SUNDAY MEMORIES
Judy Wills
I concentrated on Thanksgiving during the month of November 2023. Now it is December 2023, and I would like to concentrate on Christmas. I would like to describe decorations – both around the neighborhood, in our house (and others houses we’ve visited), and some of the decorations from years past at our growing-up house and our Aunt Jessie’s house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the decorations that our church does each year.
For those about our church, I want to explain that within our congregation are a few people who were animators for Disney here in Orlando. Consequently, the ideas they put forth are quite elegant and beautiful. Please keep that in mind when I describe and show pictures of some of those decorations.
I think I want to start with what our Mother did for our house in Albuquerque. This one from 1952 is the earliest I have of any decorations – that’s me, with the fireplace mantle decorations, and all the Christmas cards Mom and Dad received taped to the side windows.
And here’s one from 1958 that shows the “corner” of the living room with the tree and all.
Another one from 1958 – the decoration Mom put on the mirror above the mantle. They didn’t have “clings” back in those days – it was probably the “spray-on-snow” that is so difficult to remove – at least I don’t remember Mom doing that any other year.
This one from 1964 shows Mom, Dad and me, and the way Mom taped the Christmas cards onto the front door.
And this one from 1966 shows my Granny and the decorations Mom placed on the shelf under the side window.
Moving on from the house I grew up in, to my Aunt Jessie’s house. She and Granny lived about 10 minutes away from us, and had a neat house that DiVoran called “Art Deco” style. I loved that house almost as much as my own.
It wasn’t huge, but had some unique features to it – including a basement. Here are some of the decorations Jessie did:
I remember her making Christmas “candles” by pouring melted paraffin wax into those old (cleaned out) square milk cartons. The paraffin had melted crayons in them, to make different colors of the candles. She would then take some of the melted paraffin (no color) and whip it up with her electric mixer to make a “foam” or frosting-like that she spread on the outside of the candle when it had cooled. Here is a picture of her holding one of her candles. This was sometime in the 1950’s
And here is Jessie, Granny and a good friend of theirs that we called “Aunt Clarkie” in Jessie’s house at Christmas time. You can see the candles Jessie made on the stair-step room divider from the dining room into the living room. This picture was taken in 1960.
And here is a table arrangement that Jessie did in 1963. She had really elegant taste in the way she decorated.
Here is the decoration she did by the fireplace and mantle in 1963. Loved those stockings!
And here’s a front door decoration she did in 1964. I have another picture of a front-door decoration she did, but the picture is not good quality.
This concludes the pictures from my childhood – both our house and our Aunt Jessie’s house. Next time will be the decorations we did with our house. Unfortunately, I don’t have either my Mother’s or Aunt Jessie’s good taste in decorations – but we like what we do!
~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~
Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years .
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson and a great-granddaughter. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.
Old Things R New 