Don’t
feel bad that the box of gifts you sent us didn’t arrive before Christmas. It
prolonged our festivities, and we had more opportunity to enjoy it. – Ina, 1936
Ina
continues on the excellent Christmas of 1936:
Vance
called us Christmas morning, starting the day off fine. He was disappointed to
hear that we had yet to receive his box of gifts, but it came the day after Christmas
and so prolonged the celebration for us. I gathered everyone around to open the
box, and all enjoyed the beautifully wrapped gifts and the verses on them. The
holly decorations were so lovely, too.
Shirley
and Henry immediately began to further embellish the house with them. They took
down the big etching over the mantel and hung the large cluster there and used
the silvered branches over the other two.
What
a lot of time Vance must have spent on them and how beautiful they were! He has
such a wonderful imagination! We reserved some and the ball sprays for our
Sunday dinner decorations, making a lovely centerpiece of holly, the sprays,
and candles. We dined in state with the best cloth, dishes, etc., all by candle
light. How we enjoyed those decorations!
2 comments:
Did Grandpa (mine) ever make holly decorations that you remember? I wish I could see them.
Your grandpa was a master of greenery, but holly was generally not available. He substituted Oregon grape sprigs which he spray painted. This subject is yet to come up in the posts.
In the '80s, before he passed, he told me that fir boughs were becoming scarce, and he didn't know how he would continue to decorate. I guess that problem was solved for him. Our neighbor, Sonya, also decorated with greenery, and she also said that boughs were scarce. Decorations are mostly artificial now.
When I worked at the museum, I trimmed our arborvitae so that volunteers could make wreaths.
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