Bohemia Village Voice

Christmas Childhood Memories

Christmas was the best time at our grandparents’ cottage when I was 5 and my brother was 6 years old. My brother and I had a put-u-up bed either side of our grandparents’ bed. I suppose nowadays it may seem odd but it seemed fine to us. On Christmas eve we would go to bed almost sick with excitement at the prospect of Santa’s imminent arrival.
My brother always woke first at around 3am. I would hear him say ‘Has he (Santa) been yet?’ and ‘Is it time to get up?’ After several repetitious questions my Grandfather would groan and throw on his old woolly tartan dressing gown and slippers and disappear down stairs.
A while later, at around 4am, my Grandmother would say ‘Come on then’ and we would leap out of bed and rush down stairs to find my grandfather bending over the fire trying to light the coal. My Grandfather had a rather large electric contraption that blasted into the coals and the paper underneath. In no time at all the fire would be ablaze and we would feel instantly warm.
We had jolly Christmases with piles of presents and a great Christmas lunch. My parents would be there for lunch and everyone would overeat and drink of course. After lunch we would play draughts and sevens and then my grandfather would play tricks. He had all sorts of tricks like hiding coins behind people’s ears and he produced locked tins out of his pockets with coins in them. We found out years later how it was done but the trick never ceased to amaze us at the time.
My Grandfather loved western movies and especially liked to watch the TV with the lights off. My brother and I sat on stools either side of my grandfather’s large fireside chair and passed around the Cadbury’s Milk Tray. My grandmother would be in the other chair sipping her Emva Cream sherry. We loved John Wayne, Tonto and Rawhide and after the movie we would skip around the house pretending to be on horses slapping our own bottoms and saying ‘gidd-ee-up’.
Even now my brother prefers to watch films with the light off. I, on the other hand, have problems with my boyfriend who doesn’t like watching TV with the lights off, so I have to relent and watch them in full brightness of the sitting-room light.
Sometimes, after our lunch we would have fruit. I would sit on a little yellow stool transfixed while my grandfather sat with a knife and a golden delicious and peel the core from the apple. He would start at the top of the apple and his fingers would coax the apple round and round and the peel would come away from the apple. Most of the time the peel would come off in one piece and we would marvel at it. He would then carefully cut the apple into slices, cut out the pips and feed the two of us with a small piece of cheddar cheese – delicious! Nowadays I sometimes find myself trying to cut the peel off in one and show my nine-year-old niece. However, I am 52 now and still have not managed to cut the peel off in one slice like my Grandfather did.
My brother and I have recently cleared my Mother’s home and my brother asked if there was anything I would like. I paused for a moment in thought and then said “Yes, I would like the little yellow stool.”