Tears welled as I found that box tucked way back, with Mother's name written on the lid. I opened it & here were Mother's precious pieces of Christmas, that were well over 60 years old. I thought I had given all of these items away to other family members over the years.
The little boots (2 of 5) were actually mine & another (?) siblings that on Christmas morning were filled with candy & nuts. How exciting it was to find those delicious special Christmas candies that were not available all year round. These little pieces are all candles except for the one old snowglobe that has lost his 'water' belly.
In the middle of the dining room table Mother would place Angel Hair (that dangerous spun glass we used all the time) & gently place her Christmas treasures beautifully as our centerpiece. She also did a display of other little pieces like these on her round mahogany table (which I inherited) nestled between the two camel back chairs, decorating it with fresh holly leaves & berries, tucking in little ornaments & figures .
We kids used to have such fun helping her place things around the house ... hanging paper chains on the tree that we handcreated, silver tinsel placed perfectly one strand at a time (occasionally we'd get into tinsel fights or throw it onto the tree in clumps & catch the devil for doing so, then having to redo the mess we created), making ornaments out of Christmas cards from the past threaded with yarn to hang them on the tree.
Our biggest thrill was using this pink creamy glass window cleaner ... we had Christmas stencils that we would help one another hold up to the window & we would slather the stencil w/window cleaner, then gently lift if away from the window & wait for it to dry ... our favorite for the front window was the nativity. Then we would spread this glass cleaner all over the window(s) & when it dried it left a whitish cover ... highlighting the stenciled art. We also decorated the front door window with other scenes ... santa & his reindeer was another favorite. (Dragonfly Treasures reminded me that the window cleaner is Glass Wax, yup! TY)
I placed these precious pieces of youth on my milk glass cake stand for our dining room table to be enjoyed by all ... May your memories of your treasures be as tender & loved, as are mine.
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