By Roz Denny Fox with interruptions and pics by M. K. Stelmack
M. K. here. I don't know if anyone will tune into today's blog. I mean it's three days before Christmas. Who has time to read a Christmas card, much less a blog? If you are one of those fortunate few, Roz has a tale to tell of a Christmas long ago that didn't feel at all like Christmas. After reading it (I don't send or receive Christmas cards so I enjoyed her blog), I wondered if times had changed. Sure enough, I found visual evidence to show that the holiday season has indeed stretched to the farthest reaches of the Unite States.
So if you're caught in a lineup somewhere or waiting at an airport or stopping by after shopping at Amazon Prime, and have checked in to the blog here, here's Roz's tale of her Christmas Long Ago and (Too) Faraway.
M. K. here. I don't know if anyone will tune into today's blog. I mean it's three days before Christmas. Who has time to read a Christmas card, much less a blog? If you are one of those fortunate few, Roz has a tale to tell of a Christmas long ago that didn't feel at all like Christmas. After reading it (I don't send or receive Christmas cards so I enjoyed her blog), I wondered if times had changed. Sure enough, I found visual evidence to show that the holiday season has indeed stretched to the farthest reaches of the Unite States.
So if you're caught in a lineup somewhere or waiting at an airport or stopping by after shopping at Amazon Prime, and have checked in to the blog here, here's Roz's tale of her Christmas Long Ago and (Too) Faraway.
Do any of you recall having a Christmas where
it just didn’t feel like Christmas?
This year as I pulled out Christmas decorations
I don’t know why I remembered back to a holiday that didn’t feel like
Christmas. I don’t believe there was one single reason, but more a composite.
It was the year my oldest daughter turned
fifteen. She was in a Hawaiian and Tahitian dance group with two other girls.
I’d lived in Hawaii as had her dance teacher, the mother of one of the other
girls. When the teacher phoned to say she’d secured the girls a wonderful
opportunity to dance with her former teacher at the then Hawaiian Village, my
husband and I were excited for the girls. However, until after we’d said yes
and told her to count on our daughter, she’d neglected to say it was for
Christmas Eve Day. We had already planned a family ski vacation with my
husband’s sister and their kids. Rather than cancel out on that vacation where
we’d already paid for half a chalet, my mom-in-law said she and a friend would
go to Hawaii with me and my eldest, and my husband and youngest could go ahead
with the ski trip.
It sounded like the optimal thing to do. So the
four of us booked a week on Oahu, extending through New Year’s Day. After all,
I knew it’d be warm, and Santa would wear a ski hat and red swim trunks and
arrive on a surf board.
M. K. Sorta like this dude...? I pulled this from an Associated Press file. It is a Hawaiian tradition now for Santa to arrive by boat (canoe).
Okay, but our hotel had zero decorations up.
Not even a red candle in our room.
M. K. Not so anymore!
(Photo by FlickRiver)
Even the City Hall in Honolulu gets into the act.
Only one restaurant we went to the whole two
weeks we were there was playing Christmas music. From the day we arrived it
just felt unChristmasy. (sorry if that isn’t a word)
It turns out my daughter also felt it lacked
something, even though she thoroughly enjoyed the dance with her friends. On
Christmas Day we went to the Cultural Center. I assumed the craft kiosks would
have Hawaiian Christmas decorations. Nope.
M. K. Tomorrow (the 23rd) marks the end of the Twelve Days of Christmas celebration at the Polynesia Cultural Center. Here's a pic from the Center of their Christmas Lagoon.
Again no Christmas music. Even
though I love Hawaiian music I really hope it’s different there now. I haven’t
been back in a number of years. I think the last time was the RWA conference
and it was summer-time.
M. K. And it is! (Though this is looking pretty vintage...)
Subsequently, my husband and other daughter who
went on the ski trip also said they felt their holiday was “off”. Partly probably
because the vacation itself was our gift to each other. We didn’t take gifts
with us. The group who went skiing did hang up stockings. But my sister-in-law
set a dollar limit and number of gifts “Santa” could leave in the kids’ socks. Needless
to say the children all felt short-changed. All in all that was far from our
normal family Christmases.
Looking back I think our lack of anticipated
enjoyment was due in a large part to splitting up our family unit for a holiday
known for gathering family together. We called each other on Christmas. That
didn’t make the holiday better. I’ve known a number of people who go separate
ways over Christmas and they are quite happy about it. As for my family, we all
returned home vowing to never again divide up for Christmas---at least not
until our daughters got married and had families of their own.
What I wish for everyone this year is to have
and enjoy a full family get-together, be it at home, on an island, in the
mountains, or over the river and through the woods to grandmother’s house.
Peace, love and joy from me to all of you.
M. K. Or as the Hawaiians say Merry Christmas...!
What a lovely post about how our external environment and family can set the holiday spirit. I always have to fight Mr. Curtis for the right to play the all Christmas music, all the time on the car radio this time of year. I hope you two have a wonderful holiday!
ReplyDeleteAnd Happy Holidays to you and yours, Melinda! I stuck on YouTube watching the Christmas music videos. Some are ah-mazing.
DeleteYou’re so right, Roz, about family being together to make that Christmas spirit real! There have been a couple of times in my life when I was separate from my family at Christmas and it just wasn’t the same. Loved the pictorial updates, M.K! Thanks ladies and I look forward to the daily post with my coffee every morning! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas, Janice! It was fun illustrating Roz's story. And yes, the blog sets the day up for me, too!
