time for the rest of us to hang the ornaments and candy canes and garlands and tinsel. I'm sure we wouldn't have won a prize for the most beautiful Christmas tree but it was magical to us.

After we were done decorating the tree and admiring it in awe, Mom would tell us we could make the fudge now. That was another treat we only had at Christmastime. Here's the recipe, and it's easy:

4 1/2 cups sugar

1 can evaporated milk

2 tablespoons butter

6 large chocolate bars

1 small jar marshmallow fluff

2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

Butter an 8X8 baking pan.

Put the first 3 ingredients, the sugar and evaporated milk and butter, in your heaviest pan and bring it to a boil. Stir it while you're heating it, and don't put the heat all the way on high. You don't want to burn the sugar. Medium high is good.

Once it's come to a boil, turn the heat to low and let it cook for five or six minutes, stirring occasionally. You're boiling it down so it will thicken, but if it begins to stick to the bottom of the pan, consider it done.

After 6 minutes at the most, remove the pan from the stove and add all of the other ingredients, stirring to mix everything in and melt the chocolate and marshmallow fluff. It will begin to thicken, so when it does, pour it quickly into the buttered baking pan and let cool.

I should mention that the large chocolate bars are the really large ones. You can use them or a comparable amount of baking chocolate bars. (In the olden days Mom used lots and lots of regular size candy bars because that's all there was.)

Everybody in my family liked the fudge made with milk chocolate bars, except for me. I like dark chocolate better. The recipe works well with either.

The fudge in the 8X8 pan will be thick squares. If you prefer to have thinner squares, use two baking pans, buttered.

I got to have a few of the Christmas cookies on Christmas Eve, but the fudge was too hot, it had to wait for Christmas Day.

After our cooking, it was time to get our pajamas on and then it was time to hang up our stockings. And our stockings weren't anything like they have in the stores now. They looked like real socks, a big sock like a man would wear. Each of us had a different pattern in the knitting, and in all honesty I didn't think they were pretty, but I looked forward to seeing what I'd find in mine, which was a striped sock in shades of grey.

Of course there was always talk about Santa in our young years, and the intention of staying awake to see him, and even looking for a way to hide so we could see him, but in the end we'd go to bed and to sleep.

In the morning we woke up our parents and while Mom made coffee and Dad turned on the lights on the tree and put water in the tree stand, we were allowed to explore our stockings.

Keeping with tradition, there was always an orange or a tangerine in the toe, and a bunch of mixed nuts in the shell. Then it became more personal, a small box of dark chocolate covered cherries because I loved them, and some new ribbons for my braids. Little things like that. Those stockings didn't hold much, but I'm sure that made it easier for Mom and didn't diminish our enthusiasm. For some reason, looking in my stocking, reaching in and pulling out some little trinket, was more exciting to me than opening the presents Santa left under the tree.

Christmas was the only time of the year we got toys, so when I remember this doll or that tea set, I know I got them for Christmas, but I don't remember it specifically. What I remember are the traditions. Setting up the tree and decorating it. Helping with the baking and cooking the fudge. And the stocking with the orange and nuts.

We'd go to church late in the morning and then come home to enjoy a turkey dinner. I remember coming in the door and smelling that turkey roasting, and then Mom would cook the potatoes and heat up what she'd made the day before, and we'd play with our new toys until dinnertime.

For us, Christmas Dinner was a repeat of Thanksgiving, and I loved it.

After dinner, Dad would make egg nog for all of us, to have with dessert. I've changed the recipe to make it more low fat, and here it is: For every cup of low fat or skim milk, use the equivalent of one egg's worth of eggbeaters. That's my solution for not worrying about raw eggs. Put the eggs and milk in a blender and begin with one teaspoon of confectioners sugar for each cup of milk. Blend it and taste it. You might want more sugar. Lots of people like things sweeter than I make them for myself.

For me, it's not egg nog without ground nutmeg sprinkled on top, but it's not necessary.

After our turkey dinner, mid-afternoon, we'd get ready to go to Grandma's house. She and Grandpa lived half an hour away in the city, and I always liked going there.

On Christmas, Aunts and Uncles and cousins would all go to Grandma's, and the grown-ups sat in the kitchen and laughed and talked while we cousins did the same in the living room.

The only Christmas presents I actually remember getting were both from one of my aunts, and I opened them at Grandma's house. One year it was a subscription to Children's Digest, a magazine for kids, and I loved it, loved getting that magazine in the mail every month.

The second gift I remember getting was an identification bracelet. They were in style that year with the bigger kids but I never expected to have one. I loved it, with my name engraved on it. I had that ID bracelet for at least ten years, and then it just disappeared on me.

I've tried to figure out why I remember just these two gifts. All I know is that they wre meaningful to me. I loved to read and enjoyed reading a magazine written especially for children; and the bracelet was so personal, with my name on it, and I could wear it every day. Toys, on the other hand, were just something to play with, nothing personal about them.

But most of all, Christmas was the traditions. Every Christmas Eve we'd decorate the tree. Every Christmas we'd have a turkey dinner. Every Christmas night we'd go to Grandma's. Those are the real memories of Christmas. And the Christmas cookies and Christmas fudge.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!!!