There are some childhood memories that stay with us long into adulthood. Certain sights, sounds, smells and people that just take you back. This post is about a few of those things. The first was on TV last night. I never fully embrace Christmas until I see some Charlie Brown Christmas. Nothing makes me happier than this:
No, I still don't get why that one mixed-race looking kid in the back is doing an early version of the Running Man. I don't get why Chuck and the gang never have any adult supervision and I don't get how a brokedown tree with two twigs and a spindly trunk magically blooms and grows in 30 seconds flat. And I don't care. Christmas just ain't Christmas until I hear these words:
Sally: I've been looking for you, big brother. Will you please write a letter to Santa Claus for me?Charlie Brown: Well, I don't have much time. I'm supposed to get down to the school auditorium to direct a Christmas play.Sally: [hands a clipboard and pen to Charlie Brown] You write it and I'll tell you what I want to say.Charlie Brown: [sticks pen in his mouth] Okay, shoot.Sally: [dictating her letter to Santa Claus as Charlie Brown writes it for her] Dear Santa Claus, How have you been? Did you have a nice summer?[Charlie Brown looks at her]Sally: How is your wife? I have been extra good this year, so I have a long list of presents that I want.Charlie Brown: Oh brother.Sally: Please note the size and color of each item, and send as many as possible. If it seems too complicated, make it easy on yourself: just send money. How about tens and twenties?Charlie Brown: TENS AND TWENTIES? Oh, even my baby sister!Sally: All I want is what I... I have coming to me. All I want is my fair share.
Now why everybody in the family would turn and give me the side-eye when Sally said these words is beyond me… maybe… moving on! The point is, the Charlie Brown Christmas show is as much a part of the BougieFam Christmas as this next gentleman, the late great Mr. Nat King Cole singing The Christmas Song:
Of course, we also had a Soulful Christmas including such classics as Santa Claus Go Straight to the Ghetto by James Brown, Merry Christmas Baby by Booker T and the MGs, Santa Baby by Eartha Kitt and the perennial favorite Back Door Santa by Clarence Carter. Nothing like BougieOlderBro trying to get his air bass guitar groove on while singing (off-key) to Back Door Santa. I could do a whole post just on the Christmas songs (J5, Stevie). But I'll move on…
Cinnamon, evergreen and nutmeg are the scents I most closely associate with Christmas. Baked ham, my Guyanese cousin's terrible cologne, and wood smoke follow behind. We used to sip some concoction that was hot, had cinnamon sticks floating in it and was always laced with rum or bourbon (or both?). BougieMom would put it in a huge silver punch bowl near the fire and tell us not to drink too much (never worked). In retrospect, I suspect this was their slick way of knocking us out early so they could finish the wrapping.
Christmas morning still isn't the same without my father there. He was the biggest kid of all. As much as he loved putting smiles on all of our faces, if his stack of gifts wasn't piled as high as he expected, he could get a little funky with it. (Downright tart) So much so that we would have to assure him that we'd make up for it at the After-Christmas sales. He used to light cinnamon and evergreen scented candles all over the house the night before and wake us up at the crack of dawn by marching up and down the hallway banging on a pot and singing Day-O. (You can't make this stuff up) God rest his soul, the man was off the chains.
I could go on and on (and I will closer to Christmas) but I wanted to share a few sensory Christmas memories with you while Charlie Brown and the gang were fresh on my mind. What things remind you of Christmas? Was there a song you always played, a movie you always watched, a smell that takes you back? 'Tis the season in BougieLand, ya'll… Happy Holidays.
31 comments:
Seriously, who hasn't jammed to the Charlie Brown tune? It's classic.
Exactly, back when parents just took you where they wanted you to go, there was no asking.
I always feel like bah humbug this time of the year. My sis is so into Christmas that I just can't understand why I can't be bothered. Her house is decorated to the hilt complete with angels, santas, enough ornaments to start her own store, and.... Rotating Christmas Tree Stand. I'm serious!
Give me Eartha Kitt singing Santa Baby, Alvin and the Chipmunks singing about hoola hoops, Charlie Brown, and some booze and I'm cool. The rest, I can do without.
DP - you figured it out!
lol, play nice children.
Fresh evergreen! Half of BougieFam was allergic so we always went artificial and put the scented candles out ;-)
I'm getting better about Christmas but it's always been a bit of a mixed bag for me. The family tends to get all competitive and eager to start shiggitty. I do start getting my holiday sip on around Thanksgiving and get it gone through New Year's.
i love this time of year. red velvet cake and the christmas goose (yes, we have a christmas goose) make it christmas. it ain't christmas til 'this christmas' is being played on the black radio station at least twice an hour! oh, and the temptations christmas album. oh, and the jackson 5 christmas album. oh and rockin around the christmas tree by brenda lee. i could keep going. the best christmas movie ever, A Christmas Story! i mean not counting the classics like; a christmas carol (the old black and white one please), it's a wonderful life, miracle on 34th street, yes virgina there is a santa claus, and all the christmas cartoons. i'm too excited.
Fresh baked bread, my mom used to make these loaves from scratch and we would wake up to the smell. It's one of the things I keep saying I'm going to learn to do... not there yet.
