[Tim]

I think it will be fun for us to share our memories of Christmas in MC. Ang posted some great ones on my Baby Boomer Christmas thread - so I invite her to start us off. Post away, Ang!

[Homey]

I'll post mine if that's ok??
I remember back in the day...going shopping in our nostalgic "downtown" days. We actually walked around in the snow and slush and, believe it or not, my parents use to say hello to many, many people. It's so strange to recall how different it was. We would shop at the Mayfair, Cush and Lambka, Carsten's, The Ladies Shop and there was the popcorn trolley to serve up snacks. Remember the little Santa House on the corner of 7th Street? (I believe that's where is was). Anyway, you stood in line to see Santa, and afterwards, you got a 6 pack of Coke, in cute little bottles, candy canes and a bag of chips. It was great!!! Especially back then, my parents never bought Coke or chips for the house. We just didn't have it in the house when I was little...so you can imagine what kind of treat that was!!!
I know it sounds corny, but when I recall Christmas in Michigan City....many years ago, it was like "It's A Beautiful Life" scene.
Please Roger, don't attack my grammer

[Tim]

Homey - we must be near the same age as your memories are very similar to mine. And let me assure you that Christmas memories from MC are all about the corny! I had posted on the Santa house before - and I very well remember meeting Santa there. I guess the downtown looked like this, though this is summer -



Do you remember what the street decorations looked like? That's one thing I can't quite put my memory-fnger on....

[Ang]

These are a few of my favorite Christmas things...

-Making ice cream out of snow
-Baking cookies with my Grandma and her letting me decorate them. No matter how much of a mess I made with the icing and sprinkles, Grandma said my cookies looked better than any of those "store bought" ones.
-Cream of Wheat and Hot cocoa
-spraying that fake snow in the picture window around the edges, then going out to the front yard to see how beautiful the tree was in the clear oval where we didn't spray the fake snow.
-Drinking wassail and singing carols (of course MY wassail wasn't spiked with rum)
-talking to my relatives that live in Montana on Christmas Eve.
-Dancing in the living room with my Grandma while we listened to Christmas music on the MC radio station (IIRC it was WIMS)
-That fine turkey dinner at the VFW--my Grandpa was the Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for many years at "the club" and he would always cook that fine Turkey dinner.
-Going out with Grandpa to cut down the tree, then listening to him cuss in German because the lights were all tangled up.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


My Grandpa had this friend, Carl. Carl would dress up as Santa and come to the house on Christmas Eve every year. When I was real little, I always believed him to be the REAL Santa, but when I was 13 I knew it was Carl. At 12, I was too old to believe but had no real proof the contrary. Mom took me and my little sister to see Santa at the Mall. My sister wouldn't go unless I went first. So, I go up the ramp and sit on Santa's lap. He says, "Well Hello Angelique! How are you doing?" I about fell over. Then he asked me how my parents and family were doing and listed everyone by name! I think I was in shock. I told him what I wanted for Christmas, then it was my sister's turn. She got the same routine. I told my mom, "That guy knew my name! How did he know my name?" Mom said, "Cause he's Santa Claus!" I ended up getting what I asked for from Santa that year too.
Several months later (after I had turned 13), I went to a pancake breakfast at the VFW with my grandparents. Carl was there serving up the food. He came over to our table and chitty chatted for a bit, then turned to me asked me if I had gotten what I wanted for Christmas, only he said the things I asked for. I was confused for a moment wondering how he knew what I wanted, then the light came on and I realized Carl had been Santa at the Mall. My grandparents had a huge laugh over that.

[Tim]

My grade school years we spent at St. Paul's on 9th St - and I vividly remember decorating our classrooms as we watched out those windows for the first good snow of the year. We'd also have a children's Christmas service at church every year, so we'd start in November all marching over to the sanctuary for rehearsals. The children's service was always at 6pm Christmas Eve and I remember A) being uncomfortable in whatever my mom made me wear and B ) wanting to get on to the presents part!

