Decorating History

I did a little Christmas decorating around the house last night. I put up my small tree, hung wreaths on the doors, and set out a few old family holiday decorations. When my parents died, my sibs and I divided up the cache of holiday decorations, and I ended up with lots of memory-filled items. When i was a kid, the Christmas season started in the Sipple house on St Nick's Day, December 6th. Before going to bed on the 5th, we'd write our letters to Santa--maybe draw him a picture or two--and hang them with tape from a bookcase shelf in the family room. The exact relationship between St. Nick and Santa was unclear. I don't think we saw them as the same person, but they were definitely in cahoots. Anyway, we'd head up to bed, take one bedroom slipper and place it on the floor at the foot of our bed, and then attempt to go to sleep. This was a pretty exciting night, so sleep was tough.

In the morning, our slippers would be filled to overflowing with foil wrapped chocolates and candy canes. We'd run downstairs to make absolutely sure that two things had happened: that St. Nick had taken our letters to Santa and left a note for us, and that he'd placed the snowman on top of the secretary (that would be a desk, not an administrative assistant). Here's a vintage note from St. Nick, circa 1963.




Now, back to that snowman. Since 1944 and the birth of my oldest brother, Tom, the styrofoam snowman was the first Christmas decoration of the season in the Sipple house, and it was St. Nick's job to place it on top of the secretary. The snowman appeared every single year on Dec. 6th, even years after we six Sipple kids were grown and out on our own. I inherited the secretary when my dad died in 2005, and the snowman came with it. Here he is (he looks pretty battered these days, but remember, he is in his late 60s.






The other family Christmas decorations that I inherited were several of the Christmas ornaments my Aunt Cille made. My craft-loving aunt latched onto that 70s craze of pinning sequins and baubles to satiny covered styrofoam ornaments, and she absolutely perfected the craft. She used odd bits of jewelry, wax seals off of liquor bottles, plastic figurines from Cracker Jack boxes--anything that was meaningful or whimsical or sparkly--and she adhered them onto ornaments in the most creative ways. I've been trying to photograph them, but my camera is resisting a good photo. Here are a couple of passable ones.






So there you have it: a Sipple Christmas. Remember, Tuesday is St. Nick's Day. Don't forget to put your slipper out!

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