Salina senior citizens share stories from Christmas past

The following is a collection of holiday memories from senior citizens in the Salina area. Their stories are first-hand accounts of holidays past and include intimate details of their lives.

Those who were kind enough to share these stories are parts of assisted living communities in Salina. While the holiday season is ever ripe with stories like these, it can also be a difficult time of year for at-risk populations.

As temperatures dip and wintry conditions spread, we hope these stories might provide a sense of warmth and community. Just as no two snowflakes are exactly alike, neither are the important people in our lives.

The Salina Journal wishes everyone a safe, fun and happy holidays.

Searching for Rudolph

On a particularly white Christmas, lights strung up on homes near Smolan reflected off the drifts. Streaks of color could be seen for miles.

Growing up on a farm, Ward Nelson, 65, and his family had their own water well. On the pumphouse near the well sat an electrical box with one meager light bulb that would shine when the system was running.

The lowly bulb shined a standard white color, except around Christmastime. Each year, Nelson’s aunt Dorothy, Dot they called her, would lead him and his brothers upstairs in their two-story farmhouse and look out from the northern facing window.

“Look, look,” Dot would exclaim, pointing toward the bulb. “There’s Rudolph, right there.”

Nelson and his siblings were filled with excitement, leaning on the window ledge to get as close a look as possible.

Nelson’s father had replaced the standard white bulb with a cherry red one. He did this every year, developing a tradition from a seemingly insignificant light on the farm.

The beaming light could be seen from quite a distance across the farm. The dark night could not overpower it, nor could the years of Nelson’s life wash its memory away.

“We were always so terribly excited for Aunt Dot to take us up and look for Rudolph,” Nelson said.

Every holiday season, reminiscing this tradition and many others reminds Nelson of what he is thankful for. Coming from a Swedish heritage, he also has fond memories of his mother’s cooking around the holidays.

Up before the sunrise

Early mornings for a child were different than early mornings for a grown up. At least, that’s how Carol Howard, 86, remembers it.

Before the sun could think about peaking over the horizon or the birds could begin their Sunday song, Howard’s father woke her and her siblings up every Christmas for 6 a.m. Mass.

Her father, a staunch Catholic, was devout and committed to raising a family that loved God as much as he did.

Being the oldest of five, Howard would help get her younger siblings ready for church, holding back yawns and delaying, at least for the first hour or so on Christmas Day, the youthful excitement that comes from gift giving.

When they were all ready for Mass, Howard and her siblings went out the back door of their home in Omaha, Nebraska, in order to avoid seeing the living room, complete with filled stockings and gifts under the tree.

After Mass, Howard’s family would come home to celebrate Christmas together. Finally time to open gifts and enjoy treats, it was still only about 7:30 a.m. But Howard was wide-awake with glee.

“That was the most exciting Christmas,” Howard said. “As a kid, you know, that joy and excitement just flows from you.”

Reflecting back, she remembers the early mornings, time spent with her father in Mass, and later in life, Christmases spent with her six children sharing the same childhood glee she felt all those years ago.

After all, she said, joy comes in the morning.

Sweet treats with Grandpa

You don’t mind the cold as much when you’re young and have plenty of other things to think about. Things like how the best parts of holidays are grandpa’s homemade candy and treats.

Such was the theme of this Christmas 70-something years ago.

Mary Kay Larsen, 84, and her family decorated their humble artificial Christmas tree with handmade ornaments made from paper cutouts, popcorn and string.

Her family Christmas didn’t always fall on Christmas Day, since her father traveled a lot as a welding supply distributor. His shop was on 13th street in Salina, but he traveled throughout Kansas giving products new life on farms in the heartland.

Christmas happened when daddy came home, Larsen said. There was an eagerness about seeing her father who worked long hours. Momma was a strong person who took care of the home while he was away for work.

When he came home, he’d tell stories of his travels and of the many people he had met, and of the many different things they do. He couldn’t always remember their names, so the pseudonym “Mr. Man” made frequent appearances in his tales.

Gathered around the tree, Larsen and her siblings tore into their gifts. Larsen got just what she was expecting – a gorgeous toy doll; the same gift she asked for every year through eighth grade.

But the fondest part of this Christmas was made possible by a jet black 1938 Ford Coupe.

Bundled up in their winter coats, Larsen and her four siblings, plus momma and daddy, scrunched in the automobile for a trip to Grandpa’s in Pierceville.

Grandpa always had candy and sweets. And around Christmas, the candy bowl was free-range. For Larsen, just as sweet as the candy was the hand-carved wooden bowl filled with assorted nuts of all kinds.

Every year, Christmas at Grandpa’s was special. It was the highlight for Larsen and her 12 cousins who would all gather in his living room and excitedly share gifts with one another.

“That was just – I mean that was everything, when you get to grandpa’s,” Larsen said. “Whatever you got was just beautiful, wonderful. And when you got to be 12-years-old, grandpa gave you money. So you could hardly wait to be 12.”

As the years go by, the smell and taste of walnuts and Brazil nuts take her back to those times spent at Grandpa’s. Although Grandpa, Momma and Daddy have long passed, their memories live on through the pieces of life they had given Larsen on those cold Christmas days that didn’t always fall on Christmas Day — and didn’t always feel so cold.

“I just had such a happy childhood, I really did," Larsen said.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: Remembering Christmas past: Salina elders share holiday memories