Laura Busse Rahe

"Some real life stories which my grandchildren probably will not understand; however, they are true. Remember I am 90 years old and blessed with a remembrance of what life was like in those days, when I was 10 years old or younger."

A typical Christmas when I was a child.

During the days leading up to Christmas the parlor doors were kept closed and I wasn't allowed to see the cedar Christmas tree that my parents were decorating. Finally on Christmas morning the doors were opened revealing the beautiful tree with lit candles. Someone always stayed in the room when the candles were lit and the candles were only lit for short periods of time. Special candleholders held the candles to the tree that was decorated with many German glass ornaments. Some decorations were simply pretty Christmas cards we had received, cut out and hung on the tree with ribbons. One year, however, when I was 4 or 5 years old my parents decided to put the tree in the "sitting room" (not the parlor) to enjoy it in a room where we spent more time. That was the year Santa Claus was standing next to the Christmas tree when the doors were opened. Since I had just learned to sing "Eir Kinder Lein Comet" (Oh, Come Little Children) Santa made me sing my song before he would give me a present. Some years later I learned that Santa Claus was a cousin, Walter Busse, and that his two sisters were standing outside looking in the window as I sang my song. That was also the year that the doors were opened on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning and when I told my neighbors and friends, Orval and Earl Green, that Santa visited our house on Christmas Eve, they were greatly upset because they always were in a program at church on Christmas Eve. The next year they refused to be in the program on Christmas Eve because they thought they might miss a visit by Santa.

Some example of toys I received when I was very young were a little cooking stove, a miniature china cupboard, a toy piano, a doll with a porcelain head that had been my mothers and had been restored by my foster sister, Bertha. She had also made new clothes for it and my parents gave me a baby buggy for the doll. It was a big treat to get an orange for Christmas. We didn't go to church on Christmas Eve until we had a car, because we didn't like to go anywhere in the wagon if we couldn't get back before dark. We always went to church on Christmas Day.