At our home in the '50's and '60's, Christmas decorations didn't go up until two weeks into December.  That was probably because we ordinarily got our tree Charlie Brown-style...we went to the nearest lot and picked out the best-shaped one we could find.  It seemed like all the trees were of the short-needle varieties.  They would nail a wooden stand on it for you for free.  My recollection is they ran $4-$5.  It would go tied on top of our old Mercury or Buick or whatever car we were driving a particular year, with bailing twine provided by the lot owner.  The trees still smelled vaguely of pine, but were decidedly not fresh...thee were no tree shaking devices in those days to shake out your excess needles, but no need...all you needed to do was give the tree a hard glance and needles would come down...so I am sure it was pushing the limits of safety to have them up even two weeks, but once they were decorated, with the shimmering icicles providing sort of a magic veil, I was sure there was nothing in the world more enchanting.

The lights on our house were big and colored, and when it snowed (which it always seemed to do in those days) the outline made the house look like Hansel & Gretel material.

Fortunately, two weeks seemed to last forever because you wanted Christmas to come quickly so badly that time stood still...until it was over, and then it really did seem like an eternity until next year's holiday.

We never had a piano in our house,  and our Christmas record collection was limited (though I am sure to Mom & Dad it was so much more than what they had).  I do remember singing carols together in our house, and sometimes Dad would accompany with his harmonica...sweet moments.  The only Christmas movies we had, except the old black-and-white version of A Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim as the miser, was if we managed to catch a late-night network replay of "Its a Wonderful Life" or "Miracle on 34th Street".  Rudolph and Charlie Brown didn't come until my teenage years.

...more to come, (including an expose on big sister babysitting techniques)