‘Tis the Season

Patty here…

I love Christmas. As a child, I remember gazing out the window on Christmas Eve with my head resting on my hands, willing Mother Nature to drop a fleecy blanket of white on our front lawn to cushion Santa's landing.

Our family decorated the tree with handmade ornaments: perfectly cracked walnut shells glued together and hung with a satin ribbon and popcorn on a string. One year the owner of our local market gave my sister and me a paper fireplace left over from a holiday display. Every Christmas after that, we set it up in the bedroom we shared. We rolled old newspapers and fastened them with rubber bands so they looked like logs. Then we colored the paper with red, orange, and yellow Crayolas to look like fire. After the fireplace was “lit,” we hung our stockings, which were not made of brocade and glitter and did not have our names embroidered on them in gold thread. They were socks borrowed from my father’s drawer.

Our house was redolent with cinnamon, as my mother cooked applesauce on the stove, and I listened to the latest installment of the serialized radio adventure featuring Judy and Jimmy Barton and “The Cinnamon Bear,” searching for the silver star that had gone missing from atop their Christmas tree.

As an adult, I have always tried to create my own form of holiday magic. I decorate my tree with ornaments I’ve collected from friends, family, and on my travels. I also make decorations, like this snowman.



And this Santa.



Last year the season swept in like a blustery Santa Ana wind and the thought of lugging tons of ornaments from the storage unit just for a few days seemed less magic and more hassle. So I left Christmas moldering in boxes in Marina del Rey.

Once I made the decision, a malaise washed over me that hung on throughout the season. This year as a palliative, I began decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. As I placed the ornaments on the tree, I understood why I had felt so compressed during the previous season. My memories were musty and needed airing.

I missed looking at the yarn angel my Auntie Violet made for me when I was a child. I was glad to see it again because she just passed away a few days before Thanksgiving.



After my beloved Dottie died, I received a package in the mail from the vet. Inside was this Christmas ornament, a Westie with angel wings. Looking at it still breaks my heart but it also lifts my spirits remembering her joie de vivre and her indomitable spirit.



My dear friend Tom McGinn gave me this bear several years ago at one of my book signings.



As our longtime Naked Readers know, Tom passed away in September of 2008. I think about him often but especially this time of year.



I don’t need the calories, but this holiday season I’m going to make Doris’ pinwheel cookies and plum pudding topped with Gladys’ rum sauce because it’s tradition and my way of honoring their memories. I’m also going to make Marianne’s fruitcake and maybe some Dark ‘n Stormies to toast my fellow Nakeds because for me, part of Christmas is remembering those we love and sometimes those we’ve lost.

What is the holiday decoration or tradition that you can't live without?

Merry Monday!