Guest Post by Freed Radical
This is going to date me (no, not some modern self-courting ritual, but rather an act of exposing one’s age), but this music brings out deep Christmas memories. Perhaps for you it’s Handel’s Messiah, but for me it’s Christmas Time is Here.
Not only that, I was being exposed to the Gospel for the first time, by a cartoon character clutching a blanket. And in the only accurate Bible translation, the one the Apostle Paul used, the King James version! (Can I tee up a Christmas theological firestorm or what?)
When I see the teeny Christmas lights today, they just don’t evoke the same reaction as these:
Remember those? They actually contained a (gasp!) energy sucking, global warming incandescent filament. The wavelengths of those colors is burned into my brain, and the LED lights simply do not have the same effect. It’s like when your sister tries to recreate a special Christmas recipe of your mother’s, and it’s just not the same.
When my family decorated our Christmas tree (a real white pine), we used silver colored tinsel. As a kid who messed with everything, I quickly found that the tinsel was made out of this soft metal that I could roll up into a ball. It was very heavy. It was (gasp!) lead! That’s element Pb on the periodic table of the elements. We lived in a house literally coated on every surface by lead paint, too.
Read all about lead tinsel here.
I still remember landmark presents I received as a kid. When I was nine, I received a chemistry set for Christmas. Several of the chemicals were deadly, one containing the word cyanide, and I’m sure lawsuits took this product off the market in the 70’s. I had a lot of fun and got a love of science from that chemistry set. And I did not die, not even once.
You probably got a bike for Christmas. I did when I was seven, a Huffy like this one, and I must have put 5,000 miles on that baby just in our little neighborhood.
And (also, gasp!) the bike came without a helmet! Oh, the horror! I have a capped tooth and scars on my knees from all the gravel I picked out of my skin after bike wrecks.
One other gift I remember is an erector set. For you youngsters, an erector set is a pile of metal pieces, nuts, and bolts, and you would build things, from scratch, out of the parts, things like ferris wheels and windmills. Then the small metal parts would get sucked up into the vacuum cleaner a few days after Christmas and your mom would yell at you. The one I had came with a motor and some string so you could build moving contraptions. And they required no software and no Internet connection.
I have a picture of my father (yes, father) helping me build something on our living room coffee table when I was eight, on Christmas morning. I still have that table in our house and sometimes sit holding that black and white snapshot, and I can hear his gentle voice as he helps me put something together.
What Christmas memories do you have? Post some pictures!
Merry Christmas TBP family!
Thanks for posting this. As I continue my morning ritual of reading this blog, and other news items, I’m listening to V̲i̲nce̲ G̲u̲a̲ra̲ldi̲.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Great post!
I swear on my precious set of jewels that I was going to submit a QOTD today –“what were the favorite Christmas presents you gave or received?”.
Oh, well, a day late and a dollar short. I hope this post hits 300 with folks sharing such things as you did above.
My favorite gift also was a bicycle … as I believe will be the case for many others.
Now I would like to mention the gift I never got ….. oh, I wanted one soooo badly ….. a toboggan. “But, dad! ALL the kids have one!!”. That did not work, as usually was the case. All I got was a cheap ass sled. Unlike kids in North Korea (according to HF) I’ve had a very difficult life of deprivation.
Great post.
Over here: It is snowing for Christmas Eve! How cool is that? Having French toast with Brioche bread and bacon for breakfast, 4 candles lit, Christmas carols playing from a 1990s CD player. Doing a puzzle this morning, read the Grinch to the kids, will go sledding this afternoon. Perfection.
Merry Christmas to all of you!
I am, however, disappointed with your decision to post that Charlie Brown Christmas album. I mean, what the hell do those songs have to do with CHRISTmas??
— “O Tannenbaum” … a song about worshiping trees
— “What child is this” …. second favorite song in Da Hood after “That ain’t mine, Ho! Ho, ho ho!”
— “My little drum” …. a kid beating his …. umm, drum? Suuure.
— “Linus and Lucy” …. Joos!
— “Christmas Time is here” …. no shit, Sherlock
— “Skating” …. ok, I’m at a loss on this one. Never heard it. Is it really about skating? Shit. Err, shitting. That’s something I do after Christmas dinner. We all do. So, why not sing about that?
— “Hark! the herald angels sing” ….. what? an ACTUAL song about Christ? White Supremacy racist crap!!!
— “Christmas Is Coming” …. what kind of mind-fu*kery is this? You just previously sang that “”Christmas Time is HERE”! No need for this Twilight Zone crap.
— “Für Elise” …. who the hell is Elise?? Why should I give a rats ass about Elise? Is she your Sugar Momma, or sumthin’? You mean, you couldn’t close out this demonic album with “Für JEEBUS!”???
here’s a Guaraldi cover . This guy is good.
Another Guaraldi cover…
The Christmas I was 16, I eagerly got up early with my 3 siblings to check out our loot. Our folks always spoiled us with many fun, thoughtful gifts.
They were fair in the amount we each received, so I was little taken aback to see I only had ONE gift under the tree. It was good sized, and turned out to be a suitcase. Inside was an airline ticket for me to fly (for the first time), solo, that Christmas day, to visit my Mom’s large extended family in Canada for two weeks.
On the mostly empty flight later that day, the glamorous stewardesses spoiled me with champagne, and offered me a cigarette. I learned to ski, and my travel bug was hatched – that suitcase visited over 30 countries – back when travel was cheap & fun.
There’s a photo of me on the porch with the suitcase packed and ready to go, but I don’t know how to upload it. But you can imagine the smile.
Merry Christmas to all
Yes, it’s true the Apostle Paul used the King James version. It says so in the Bible.
My Christmas of learning. I was asked many times what I wanted for Christmas by my parents. I consistently told them, “a big box”. I was thinking about a nice large toy in a big box. To bad I didn’t explain myself better. Come Christmas morning I was overjoyed to see a large box beside the tree. Rip, smash and tear and what did I see? A nice new pair of brown jersey gloves. Be careful what you ask for was learned at the age of 6 years.
It is true. The Apostle Paul carried a monogrammed, black leather-bound, Cambridge edition of the King James Bible, printed in England on July 12, 1985.
A REAL carpenters tool set. A hammer, saw, pliers and a working brace with bits for drilling. Came in a steel box. Was made for kids. I was 5 years old. The World was never the same for me.
Believe it or not, I still have my 1st Daisy.
I wonder whatever happened to mine. I had it forever. I found a steel bolt to replace the takedown pin I lost. I later got a pump pellet gun, but I always still used the old spring lever daisy occasionally.
I had a pump action BB gun. I found out it could put a BB right through someone’s hand.
So do I, shoots a bb about a foot now.
Fantastic! I still have my good teddy bear from 1953.
I had a chemistry set and an electrical set, and I loved those more than any toys I can remember.
I got a Lionel train set for Christmas when I was 6. Still have it, but the tracks are rusty and the transformer is long gone. The next year, I got a .410 Winchester pump and began my quail and dove hunting days.
I also got a chemistry set and spent many an hour mixing chemicals and conducting experiments. A microscope was also a favorite gift.
I got gifts with typed messages taped to them from Santa telling me to be nice to my sisters. Last week we gave 3yo g’daughter an ornament to hang on the tree and first thing she asked was how to turn it on. She mastered the train set remote in a matter of seconds.