Reflecting on Childhood Christmases
A great deal of my childhood happened during the 2nd World War. There were shortages on many things, not just food items. Our church always had a wonderful Christmas program with beautiful music, carol singing, and the first Christmas acted out. The finale was always Santa coming to hand out candy to all of us kids. My father was the head plumber at Paramount Studio and the studio put on a Christmas program for all the kids of the employees. I don't remember everything about the, what I do remember was that several were at Ebell Theater in Hollywood, and one was held way out in the country on a wonderful ranch--which is now in the heart of Studio City. Every child received a wonderful age-appropriate gift from Santa. Our Christmases at home were wonderful--filled with anticipation the night before. Of course we hung our stocking on the mantel. And it was extremely hard to sleep and we often woke up around 4 a.m. We were not allowed to go into the living room until our parents were ...