Christmas Window

Remembering the Christmases past
ats

REMEMBER
one Christmas
, especially well.
I was seven
x years old. We
lived in a small apartment in
Toronto. My parents, my twin,
my baby sister and I. Our
parents were very young and
supporting us on a very
modest income.

it was in keeping with our
German heritage that we cele-
brated Christmas on Christmas
Eve. Our parents sent us to
our rcom to play quietly whiist
they brought in and decorated
the Christmas tree.

After a while they came in
one at a time to look out of
our window to see if Santa had
arrived yet. Indeed we'd seen
lights in the sky and certainly
had heard bells!

Finally my father would
creep from cur room into the
living room and exclaim,
“Hé’s been!’’ We'd rush past
and pause in delight at seeing
the freshly decorated tree
gloriously lit, the only source
of light in the living room.
And, of course, the presents
sparkling under the tree.

That particular Christmas I

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remember seeing several dolls,
even a boy doll! They were all
dressed up in the new clothes
that my mother had made. My
twin and I were especially
thrilled to see these dolls sit-
ting up staring at us from
under the Christmas lights.
My mother told me years
later that she’d got then at the
Salvation Army and scrubbed
them and bleached them until
they looked like new. We
didn’t care, it was a labor of
love and we loved thase doils
and theway in which they were

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Today with children of my
own, we continue to uphold
the German Christmas Eve
tradition, and ] hope our
children enjoy the magic quali-
ty of Christmas Eve as much
as I still do.

I aiso remember a Christmas
Eve when I was eight years
old. By that time my parents
had made the decision to buy
an ola farm house, with a barn
yet! It was in Schomberg, a
rural area outside Toronto.

It was a nice big old house

in need of some renovation.

On Christmas Eve, my parents

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worked madly all day ina
desperate attempt to finish
renovating the living room
where the tree would stand.

My father vas putting in a
dropped ceiling and they were
completing the wall paper .

It was getting late so our
parents sent us to bed. Yes, to
bed o Christmas Eve, without
having had our tree or pres-
ents. Unheard of in the Ger-
man tradition. Nevertheless,
we were ushered off to bed

with heavy hearts.

I awoke the following morn-
ing is a quiet house at dawn,

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and I crept downstairs. Not
only was our living room
beautifully finished, but a tree
stood below the banister deco-
rated and lit, with presents
under it!

Ina chair nearby was my
father slumped in exhaustion.
My parents had not only
finished the renovation, but
had gone trekking off in the
snow for a Christmas tree, to
chop it down, drag back, and
decorate it. It was wonderful!
Bianca Nieken ‘
(nee Scheuermann)

North Vancouver

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