Ghost of Christmas Past Part 2

The other day I spoke of Hamsters, Baby Dolls and Ventroliquist dummies (Yeah, I was kind of a weird child). I also remember going to see Santa and every year it was at the same place. It was like a cute little portable building, just big enough to fit Santa and his big chair. You would go in and sit on his lap and tell him what you wanted. I think your parents just kind of hung out at the door. Yeah, kind of creepy. I can see why they stopped that. They must have stopped that because I havent seen one of those set ups in years. Now the Santas are in the mall...out in the open so people can keep their eyes on them. Make it a lot harder for Chester the Molester to dress up as Santa Claus. Thats a good thing.

One thing cool about my Christmases when I was a kid was the employee Christmas party where my dad worked. See, he worked at Disneyland..and what could be better than a Christmas Party? A Private Christmas Party at the Happiest Place on Earth. Yep. They would keep the park open a little later for employees and their families....and you just went wild. Everyone else...get the heck out. I remember being able to bring a friend a couple of years. I also remember that on our way out all the kids would get a Christmas stocking full of candy and little toys, coloring books, stuff like that. This party also meant that I got to see the son of a fellow employee of my dad's. He was cute, and he thought I was cute. I guess he grew up though to have problems staying out of prison.....Oh well.

I loved the decorations of my childhood Christmases too. My mom had this nativity set that was cool...I used to play with the set like they were action figures..which required my mom to repair them on more than one occasion. Im sure it drove her nuts to find Baby Jesus between the couch cushions or near the dog food bowl.

We had this cool light thing too. It was a big wheel of colors...and when you plugged it in and turned it on, it would rotate colors across the ceiling and walls. When I was a teenager I coveted that color wheel. It would be so cool in my room with by beads hanging in my doorway, my insence and my Pink Floyd...but alas it never ended up in there. Im not sure what happened to it actually, but I miss it.

We had these candles that were shaped various Christmas characters like Santa and Frosty. They would often hang out with and sometimes argue with Mary, Joseph, or one of the wisemen. I think they melted one year in the heat of the garage because on year, they were just gone.

My most favorite decoration of all time though, is the one that sits atop my own family tree right now. The angel. She has dark hair, a halo and wings and is wearing a white dress...she is more like a doll than a statue..her dress is real material. It was on the family tree ever since I can remember. When my best friend died when I was twelve, that angel reminded me of her...and still does to this day. Someday, I will hand it over to S, and tell her the story, and so on and so on.