Coming home from school every day there were two things - the Hardrock, Coco, and Joe video on Garfield Goose and the smell of the Christmas cookies my mom was baking. To this day every time I come home for Christmas and arrive at my parents' place I make a beeline for those cookies - and they taste exactly the same. As I'm not coming this year, I'm sure some are on the way. And now being able to watch Hardrock et al on YouTube - NOTHING takes me back to the Christmas of my childhood than watching that. *sniff*

Homey mentioned being downtown - I remember Santa's house as well - going there was magic.

I remember what a real Christmas tree smelled like in our house. My dad would bring up the Christmas boxes from their place in the basement and string the lights. These were the bigger lights of the 50's and 60's and I remember them as a much softer glow than what we use now.

That's all for now - but I have a few more installments coming. Let's hear from everyone else!

[Homey]

My grade school years we spent at St. Paul's on 9th St - and I vividly remember decorating our classrooms as we watched out those windows for the first good snow of the year. We'd also have a children's Christmas service at church every year, so we'd start in November all marching over to the sanctuary for rehearsals. The children's service was always at 6pm Christmas Eve and I remember A) being uncomfortable in whatever my mom made me wear and B ) wanting to get on to the presents part!

Coming home from school every day there were two things - the Hardrock, Coco, and Joe video on Garfield Goose and the smell of the Christmas cookies my mom was baking. To this day evert time I come home for Christmas and arrive at my parents' place I make a beeline for those cookies - and they taste exactly the same. As I'm not coming this year, I'm sure some are on the way. And now being able to watch Hardrock et al on YouTube - NOTHING takes me back to the Christmas of my childhood than watching that. *sniff*

Homey mentioned being downtown - I remember Santa's house as well - going there was magic.

I remember what a real Christmas tree smelled like in our house. My dad would bring up the Christmas boxes from their place in the basement and string the lights. These were the bigger lights of the 50's and 60's and I remember them as a much softer glow than what we use now.

That's all for now - but I have a few more installments coming. Let's hear from everyone else!

Tim, then you must remember Ray Rayner on channel 9 in the a.m.? I loved his show and the vintage cartoons...they were great. Susie Snowflake, his crafts, corney jokes! What was that dogs name?

[Tim]

Tim, then you must remember Ray Rayner on channel 9 in the a.m.? I loved his show and the vintage cartoons...they were great. Susie Snowflake, his crafts, corney jokes! What was that dogs name?

Dog? Hmmmm - I know he had a duck named Chelveston, who used to chase him around and bite his ankles. Do you remember when Ray Raynor was Sgt. Pettibone?

[Homey]

Dog? Hmmmm - I know he had a duck named Chelveston, who used to chase him around and bite his ankles. Do you remember when Ray Raynor was Sgt. Pettibone?

I looked it up...it was Cuddly Duddly. Remember the notes on his jump suit?

[Tim]

I looked it up...it was Cuddly Duddly. Remember the notes on his jump suit?

Right. Yep - remember well the notes on the jump suit.

Hey I met Frazier Thomas at a Cubs game when I was a kid - it was like meeting a rock star!

Hey Homo - sorry, Homey! We're off the Christmas track so I made this thread!

http://www.citybythelake.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=1825

[Tim]

Is MC full of scrooges??????

Come on, fellow CBTL'ers - Roger! SS'der, JHeath - let's hear about your Christmases in MC!

That - or be on the lookout for a package from Coal Across The Miles.

[digger262]

One of my favorite memories of Christmas was the the Christmas holiday basketball tourney held at then Rogers gym. I remember going as a child and thinking the players were big and truly MC stars. Then as I got older and entered high school, this was the place to see and be seen with your newest presents. I remember wearing my Elston letter jacket for the first time, as many did who got them for Christmas, at the tourney.

Then after going away to college, this was the place to reconnect with old friends when you came back for the Christmas break. It's been years since I've been back for Christmas(family usually wants to visit Florida in December, go figure) but I believe this tourney is no longer?

