Christmastime in the 1960s, Minneapolis, Minnesota


It's Christmastime of 2020 as I sit down to write this, and I feel like a sentimental journey. Let's go back to the 1960s in Minneapolis, back when I was a kid.

I often ask people about their Christmas traditions, and it always varies just a bit. As a kid, of course, I focused on presents, and we had a good system. Looking back on it, it seems like my parents were very smart about it!

First of all, we opened our presents on Christmas Eve. It was one of the rare occasions that we actually used the living room, and we would even have a fire in the fireplace. And my happiest memories are of cooking hotdogs right there in the fireplace! Since we boys never lifted a finger to help mom, like to wash dishes (she insisted on that!), Christmas Eve dinner was always served on paper plates, which meant that we could get to the gifts right after we ate.

One of us kids was assigned to distribute the gifts, which and we all sat around and didn't open them until we had them all. They were under the tree, of course, and we had usually gotten a good idea of what they were, as the wrapping skills of the family didn't cover up unusual shapes, etc. I could always tell my bag of Red Hots, which was traditional for me, also a bit jar of green olives (yes, I loved green olives as a kid, and still do).

But hold on there, long before Christmas Eve, mom would put up a long hand-made ribbon with 25 buttons on it, and every day starting with December 1st, a button would be removed. Even before we could read, or understand a calendar, we could look at the buttons and know how close it was to Christmas Eve. I consider this a brilliant way to stop kids from asking "Is it Christmas yet?" or "How many days 'til Christmas?"

And on Christmas Eve Day, we were allowed to open one (1) present early. Another good management technique! The only early Christmas present I recall was a belt, which was kinda sad, but I recall being very proud of how happy everyone was at how I reacted, putting the belt on, and prancing around. I wasn't a "temper tantrum" kid, I knew that there would be toys for me under the tree when the official unwrapping ceremony began.

My mom, who was obviously the master of ceremonies for all of this, loved the crooners from the '50s, so our Christmas records were mostly Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and of course Nat King Cole. To this day, those voices remind me of Christmas, no matter what song they're singing. Of course we had their Christmas albums!

The best part was the big gift, which came from Santa, and was always in the middle of the living room, unwrapped, on Christmas morning. We kids had no reason to wake up the adults on Christmas morning, we just went downstairs, as early as we wanted, and there were our gifts from Santa. I got some way cool stuff over the years, most of which I sold on eBay a few years ago. That pic of me at the top of this post was when I asked for a book from Santa. I remember my mom clarifying that I wanted a book. A book? Yep, what a little nerd! That was 1969, when I was 11.

As you can tell, I have very fond memories of Christmas, and I could go on and go, and I probably will, but in another post.

Merry Christmas!
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