Christmas Memories

There are so many Christmas memories that I find it difficult to know which ones to  But this one came to mind for some reason.

We'd been married for about five years and it had always been our tradition to put up our tree the beginning of December. My mom always put her tree up on St. Nicholas Day, December 6th. Later, once we bought artificial trees we began putting them up the day after Thanksgiving, a tradition started by my sister that everyone copied. I love Christmas and everything to do with it, so it only seemed natural to put it up then. Besides, back when I was a child the holidays started for our family the day after Thanksgiving with baking cookies and such.

But, I digress from this particular memory.

We lived in a small community that Santa came down all the streets in a sleigh(with wheels) pulled by horses every year around the middle of December Everyone came out to greet him and he passed out candy canes to the kids, no those little candy canes either, those big, thick, long ones. Anyway,  we still didn't have our tree. Money was tight and other things took priority that year. Besides that, our car was broke down and we didn't even have a way to get one.

But that didn't stop me from whining. I wanted my tree. It was getting late in the season and already people were decorated and trees showed up in everyone's windows. Everyone's but ours. I missed the bright colored lights and the warm glow. So, of course one weekend I complained endlessly.

Either tired of hearing me or just being a terrific guy (I'm still not sure which) hubby put on his coat and shoes and walked up to the corner. Let me describe walking to the corner. We lived on a main street and there were several houses between us and the next cross street. That's not the corner I meant. Between that cross street and the corner was a very large cemetery, maybe three quarters of a mile away.

Hubby bought a tree and dragged it home behind him in the snow. And I'm not talking a three or four foot tree, I'm talking about six feet. So... he comes home and he's cold and out of breath, but chuckling.talk about.

Amazed at his good mood, I asked him what was so funny.  Apparently, while he was walking home, a lady stopped him and asked if he knew when Santa was coming. Not stopping to think about it, and not in the best of moods, he looked at her and answered, Christmas.  After she pulled away, he thought about it while walking and realized she meant the Santa who went around the neighborhood. 

Bet she never stops and asks a man dragging a tree down the street that question again.  I wish I had a picture of that. It must have been an awesome sight.