Ghosts of Christmas Past

Please join me in a look back at some Christmases of my past.

*

Here is Baby's First Christmas in 1954. My mom, Jane, was 17 years old and I was 3 1/2 months old. Yep, still totally bald.

*

How many of us remember putting those silver icicles on the Christmas tree? My mom insisted we put on the tinsel one strand at a time so it was perfectly distributed among the branches. It was long, tedious labor, and I kind of miss it!

Still 1954: My dad, Myron, is relaxing by the Christmas tree. I think he worked the graveyard shift at North American Aviation in Los Angeles at that time. He was 20 years old. Apparently my mom was still hard at work on the tinsel!

*

I see they put their little tree up on a table just like my children and I did this year. We are actually quite fond of this year's little tree. We'll hate having to take it down.

Color for Christmas 1958! My grandparents came from Fresno to visit, so all the family who lived in the L.A. area got together. That would be Uncle Johnny and Aunt LouDene, Uncle Ernie and Aunt Alma, and my parents, plus all their children at that time.

*

My dad is at the back on the left, looking a lot like my nephew Josh! I'm in the white shirt in front, with my hand in my mouth. Some things never change! I was 4 years old then.

*

Still 1958: Here's my mom with her in-laws. She was 21 and pregnant with my brother LeRoy, so it was my last Christmas as an only child.

*

Grandpa Ed Butler, barely visible in the dark, was 66 and Grandma Myrtle Butler was 63 at this Christmas. Grandpa passed away about 10 years later, but Grandma lived to be 100!

* Christmas 1961: We moved to Fresno, CA in 1960 and our family was growing!
*

Left to right:
Mary Jane (me) at age 7;
Karla at 20 months old;
Dad at age 27;
LeRoy (between parents) age 2 1/2;
Mom at age 24;
and Jeff almost 2 months old.
Christmas 1969: Here are Karla (age 9) and Jeff (age 8) with Mom. Every year we made red-and-green Christmas chains to hang on the wall and count down the days.

*

I miss the old slotted-paper nativity scene we received in Primary, way back when (you can see it there on the piano). I used mine every year until it simply fell apart several years ago. I noticed they had a smaller one printed in this month's Friend for the children to paste on heavy paper and cut out.

*

Here's the mess on Christmas morning 1969! Remember when aluminum trees were all the rage? Mom hung red ball ornaments all over it, then tucked in some purple garland for good measure. It was a very interesting look!

*

I'm the one with the long blonde hair and my back to the camera (as I said, some things never change). I was 15 on this Christmas.

*

Still 1969: Once the mess was cleaned up, Darryl (age 6) and LeRoy (age 10) got busy playing with their new toys.


*

Christmas 1970: In December we spent some time in Santa Cruz (in the San Francisco Bay area) at the home of my Uncle Gene and Aunt Bertha. While there we decided to visit a Christmas tree farm in the area and cut our own Christmas tree.

*

I'm the one in the white sweater and purple bell bottoms, age 16.

We found the perfect tree, cut it, and strapped it to the top of the brand new blue van we'd just bought from Uncle Gene's car dealership. On our way home, the tree slid off the roof and we ran over it. So much for perfection!

*

After we moved here to the mountains in 1990, Mark and I went out in the forest a couple of times to find and cut our own Christmas tree. One of those times we were almost trampled by a large herd of elk stampeding through our clearing. Cutting your own tree can be dangerous!

Christmas 1971: This was our last Christmas in Fresno. The following June I graduated from high school and we moved to Yorba Linda, a small town near Anaheim in southern California.
*

I'd been teaching the 3-year-old Moonbeams in Primary for 4 years (although nowadays they are called the Sunbeams) and this was my last year with them. Here I am at age 17 with my little Moonbeams, Tiffany, Emily, and Christian. They were angels in the big Primary Christmas program that year.

Although I was a high school senior and LeRoy was in 7th grade, our younger 3 siblings were young enough to still be in Primary.

*

Here is 11-year-old Karla in the program. She's the 2nd from the right in the back row, behind the seated girl in pink. (I know these pictures aren't of the greatest quality.)

*

Here is Darryl at age 8 as a shepherd. He's the 2nd from the left, the one in the plaid robe still trying to tie it shut.

*

And finally, below is Jeff at age 10 as one of the wise men. He's in the gold robe at far right.

There are a lot of years with no Christmas photos at all. That seems a little sad, although I think my parents were more focused on capturing Christmas on the movie camera. Someday I'll have to learn how to convert old home movies to digital so I can share them!

*

Even without pictures, I have plenty of happy memories of magical Christmas moments and the joy of family togetherness.

*

I wish you all the same!