My cousins Margie, Bea and I were raised by our grandparents who had immigrated to the United States from Europe before the turn of the 20th century.

As children, we looked forward to the Christmas holidays. The week before Christmas, our household became a beehive of activity. Everyone had their specific tasks to perform and frenzy reigned until everything was done.

Bea and Margie did all of the house cleaning, including washing and rewashing of all dishes, pots and pans, and any other utensil that Grandma would need for the cooking and baking. My duties were to make the backyard look presentable.

We had a very large grindstone in the basement and I turned the grindstone handle while Grandpa put a fine edge on all of the knives. Grandpa and I also did all of the grinding of nuts and poppy seed that would later provide the fillings for all of the holiday pastries.

Holiday preparations centered on baking. Grandma had spent hours, and probably days, baking, baking and baking some more — in the oven of a coal fired stove.

The assortment of baked goods included various types of bread plus nut, poppy seed, cheese rolls and coffee cake. It would seem that no one family could consume all of the pastries, but consume them we did.

Tradition dictated that portions of the holiday food be taken to our church to be blessed. Grandma would prepare a wicker basket of various foods and I would then carry the basket to the church, leave the basket at the altar for the priest’s blessing and then return later in the day to retrieve the blessed food. The church was a mile and a half away and walking the two round trips was a total of six miles.

At about seven o’clock on Christmas Eve, our family gathered in the dining room to partake of “The Big Supper.” All of the available family — aunts, uncles and their families — gathered at our house for this traditional meal. Aunt Pauline always came in from Chicago on the South Shore train loaded with shopping bags filled with gifts for everyone.

The “Big Supper” always started off with a prayer by Grandpa. Each of us then had a sip of wine and a piece of Host (wafer used during Catholic communion) sprinkled with honey. This, of course, represented the body and blood of Christ. All of the courses had a religious significance and each person was served a small portion to be consumed before the next course was served.

We kids had spent days decorating the Christmas tree. We would string the lights and place the ornaments. We tried to make strands of tinsel resemble icicles, but that was too tedious so we ended up just tossing the tinsel and letting it fall on the tree’s branches. After the evening meal was over, we were allowed to open some of our presents — the majority of which consisted of clothing. At midnight, many of the adults went to midnight Mass. We kids went to Mass with Grandpa and Grandma on Christmas morning. We were each given two pennies to put in the collection basket. Most adults contributed five or ten cents and I don’t ever remember seeing any dollar bills in the basket.

Each year the town’s merchants and the Odd Fellows Glee Club provided a morning of free movies at the local theaters. Each school had a designated theater for their students. And the local transit company provided free streetcar rides to and from the theaters.

As we entered the theaters, each was given a Christmas stocking with hard candies, an orange and a ginger bread man. The Odd Fellows sang Christmas carols and the next two hours was spent watching movies. When it was all over, the Odd Fellows were outside making sure that all of the kids boarded the proper streetcars to return to their neighborhoods. It is very easy to look back in appreciation for all the merchants and Odd Fellows did for us.

For the children, Christmas Day was a day like all days as the excitement happened The Night before Christmas. For our Grandmother, it was a well-deserved (and uncommon) day of rest.

Well, that is an idea of how we celebrated Christmas during the Great Depression of the 1930s in Gary, Indiana. And so, for all East Texans, let me say “DECK THEM HALLS Y’ALL” and to quote Tiny Tim’s observation, “God bless Us, Every One!”