Monday, December 7, 2009

Virtual Advent Tour: Christmas traditions and memories

I love Christmas. I love the Christmas specials on tv, animated or Rankin and Bass stop motion. I love the decorations and the Christmas tree. I love the smell of evergreens. I love Christmas carols. I love the beauty and promise of singing Silent Night at the end of midnight's Christmas Eve service. In short, there's little about the season that I don't love, well aside from the frenzied shoppers who drive like boneheads. In the grand scheme of things, that's a minor irritation, really. But what I love the most about the Christmas season are the special moments from my childhood: my grandfather having us sing O Tanenbaum before going in to see the tree on Christmas morning, my dad chasing the elves away, driving around local neighborhoods to see the extravagant light displays (Anthony, aka Antny the Mobster, always had the best by my paternal grandmother's house), and being convinced I'd seen Rudolph the night before when I was supposed to be asleep (turns out it was just the tail lights from the neighbor's car shining into my bedroom but I was only about 6 so give me a break).

I can't recreate all of my Christmas memories for my children but we do try with some of them. Of course, it is easy to drive around and look at lights and ooooo and aaaaaawwwwww over them. We don't know the people who put up the best light displays now so we can't tell salacious tales, at least salacious to a child, about them though. And given our family's appalling lack of talent in the singing department, we forgo the O Tanenbaum tradition. But I have imposed on my parents to recreate my very favorite tradition of all: chasing the elves away.

Here's how it played out when I was small. My sister and I sat at the top of the steps out of sight of the Christmas tree and listened while the high pitched voices of elves being chased away from the presents rang through the house. Finally a door would slam and there would be silence. Eventually we were told we could come downstairs to see all the presents and stockings for the first time. (We don't put any gifts under the tree until after all children are tucked in bed for the night.) One present or stocking gift would generally be slightly torn with the explanation that the elves Santa inadvertantly left behind tried to take it with them on their way out the door. Obviously we had no trouble reconciling the benign elves who made the toys with the grasping awfuls who had to be chased away and prevented from taking gifts back with them. It was all rather exciting.

Now as an adult, I know more about the magic behind it. Dad had a record (yes, for those among you who are but babies, this was one of those ancient, pressed vinyl artifacts that you see in museums but they were the best technology of the time) that had been made of a business meeting. He said it was dead boring but when you played that 45 at 78 rpms instead, it sounded like the speaker was one of the Chipmunks or, in our case, one of Santa's left-behind elves. So the record was played entirely too fast while dad made chase noises, occasionally banging something, and finally ending with the door opening and slamming shut. I vividly remember sitting on the top step and shivering with excitement, wondering if the elves would get away with a present this year or if dad would prevail again. Can you blame me for wanting my cynical, digital age children to experience the same thing? Oh, and the torn present? I suspect that was an accidental addition the first time, meant to explain away my father's appalling present wrapping skills. To this day, he wraps by winding up the bags things have come in and taping them shut. ;-)

Unfortunately in the lull between my childhood and my children's births, the record of the business meeting was purged from my parents' collection. Really it wasn't of any interest at all in its original form and I suspect that they didn't know what a hold it had on my imagination or they'd have kept it (seriously, when I am unhappy about something having been purged, I remind everyone of the loss every chance I get so it's in everyone's happiest interest to just hang onto the important stuff as declared by me). Obviously I nagged enough that one Christmas my dad re-connected the record player and dug out a record (one with music so not nearly as effective as the purely spoken word) to do the elf chase for my children. I don't know if it went over as well for them as it always did for me but I still try to insist on it every year if I can. We really ought to record it one year so we can just hit play but somehow going through the hassle of the record player is a part of it now too. Sometimes the craziest things strike the biggest chord, especially from childhood. And this one in particular will alwasy evoke Christmas for me.

Even knowing the story behind the magic, I still wouldn't be surprised to come downstairs one Christmas morning to find an elf napping amongst the stockings and to have to chase him away myself.











Find out the other sites participating in the Virtual Advent Tour at the Virtual Advent Tour blog.

19 comments:

  1. Love this story! It reminded me of when my niece and nephew (now deep into their 30's) were little and Santa came to visit. My husband and I were just trying to remember the details...something about a bell, we think. I must find out what has happened to Santa and the bell...

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  2. What an awesome, awesome memory and tradition! It's different, and therefore your own. I think that's fabulous. I can just imagine that anxious, excited feeling, hearing those elves and the dramatic chase! Thanks for sharing.

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  3. What a great story! Those little things that your parents did without planning are always the best. As we said in a Thanksgiving post: The best moments in life can't be planned, they just happen. But maybe you can recreate them. Great holiday post. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Traditions are so wonderful. Both new and old.

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  5. Awesome story- aren't the memories wonderful? I sometimes think that we shouldn't try to re-create....they're never as good as we remember them. But knowing that we had the chance to live them, and the opportunity to create some new ones that are special to our kids is really what makes Christmas so special.

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  6. Awesome story- aren't the memories wonderful? I sometimes think that we shouldn't try to re-create....they're never as good as we remember them. But knowing that we had the chance to live them, and the opportunity to create some new ones that are special to our kids is really what makes Christmas so special.

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  7. What a great story! I love the imagery -- both of what you were hearing and the actuality of what your dad was probably doing!

    -sprite
    spritewrites.net

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  8. What a wonderful post about a fun tradition, chasing the elves away from the presents. Thanks for sharing that with us - I love the Virtual Advent Tour, it brings you so far around all sorts of funny, touching and some bad memories and traditions.

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  9. I LOVE the idea of chasing the elves away. What a fantastic tradition! Thanks so much for sharing.

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  10. That's a wonderful story and a beautiful tradition :-)

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  11. Such a fabulous story! I needed the laugh today, so thanks!

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  12. What an awesome memory! I love that you're trying to recreate it, record player and all.

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  13. Such a terrific memory! What amazes me is that you stayed sitting at the top of the stairs. I don't think I could have done it, and I'm sure that my own kids couldn't have. They would have come down and caught us in the act. :<)

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  14. what a fun tradition and a great memory maker. loved your post.

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  15. Great post! I am enjoying learning about everyones traditions. :) Thanks for joining in for the Virtual Advent and Happy Holidays!

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  16. What a great story. I can just imagine your dad chasing away the elves. And the truth about the record is just wonderful. Thanks for sharing with us all.

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  17. This had me giggling all the way through. I think that is the coolest thing ever! I love tradition and it is awesome how you are trying to recreate it for your children. Excellent addition to the Virtual Advent Tour!

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  18. I love this story! I really do - I have this HUGE smile on my face now after reading it so thank you for sharing it!

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  19. Wow! That is such an awesome Christmas memory!

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