All I Want for Christmas is...

RHYS BOWEN: What was your favorite Christmas present ever? I know what mine was. I was 18. Transistor radios had just come on the market (yes, I realize this declares me to be OLD) and I really wanted one. But my close friend was getting married in Germany and I was invited to be part of her wedding. So my parents were buying me my train ticket to Stuttgart for Christmas, and I wasn’t expecting any presents.

Even though I was no longer officially a child I still had my Christmas stocking at the bottom of my bed. I woke early in the morning and started to go through it, expecting the sort of things that were usually in it: a sugar mouse, maybe a handkerchief, a pair of socks, a notebook. Instead I pulled out a battery. What on earth? I asked myself. What use is a battery to me? And then I felt excitement creeping up my spine. It couldn’t be, could it?  And there at the bottom of my stocking was my transistor radio.  Thinking of it still brings tears to my eyes. I'm sure it was my soft-hearted dad who thought of that.

I have tried to duplicate that feeling with my own kids whenever I get a chance. The year that the Phantom of the Opera came to San Francisco for the first time the kids were in college or high school. I tried to get tickets but they were way over our budget. Then John stopped by the theater, just in case. It turned out they had obstructed view seats, two for one night, two for another at a reasonable cost. We bought them. They turned out to be the stage box. How amazing was that? So I made up an impressive invitation:

You are invited to attend an evening of music and mayhem with me

On….

Signed, 

Your friend, the Phantom.

I watched the first of the kids open this, expecting it to be a Christmas card, read it and then look up, face alight with excitement. No way! Really?

They went on two separate evenings. Jane and Dominic went together and he, my future actor, then in high school, insisted they went in full evening dress: tux and top hat, and a long dress for her. It was an evening they’d never forget.

Apart from those the gifts that stay in my memory are hand made ones. I still have crude pieces of pottery, strange tree ornaments from their early years. Dominic continues that tradition: one year he made aromatherapy candles for everyone, another year home made bread with a jar of his sourdough starter. I have velvet pillows Clare made one year. One year I made bead bracelets for all the women in the family. These days it’s a question of time. All of my kids are working like crazy while driving kids to sports and drama practices. And the grandchildren are no longer able to be pleased with a hand knitted sweater or home made puppet.

But I still love the simple gifts. I long for a classic Christmas like the ones on TV movies.

Trying to recreate this simpler, magical feeling of Christmas we rented a house in the snow with another family one year. When we arrived it was like a Christmas card scene. Snow everywhere, so beautiful. Then the first night it rained. And rained. And the snow melted. And it was raining too hard for the kids to go outside and play. And there was no TV. And the other wife got sick so I had to do the cooking. Needless to say this was not a fond Christmas memory. 

However, one year we took a Christmas markets cruise through Austria and Germany. That was fabulous, seeing handmade toys, those rolling pins for making cookies, smelling spiced wine and sausages cooking and seeing the wonder in children’s eyes. I suppose what I’m nostalgic for is for another, simpler time. How about you?

What was your favorite Christmas? Favorite gift?

An Old Fashioned Christmas

RHYS BOWEN: I'm currently writing a Molly Murphy Christmas book, called Away in a Manger,  which is perfect as I can get into the spirit of the season as I write.... or can I? Would Molly have been surprised to learn that some people find a new car under their tree? That all presents can be bought online? That people fight each other to get into stores on pre-Black Friday Thanksgiving Day sales?

Sometimes I think we've completely lost the spirit of the season with this constant desire for bigger and better gifts, more and more of everything. In a way that's why I'm enjoying taking myself back to Molly's time, when children were thrilled to find an orange, some nuts, and maybe a small toy in their stockings. When the Christmas Day feast of turkey/pies/plum puddings really was a treat because the rest of the year meals were very simple. When carolers sang in the streets, and the air was full of pine greenery, roasting chestnuts, baking potatoes.

I took a Christmas market cruise one year up the Danube and visited the markets in small towns along the river. That's about the closest I've come to old fashioned Christmas: stalls with wooden toys and ornaments, serving hot wieners/mulled wine/gingerbread. A brass band playing. A feast for the eyes and ears and nose. Small children, wrapped up against the cold, standing wide-eyed at the magic of it all. I loved it. But would my family really be happy with a carved wooden train?

I remember one year we decided we would make hand-made gifts for each other and get away from the commercial aspects of Christmas. So we worked on them. Clare made lovely velvet pillows. Dominic made fleece hats/scarves and toys. He also made CDs of stories read by him (he's an actor) They were a big success. I did jewelry and throw rugs with family photos all over them. BUT I went to the store and got real presents (just in case). As it turned out, so did everyone else. We opened our gifts to exaggerated delight and then when we were done, one of us cracked. "I just happened to see this as well," and brought out the store-bought gift. Sheepishly we all followed suit.

So I'd love you to share--what does an old fashioned Christmas mean to you? Can you remember things that happened in your childhood that were special to you? Special foods your grandma made or family traditions? I'd love to include some in the book I'm writing.
And did you ever have a Christmas of home-made gifts?