are those of a feast of aromas. Always, there was the
crisp cold blast of fresh air when I left the warmth of our house to go visit Grandma across the street. It wasn’t exactly going to Alaska, but Mom made sure I was bundled up like a little Eskimo, which made it a bit shaky waddling through the snow piled up at the curbs when you crossed the streets, but I could still breathe the intoxicating air deep into my lungs. It never seemed quite so clean and fresh as it did right after the first snowfall.

Christmas also meant the scent of evergreen in the house. There were no ‘forever’ Christmas trees in those days, just the fragrant, fresh cut tree (we always got a short needle, easier to trim) that stood in our front window. We did use electric lights, though…I’m not quite old enough to remember candlelit trees…I think. It does get a bit harder to remember each year.

Naturally, as soon as we were up, doing the
gift scramble on Christmas morning, we’d be smelling peppermint candy sticks that had found their way between the packages. Mom always said that Santa’s Elves had left them, just because we’d been extra good that year. If you were sitting on the floor, fairly close to the coffee table, you would also get a good whiff of the fudge that sat on a tiered tray there. Homemade, too!

Not too long after we were involved in giftdom, Mom would escape out into the kitchen and the Maxwell House Coffee song would come bubbling in on a beckoning tune of fragrance. Soon it was followed by the aroma of toast and, all our gifts opened, we’d trot out to the kitchen to breakfast on fresh sliced ham, Dad’s Italian sausage, Mom’s bread toasted, with a jar of her orange marmalade to go with, and cheeses and olive salad left from the Christmas Eve extravaganza. You could bet that in just a few moments, the door would open and Uncle Al from across the street would be bouncing in to have
some breakfast and a Café Sport with Dad. Uncle Al always smoked a pipe, and at Christmas time you could count on him trying out some new exoticblend he’d received. I never was much for the scent of any tobaccos, but that pipe is still one of my memories of the Scents of Christmas, like it or not.

As soon as breakfast was over, Mom got another big turkey ready and popped it into the oven. Thanksgiving and Christmas, our big turkey days,
meant a house full of the scents of spices and mince, fruit pies and quince and of course the promise of the roasted bird to come!

Once all the preparations for dinner were done, I’d usually get dressed up in my new outfit – there was always something taffeta that rustled, a frilly slip, and new Mary Jane shoes to wear for the holidays, along with my usual stash of skirts, blouses and sweaters to wear until spring. All dressed up, my
dad would take me over to visit Grandpa Tony, Aunts Lucy and Angeline and Uncles John and Rocky, my dad’s family who lived next door to us. (Didn’t have to bundle up so much, this time, because Dad carried me through the yard and over
the snow!)

They would have a great tree in their living room, also. Aunt Lucy was a whiz with angel hair. The blue lights peeping out from behind the veil of white fluff, placed expertly all over the tree, looked etherally beautiful. Dad’s family was much more simplified in their Christmas celebrations. Grandma died before I was born, and most of the fixing and doing was in the hands of the kids, so it was simple. Not that they weren’t great cooks, though! Aunt Lucy made cavatelli to die for, and Grandpa had a greens and beans minestrone that made your mouth water just to smell it; not to mention his goat cheese, made from the milk of his own goats.

So, the scents from their Christmas house in my memory are the sharp smell of cheese curing in cheese cloth hung from a rack in the kitchen,
coffee simmering forever in a big steel pot on the back of their stove, sauce bubbling away to cover their cavatelli dinner, fresh rolls baking in the oven
and the piney, fragrance of a Christmas tree, weaving its way into the kitchen from the parlor.

Christmas 1980 was probably our last ‘real tree’ year. We ended up
with 3 big trees and a small live table tree you can see right behind the
“Frosty” Cake.

We’ve been spending Christmas Day at daughter Lori’s ever since the grandchildren got big enough to open presents. It’s great fun taking all our exchanges to the one house and watching each other open gifts ‘one by one’. The kids take turns being “Santa” and selecting a gift from under the tree for everybody in turn, and we all ‘watch’ as the gift is opened before someone else’s gift is selected. That usually lasts from around 9 a.m. till noon — what can I say, we are all so good, Santa is extra generous with us! Lori always has a buffet breakfast for us to nibble at, as we see fit during the gift opening. Plenty of Eve leftovers, just as in the olden days, find their way up to the house and serve as lunch. Again, catch as catch can.

What’s really new, though, is that early in the a.m. I set enough dough to raise to make about six pizzas for our Christmas Day Supper. Lori gets a big pot of chicken soup started, so that we can put together a great wedding soup and of course, a monster salad is mandatory. There’s always plenty of cookies, nut roll and pies for dessert, and we may even have some punch left from the night before. A bit of wine or beer, some hot coffee or cold soda and ahhhhhhh.

This much simpler supper instead of a huge Christmas dinner, is easier on the cooks, better for the diners and leaves a lot of time to play cards or games, or just nap a bit after lunch. Of course, it suffices to say that these goodies lend a whole new adventure to our Scents of Christmas Day
memories. That’s the best part!

ITALIAN WEDDING SOUP

TOSSED SALAD
ITALIAN
DRESSING

PIZZA PLATTERS

NUT ROLL — COOKIES — FRUIT
CAKE

ASSORTED BEVERAGES AND
WINE

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

CHRISTMAS DAY
SUPPER
RECIPES

Wedding Soup

Make tiny meatballs with the ground beef by adding salt, pepper, grated Parmesean, breadcrumbs, 1 egg and 1 tsp dry beef boullion. Mix all together and roll meatballs about the size of a penny.