Paradise Found

Hard to believe that today is December 16th and almost the end of 2023.

Our home is decked out in all of its Christmas splendor and made up of ornaments and little extras have been saved carefully and reused every year. I cherish all of them and every time we trim the tree I tell Doug the same story of each ornament. I love memories of Christmas Past. 

I grew up in Irvington, NJ, a town where my grandparents built a six-family house after they arrived in America in 1911. Their first stop was with family members in Brooklyn and then they moved over to New Jersey. I don’t know too much about the reason or how they found Irvington. My grandparents are long gone as well as all of my aunts and uncles and parents, but I do have very vivid and fond memories of all holidays, but especially of Christmas.

In the six family house lived my grandparents, my aunt and uncle with their two boys, and my parents with their three girls. There were two apartments on each floor, front and back. Outside of the three apartments the family lived in; the others were rented out. We spent every holiday together, always at my grandparents apartment , but my aunt and my mother were always part of the preparation and cooking. Christmas Eve as our big day, and very different than how the celebration has evolved today to family and friends – we celebrate with those who and geographically closest to us.

Everyone became more excited with every day that passed! We always were dressed up for Christmas Eve: the men in suits and the ladies in nice cocktail dresses. The dining room table was always formally set; white tablecloth and all of the Lithuanian -Polish and Catholic traditions. The meal consisted of Mushroom Barley Sour Cream Soup, Pierogi, Fried Fish (usually smelts) and cucumber salad. While meatless, a very filling meal. After gift giving the adults when to Midnight Mass and the kids went to bed, excited about what Santa would be leaving for them the next morning.

It was wonderful to all live in the six family house. If my mother ran out of sugar, I went to my aunt’s to borrow some. If I didn’t have anything to do, I’d walk across the hall to my best friend, Rose. We had so much fun together. Our closeness lasted for many, many years, until, of course, age and illnesses and migration to the suburbs changed things.

The six family house at 237 S. 22nd Street was bought by the School Board to enlarge the school playground which prompted my family to move to Middletown NJ. My Aunt and Uncle moved only a few blocks away to a three-family house with my Grandfather, but we still kept the tradition of getting together on Christmas Eve at my Aunt and Uncle’s house and having Christmas Day at our house. 

All together we were a family of about fifteen. That meant logistically creating larger dining rooms (kitchens were where the family ate every night). Every Christmas Eve my Aunt and Uncle would break down their entire bedroom set and turn the room into an elegant dining room. Can you image putting everything together again after Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve?

For Christmas Day (which had an American menu of turkey and all the fixings) was another logistics issue. Our dining room was never used and more like a small hall soo my parents took all the furniture out of the “rumpus room” which was down a flight of stairs off the kitchen and created yet another elegant dining room. My mother and Aunts carried each prepared dish carefully down the stairs to the newly created dining room to serve dinner. Again, can you imagine?

And nobody ever complained about extra work!

There are so many wonderful memories for me – here are just a few of my favorites:

• New fancy dresses every Christmas Eve – one year in particular, my mother bought my sister and me each a taffeta dress with full skirt(crinolines underneath) and a little strip of real mink around the neckline! I thought the outfit was the cat’s meow and probably the beginnings of a career in the fashion industry.

• My Aunt and Uncle dancing the Peabody in their living room to Rudolph The Red-nosed Reindeer (by Gene Autry) while we all sat on the floor and watched. They were wonderful dancers and everyone clapped after the music ended.

• Polish or Lithuanian being spoken at the dinnner table, when the adults didn’t want us to understand what they were saying.

• Christmas corsages, which were always artificial, but so pretty. Always on the coat lapel.

• The year my cousins created the most exciting gift for their mother: they brought in a huge box, all wrapped up. As my aunt opened it, she found a smaller wrapped box, and another and another until she got down to a tiny box. It was a gift certificate to Bambergers!  

Believe it or not, I don’t remember one gift I received in all of those years. However, I am lucky enough to have the best gift of all that will last forever – my memory of Christmas Past!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Till next time.