Christmas When I Was A Small Child

When I was a small child I lived in an old farm house. It had a roof and windows and kept the rain and wind out. However, it had little else. No air conditioning, no calking around the windows to keep the dirt and cold out on windy days. The walls were not insulated with anything but perhaps some plaster over the fragile thin slats of wood that were beneath layers and layers of wallpaper.

LuAnne
8 months

My father hated rodents worse than my mother and was constantly warring the battle of intruding mice. He would find their holes that they had successfully chewed through from inside the walls and cover them with the lids of tin cans. I can still see him using tiny nails to try to inconspicuously as possible keep them out.
When it was Christmas time as far back as I can remember we had some kind of tree. I remember once it was a scrub bush type tree. I remember that because of some grumbling/murmering discussion about it between my mother and father. I was so young that I couldn't understand what the problem was, I loved that little scrub tree.
I also remember we had no tree stand. My father again, with his trusty saw and hammer and nails would make one to surround the tree. It always looked to me like wooden feet. Mother would always cover up the "feet" with a clean white sheet.
If you have read very many of my childhood memories, you will remember how very poor we were, but there always seemed to be a dime for a box of silver tinsel. I can remember my mother teaching me just how to hang it on the tree to cover the barest parts. When we were through, you could not see through the "holes." We had bubble lights that had a mind of their own. Often my dad left the lights on the tree even though they didn't work, because during the day they were pretty. Different colors of yellow, green, and reddish orange as I remember. Mother tried so very hard to keep her glass ornaments safe year to year. However, each year it seemed that she had less and less to choose from.
 She had "rags" that were pieces of old sheets that she wrapped some of her favorites with, but she also saved some of the peach wrappers when she canned peaches. She used some of those to protect her treasures also.  There were no paper towels in those days that I knew of.
That's it except for the star topper. I don't even remember what it looked like now, it's been so very long ago. But I do remember it was a star.
I can remember the very "lean" years, not with sadness at all, but with so much love that I was always surrounded with. Christmas was one  purchased gift and one homemade gift and church. And don't forget our stockings on Christmas morning which always had an orange and some peanuts in the shell and Christmas hard candy in them.
 We were taught from our very young ages that Christmas was not about gifts, but about kindness to others, and the Christian meaning of the beginning of Christmas. We knew the Biblical story of the birth of Baby Jesus by heart by the time we were 6 or 7 at the oldest.
Over the years my parents finances and circumstances improved. The trees became more lush, some flocked, some with pine cones, and some were artificial during the end of their lives.
I can remember the last tree that they had they used over and over again. I was never disappointed because it remained the same year to year. It was home when I walked in the door.
That's what I remember; home. Not fancy, not a very warm house when I was a child, but warm hugs and lots of laughter. Christmas.