CHRISTMAS-THE EARLY YEARS

Christmas was always a very large deal in the Gibson family. Mother and Daddy always went all out for Christmas. Mother would buy gifts all year, and Daddy would wait til closer to the big day. The major problem was that Daddy could not wait to give his gifts so we, my brother Jerry and I, would get them early. Once Daddy had bought us a bedroom suit each and it was delivered way before Christmas. Then there was the time we got watches. At dinner one evening, our plates were turned upside down with a watch underneath each plate. We had relatives who spent Christmas with us, Mamma Hooper, Aunt Ju-Ju, and Uncle Walter. I would have to share my bed with someone and I would not sleep much because of all the excitement. Mother would always have a big breakfast for us and the relatives which always included Aunt Gee and Uncle R. C.
Our tree always came from one of the fence rows along Daddy's fields. He would keep an eye out all year for just the right Cedar tree and drag it home just in time for Christmas. My brother, Jerry, Buba for this writing, would have to decorate it just perfectly. He would not let me help very much, my being so little and inexperienced in decorating. We had icicles made from real tinsel that he would put on each branch one at a time. I would be in a hurry and throw a bunch on at one time. Then Buba would have to do it all over again to correct my mistakes.
I think we always had blue lights on the tree or at least that is how I remember it. We had this white and red star on the top, I wonder what ever became of that star? I still have the nativity scene that Mother had with the barn and wise men. Mother always had this M&M tree. It was really just a little clear plastic tree that she put M&M's on all during Christmas. They just magically filled back up after we ate some. We would spray snow on the windows and put stick on pictures. Santa always filled our boxes[no stockings] with nuts and fruit and chocolate. Once we got these plastic shoes filled with money to buy shoes from the Family Shoe Store in town. Sometimes they would be Buster Brown shoes. I believe Buba got mostly guns and cowboy stuff and of course, I got dolls and their accessories. I still have some of my dolls that Santa brought me. There are some I wish I still had such as my Bonnie Braids whose braids could be pulled to make them longer. I do have my walking doll for whom Aunt Gee made clothes to match my own and we always dressed alike. I was in the hospital once in third grade and my brother brought me a doll when he came to visit. [ I still have that doll.]
Mother and Aunt Gee used to make boiled custard and jam cake for Christmas. They would cook for days. My, how I would love to taste that again.
I could not remember Christmas as a child without writing about the Church of God that we attended. There was always "big doings" at the church, a huge tree that either Daddy or John cut from their field. That tree was sooo tall it filled up one whole corner of the front of the church. John Austin, Sunday School superintendent, was in his Glory at Christmas time. He enjoyed it more than anyone. The Sunday before Christmas, he would hand out little brown paper bags full of hard candy, an apple and an orange to everyone as they left church. Most people do not know that my Daddy, even though he did not attend, financed a lot of the Christmas cheer at the church. We would have a program the Sunday evening before Christmas. It consisted of little kids saying poems and about a 3 act play. We all vied for the "welcome" poem. You got to go first and get it over with, otherwise you had the wait-and-get-nervous spot. John Austin was always in the play. Rehearsals were disasters, but somehow the plays themselves went off without a hitch. Every Sunday School class drew names for exchanging gifts and that was the big deal at the end of the night. It was all very exciting when I was a kid.
Daddy would drive us around to the rich side of town to look at the Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. We still do that today.