Christmas At 5715 Belarbor Avenue, Houston,Texas In The Late 1950's And Early 1960's

On Christmas eve it’s a wonderful time to stop and reflect on what Christmas is all about. The most obvious event was the birth of Jesus. Of equal importance is the value of family. Elena and I were both blessed to have wonderful fathers who loved us dearly and made every effort to give us a good start in life.

I think back now to the Christmas eves long passed when my sister and I were small children. We grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood. (Even today the house where we grew up is worth a paltry $57,000 US.) Our dad was a humble advertising salesman with the now-defunct Houston Post. His monthly earnings were a rousing $600 US.

Despite these meager resources, dad made every effort to give us a nice Christmas. We always had a beautiful Christmas tree with filled with many presents underneath. The house was decorated for Christmas. The Christmas spirit was very important.

On Christmas eve dad would come in after seven. He would bring with him a wide variety of European cheeses and crackers. (Dad had served in Europe with the US Army in World War II and fell in love with the cheeses there.) Dad would put out a large chopping board. He would  lay out the cheeses and crackers. My sister and I would enjoy the feast along with my mother and my father. Dad and mother would drink bourbon. My sister and I were not allowed to drink “hard liquor.” We drank Coca Cola and egg nog. It was a happy time when we would make small talk. Dad would entertain us with all of his stories of adventures in Europe. We would give thanks for our good fortune, All fights and arguments were put aside.

On Christmas eve dad would always take one present from me and one from my sister. He would donate these gifts to poor and deserving people less fortunate than we were. As it got later dad would allow my sister and I to open one gift each. We were then sent off to bed. While dad thought that we were sleeping, he and mother would wrap the rest of the presents. We would peek out from our rooms and watch as the gifts were being prepared. We were told that Santa Clause was bringing some gifts. We knew better. We would arise around four in the morning to open the rest of our gifts.

That was 50 years ago. We should never lose the idea of the magic of Christmas and the four letter word L-O-V-E.

“A Merry Christmas To All And To All A Good Night!”