Christmas Past

This week I had the pleasure of eating supper with a group of exchange students from around the world. The discussion eventually got around to Christmas and while some of them were from cultures where Christmas is not celebrated, they all were aware before they arrived of Christmas and Santa and decorations and candy canes. What was surprising to them was the length of the Christmas season in America, starting at Halloween and stretching for nearly two months. 

It wasn't that way when I was growing up in the fifties and sixties. The week before Christmas we chopped down a tree from our field and brought it in. We decorated it and watered it and put presents under it on Christmas Eve, presents we had purchased the week of Christmas. 

Yet I found evidence that Christmas lasted even longer than that. It was in a penny postcard with no year date, only stamped April 14 at six pm. It was in a series of postcards from the early 1900's, so I know it's around a hundred years old.

April 14! 

Half of the back was the address. Name, town and state only. No street listed. No zip. The message side explained the reason for the April date. The sender had run out of penny post cards, so he was using this one to send a hello. Nothing special, just hello. Just a Christmas Greeting in April.

How special. Maybe it's true that the true joy of Christmas lasts not only year round, but a hundred years later. 

Just in case you missed the sentiment, here's another undated but elegantly simple penny postcard, no year, but definitely in December.

So let the naysayers argue that Christmas is getting too long nowadays. It's never too long for spreading the joy.

Catch of the day,

Gretchen