We loved Rudolph and Frosty.
gingerbread cookie and hot chocolate with candy cane in it. Christmas cannot happen without those! It's a wonderful life and the year without santa claus were favorites. The was this song in that cartoon about the north pole and south pole that I loved! Christmas means family.
The Heat Meiser and the Snow Meiser... I know this because I went on a ten year odyssey to find this movie based on that song alone ;-)
BWAHAHA - Are you Sally, OneChele? Pampered younger sister who always gets her way?
I love the Andy Williams and Temptations Christmas albums
And I am one of the rare people who actually like fruitcake
I associate Christmas with my TX relatives habit of piling gifts to the ceiling, literally!
Christmas service was always a must. I ain't never feel like having to stop playing to go to church, but I didn't get a vote.
Peanuts is one of those favorites everybody can agree on. Who hates Snoopy?
Midnight service, snow and peppermint.
My dad getting a little toated off the eggnog and chasing my mom around the tree
And now I try to share some things with my husband and kids to build memories they can keep
Oh you listed almost all of my favorites!
My mom is a Sinatra stan so we had him, Perry Como and Andy Williams competing with the Motown Family Christmas album and yes, Mahalia was a must.
We also had a christmas goose and my mom made these apple tartlets that I've yet to duplicate to perfection.
Like someone said below - christmas means family and friends.
Keeping it 100, my Christmases were kinda some hoody bullshit until recently. Now that everybody is grown and we have our own spots - we've started bringing in new traditions for the young uns so Christmas can be more than that day that dome drama popped off.
Good morning from the snow buried Midwest :-) When they said it was going to be a blizzard, they weren't kidding. My Mom sent me a Christmas wreath and I've hung it on the wall inside so I can smell the evergreen. When I was spritzing it with water the other day, the smell of the evergreen triggered a flashback of putting the evergreen branches in a creche we used to make growing up. I imagine you do miss your Dad. That is the thing about the holidays as you get older. They become bitter sweet.
Great post. I can literally see your father banging the pot and singing Day O. Love the image and you're right, you can't make that stuff up. Happy Holidays!
As much as I enjoyed my Christmases growing up, I love them now. I usually host so that means a house full of loved ones. We go very traditional and over the top with music, presents, decorations, huge tree. My aunts have finally ceded the kitchen to my sister, cousins and me though they get upset when we try something new with the recipe. We are a duck family and apparently I'm being too creative with the oyster stuffing... holidays are stressful but I love them. thanks for sharing!
My Christmases growing up weren't so great either but my wife and I make SURE our kids have great memories to take forward with them
Who are you telling? I was over 20 before they started asking if I wanted to do anything. It still kinda surprises me when they ask now.
I have to have the Grinch and Donny Hathaway's this Christmas.
Okay?! I cook a lot the day before and knock out the rest the morning of. Those days of being in the kitchen all damn day are over! LOL
We used to break out the board games as well. I was the undisputed Monopoly champ
I always remember staying up until the wee hours on Christmas Eve, not because I was waiting on Santa, but because I "thought" I was helping my mother cook. We'd have the music playing and a game of Tripoly or Trivial Pursuit going. Until I graduated college, we kept this tradition, only by then my friends were stopping by so they'd be up with us. These days I can't figure out WHY it took my mother all night to cook for the next day. I can start at 5 a.m. and have dinner on the table by 3 p.m.
I would have to say that once I see How the Grinch Stole Christmas and hear Silent Night by the Temptations, I do feel more in the Christmas spirit
I would vehemently deny being the spoiled younger sister since BougieSis has plenty good divatude, but I was definitely a Daddy's girl. (Not even side-eyeing but eye-rolling 360 to Sis)
Le Sigh. I'm at the point now where I just let BougieMom have her way. I can tell by one look at her face what we wants me to do.
Had to have some White Christmas in the mix. I recall that for years (B.C. - before cable!) where we would search the TV Guide that came with the Sunday paper so we would know when it was coming on. Now, we just pop in the DVD but is still is not Christmas without White Christmas.
Girl....don't you forget the Garlic Pork, Black Pudding, Cookup, Pepperpot and black cake!! Not to mention Ginger Beer! LOL...maaan I can't wait. Christmas isn't Christmas in my house without Eddie Lovette & Laro!
Jackson 5- Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Tempatations- Silent Night. Egg Nog in the stores and Tree Lots every 5miles say Christmas time is here to me. I love A Charlie Brown Christmas and The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. There were no smells, just the restless night sleep on Christmas Eve, which I still have now and I'm 26. my Christmases with my Dad were the best, my Christmases with my mom were always fun and funny. I now have my own tradition. Every year since 2005 I make a big breakfast. My sons open one or two presents and then wait for Pop-pop, Mimi, Uncle Theo and Aunt Tristyn to come over. We open the rest of our gifts, bless the food and enjoy each other until noon. I love Christmas morning its my favorite part.
I'm wit' you Riley. I lived in the heart of the hood, kept trying to figure out how Santa go in without getting jacked, lol. Didn't get Barbie, got the Dollar Store version, nothing was name brand but the best part was my big brother not picking on us for at least a morning.
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