[Ang]

Nope, the Holiday Tourney is no more. They held the last one the year before I started working at MCHS. I can't remember the exact reason for not having it but I know it was due to something political.

[Roger Kaputnik]

I do not really have any memories of particular Christmases in MC from childhood. Family getting together, drawing names for the gift-giving, going to the stores to get the presents.

One year, I was maybe 8 or 9, I was convinced my brother was going to get a camera from my parents. We were all at Shoppers Fair, and I was to get batteries for my brother, an assignment from my father. Still under the delusion of the pending camera, I went to the proper place in the store, asking for "D batteries for a camera." Well, the perplexed clerk--I remember a grown man, and at that time, it may have been--could not come up with D batteries for a camera! Finally, my father met up with me, and he was able to get my request straightened up with the clerk. It turned out that the present was not a camera but a Hot Wheels ® track with the D-cell battery-powered accelerator. No one had ever said, "When you assume, you make an a-s-s out of u-m-e," to me before, but someone could have that night.

For years my father would take photos of us with the timer on the camera set up on a tripod. We still have these photos, our hair slicked down like only children of immigrants can do, my red blazer with the little crest on the pocket, my brother in a dark plaid jacket I aspired to grow in to.

Instead of a star on the tree, we had a spike, reminiscent of the impractical German helmets of Imperial days. I still look at stars on trees with the slightest bit of suspicion. I have never told this to anyone.

We always had presents, usually some pretty good stuff and clothes we were happy to get. I cannot remember the gifts I gave, and that shames me a little. But, hey! I was little myself.

Our big family dinner was always on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas Day. I wonder now if this is characteristic of certain ethnic groups. All traditional stuff to me: turkey, potatoes, bread, cake, fried rice, maybe pie. That was all before salads were invented. Cookies, pop, maybe the taste of a sparkling wine.

Merry Christmas to all, you are in my prayers.

[Tim]

I do not really have any memories of particular Christmases in MC from childhood. Family getting together, drawing names for the gift-giving, going to the stores to get the presents.

One year, I was maybe 8 or 9, I was convinced my brother was going to get a camera from my parents. We were all at Shoppers Fair, and I was to get batteries for my brother, an assignment from my father. Still under the delusion of the pending camera, I went to the proper place in the store, asking for "D batteries for a camera." Well, the perplexed clerk--I remember a grown man, and at that time, it may have been--could not come up with D batteries for a camera! Finally, my father met up with me, and he was able to get my request straightened up with the clerk. It turned out that the present was not a camera but a Hot Wheels ® track with the D-cell battery-powered accelerator. No one had ever said, "When you assume, you make an a-s-s out of u-m-e," to me before, but someone could have that night.

For years my father would take photos of us with the timer on the camera set up on a tripod. We still have these photos, our hair slicked down like only children of immigrants can do, my red blazer with the little crest on the pocket, my brother in a dark plaid jacket I aspired to grow in to.

Instead of a star on the tree, we had a spike, reminiscent of the impractical German helmets of Imperial days. I still look at stars on trees with the slightest bit of suspicion. I have never told this to anyone.

We always had presents, usually some pretty good stuff and clothes we were happy to get. I cannot remember the gifts I gave, and that shames me a little. But, hey! I was little myself.

Our big family dinner was always on Christmas Eve, not on Christmas Day. I wonder now if this is characteristic of certain ethnic groups. All traditional stuff to me: turkey, potatoes, bread, cake, fried rice, maybe pie. That was all before salads were invented. Cookies, pop, maybe the taste of a sparkling wine.

Merry Christmas to all, you are in my prayers.

Those sure sound like MC Christmas memories to me! Our family also had/has our big dinner on Christmas Eve.

Great post!

[Ang]

We had a spike on top of our tree, too. No stars or angels in my house. Actually, I have been looking for one to put on top of my tree now but haven't had much luck finding one I like.