DeleteWhat a sad / sweet story, Roz, and enjoyed your additions, too, Moira. I remember the year we were in the middle of remodeling (which we've been several times, sigh) and there was no good place for a Christmas tree, so we didn't have one. I never knew until then how much the tree meant to me!
ReplyDeleteI spent Christmas in Hawaii five years ago, Roz, so I know just how you felt. Had a wonderful time with my daughter (college graduation trip) and loved every minute, but it wasn't the same. Especially because we were without the family around. Your post brought back a lot of memories. All good. Thanks :)
ReplyDeleteWow, that photo of the Hawaiian Christmas album took me right back to my parents' living room 40-some years ago -- I remember Mom being excited about a new Christmas album, and what a letdown it was once we actually heard the songs.
ReplyDeleteWhat a poignant story, and perfect illustrations...thanks to both of you, and here's wishing you a much more joyous Christmas THIS year!
My non-Christmas Christmas happened over thirty years ago when no one in the family wanted to cook Christmas dinner. Let's go to a restaurant and let them do all the work. Well, we decided kind of late and the only place that had room was the Safari Hotel in Scottsdale (which has long ago been torn down). The food was bland, the atmosphere kind of loose-endy, being that everyone there apparently had no other place to go than a restaurant. Well, we decided, that wasn't the best idea, so after dinner we went back to my house and drank eggnog and sang (badly) Christmas songs.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas everyone and a happy new year.
This is the first time I've seen Moira's inserts and the photos. How great that the cultural center and hotels have gotten the Christmas spirit. Love the tree on the floating island. The Santa on the surfboard could have been the one we saw. LOL. Thanks Moira. I thought you were doing a blog about your Christmas memories. Now we'll see in January about you and New Year's maybe.
ReplyDeleteI can see how your feeling of the holiday was fractured, when your planned trip was not only interrupted, but your family was sent to opposite directions. Tradition, consistency and togetherness make holidays. What I'm so surprised at was the lack of decorations and holiday music. Was that just in the very touristy areas? When I think of Christmas in Hawaii, I think of the parade and surfing and outrigger Santas, and especially the over-the-top house displays. Did you celebrate together after the New Year? Mele Kalikimaka
ReplyDeleteShannon, this was a very long time ago in Hawaii. Not the Hawaii of today, but the one before tourists hit. It was very much native Hawaiian then. I was telling Moira that I lived there when Hawaii became a state. Also when you had to have military clearance to go to Pearl Harbor. Today it's truly another state.
DeleteI must have gone to Hawaii after you, because when I was there, they had decorations everywhere, along with the girls dancing in grass skirts everywhere.
ReplyDeleteWe went to the Hawaiian Village and spent the entire day, through the parade at night. I remember the Christmas tree on the water like it was yesterday.
Maybe I blocked it out, but I can't remember a Christmas that didn't feel like Christmas. I'm thankful for that.
I lived in Hawaii in the late 50's early 60's. My daughter who danced there was born in 1960. Back then the most foreigners there were our military people, of whom my husband was one. The most touristy thing I can remember was when Elvis performed there the first time, and Don Ho was headlining with "Tiny Bubbles".
DeleteI understand how the holiday went a bit awry, but there is something about tropical holidays that have a special charm. Maybe it's those beaches and the colors of the water...I'm starting to think of that old Calgon commercial...take me away!
ReplyDeleteWe took the kids to Hawaii over Thanksgiving a couple of times when they were in elementary school in the 90s. Christmas decorations were already going up. It was funny seeing Santa's sleigh under palm trees. I suspect that even if the decorations and music had been there, with your family separated, it still wouldn't have felt like Christmas. Still, both the Hawaiian trip and the ski trip sound like wonderful experiences. Maybe everyone needs an off Christmas to appreciate the normal ones more. Mele Kalikimaka, everyone.
ReplyDeleteRoz: I enjoyed these stories. We were married in June of 1957. Our first Christmas was in Charleston, South Carolina. Just the two of us in a third-floor apartment. It could have been a disaster, but Phyllis kept a scrapbook of every event that we did for the week that she was with me. She was teaching school in Hawthorne, California and the Navy stationed me in Charleston. We still have the scrapbook sixty years later. We still have the memories that are so important. It really didn't matter where we were; we were together for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteHi Roz,
ReplyDeleteOur kids sang Bing Crosby's mele kalikimaka in the school Christmas pageant one year and I loved watching them do a mini Hawaiian dance. I've loved that song ever since.
Being split up at Christmas is tough. But your description of Oahu then is intriguing.
Merry Christmas!
Laura
Such an interesting post, Roz and Moira! Loved Moira's 'interruptions' too, lol, especially Santa on a surf board ;). Roz, your story is a lovely trip back in time, and I must agree, I bet it was the family being split apart that really impacted the Christmas feeling. Do you happen to have any Hawaiin themed ornaments on your tree now?
ReplyDeleteMele kalikimaka and Merry Christmas to all. Wishing everyone peace, joy and happy family gatherings :).
Actually, yes. Santa on a surfboard. LOL
DeleteWhat a fun post! And love the Mele Kalikimaka! I used to love singing that when I was a little girl. Thank you for sharing all these lovely memories--and for the interruptions, too! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteBeing split up at Christmas had to have been hard. But you still created memories. Merry Christmas, everyone!
ReplyDeleteSpent Christmas in Hawaii in 1995 or 96. Don't recall very many Christmas decorations either. But I did enjoy spending it with my sister and family.
ReplyDelete