Tuesday, December 21, 2010

VIRTUAL ADVENT TOUR: A MEMORY OF CHRISTMASES PAST

(This is a cross post from The Christmas Spirit blog)

When my sister and I were growing up in the 70s and 80s, we had three Christmas albums we listened to each year. One was the Partridge Family Christmas album and the other two were more traditional with standard carols sung by a childrens' choir and the like. Around Christmas time 1976, she was five and I was eight, we started putting on yearly Christmas pageants for our parents. We would choose five or six songs from the three albums and then would make up dance routines and sing and dance to the songs. The costuming wasn't elaborate. Just a red or green sweater and jeans. Later, I think we added Santa hats. Several years later, we added a couple more Christmas albums (cassette tapes by this time). The Beach Boys Christmas and The Chipmunks Christmas. We continued these pageants up until 1984, the Christmas before my parents split up. By this time, I was sixteen and Tracy was thirteen. My sister had a best friend that was practically like our sister and she joined us for that last pageant. We had been putting on the shows for my parents for eight years! When we get together (Tracy lives in Michigan and I'm in Tennessee), whether it's the holidays or not, we always talk about those times and how much fun Christmas always was for us. We didn't have any other family around us growing up in Michigan so it was just the four of us...Mom, Dad, Tracy, and myself. But we had so much fun every Christmas and the pageants just added to the fun. I'm not sure what happened to all those Christmas albums/tapes, but I do still have the Partridge Family Christmas album, though it's just a keepsake...it's so scratched up now. That album was our tradition, whether it was during the pageants or just listening to it while we decorated or made cookies. Luckily, I came across the CD several years ago at Walgreens and I bought two copies so I will always have a back-up. And it has come full circle because that record is a favorite of my sons now. No pageants from my dear boys yet, but a mom can hope...can't she?!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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