Christmas memories full of love and generosity
My memories of Christmas are filled with vivid images of a community that embraced the holiday with love and generosity.
The start of the season began with the hanging of the Christmas tree Lane sign over Batavia Avenue and the lighting of the trees on the light poles in Batavia. Christmas tree Lane was our special decoration. No one had anything like it. It was our gift to the community. Every week the Batavia Herald would list the people who had given money to support Christmas tree Lane just as it did for those who supported the Fourth of July fireworks display in the summer.
With the transition to the new decorations downtown, I realize that the Christmas trees will soon just be a memory. And that makes me a bit sad.
In the 1950s our mailboxes weren't filled with department store advertising or discount store promotions. Our mailboxes were filled with Christmas cards and sometimes there was so much mail that the letter carrier would make two deliveries a day.
We visited Santa in his small little house on Wilson and got our candy cane and our Christmas wishes registered with the jovial man in the red suit.
We didn't have as much, but we appreciated the simple things.
In the 1950s there was a large evergreen at the corner of Wilson and Batavia Avenue that overshadowed all of the other trees. It's massive height seemed to provide a shelter for the city's crèche that laid at the big tree's base.
Visiting the crèche was a part of the Christmas celebration as well. You could walk into the crèche and stand with the shepherd or the wise men. It was an annual event for many to stop and see the baby Jesus. There were no GPS trackers to make sure that the baby was safe. It was just a simple nativity scene set up on straw.
Peg Bond, art teacher and artist, took the nativity figures home one Christmas and refurbished them. More people visited the nativity that year to see the wise men's robes gilded in gold and silver.
The nativity sat on the Johnson Funeral Home property and when the funeral home was sold the crèche needed a new home. Terry Solon, the owner of our local McDonald's, offered space. When that business was sold, the crèche was once again without a home.
"There were many people who were disappointed when the crèche didn't appear at Christmas," said Mayor Jeff Schielke " I did offer it to some of the churches but couldn't find one to take it."
The nativity figures were recently found in the third floor of City Hall. Mary was missing along with the baby Jesus. One shepherd looked as if he had been tending his sheep a bit too long but the other figures were in pretty good shape.
Steve Hayes, Sexton at Bethany Lutheran Church, took on the task of cleaning the figures and building a small stable to protect the figures he plans to refurbish the figures this year just as Peg Bond did years ago.
The nativity now sits on Bethany property just off Wilson St.
Now we have new traditions, the festival of Lights and even Craig Foltos' lighting of the Peace on Earth sign.
So this Christmas morning I am reminded of how many in our wonderful town work to make Christmas special. Whether it is a church sexton who offers to bring a local tradition back or a local barber who believes that lighting a Peace On Earth sign with flashlights will make a memory for children, it is a part of our Christmas. These simple moments add to our Christmas experience and create memories that last from one generation to another.