Flipside: Hughes Christmases Past

This year I decided to write a blog about Hughes Thanksgivings Past. As Christmas is now several weeks away, naturally I wondered if and what I have covered on Flipside remembering Hughes Christmases Past. I scanned through my Hughes Family blogs and found numerous ones remembering our 1950 and 1960 Christmas celebrations. They are bits and pieces; however, not one covering all my memories.

The Christmas season was always a joyous time celebrated in our house. The 1950's encompassed my growing years from age 3 to 13. We lived in North Hills Estates, a neighborhood between Perrysville and West View, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in the North Hills of Pittsburgh.

Our house was brand spankin' new when we moved in during the Fall of 1950. It was a street full of new friends of all ages, an exciting play space that ran behind our street--the woods, church, shopping and elementary school within walking distance and neighbors who were old friends of my parents living two houses away with a daughter my age--my BFF.

There are precious few early Hughes Family Christmas photos. My Dad, the photographer, was MIA for Christmas 1951and 1952 serving with the US Army in Korea, a doctor on the front lines in an aid station. When he was discharged in the summer of 1953, a few years of holiday photos have survived.

Dad was meticulous hanging the tinsel and it does look beautiful. A funny Hughes story that Mom told me regarding tinsel involved Dad's family back in the 1940's. When my Hughes grandparents (Pop Pop and Grams) decorated the tree, the tinsel was thrown in small handfuls on the tree. Maybe the reason Dad was so particular. 😄

1956
Me playing with the trains

Dad also had a train under the tree and enjoyed setting up miniature trains throughout his life. I was gifting him train cars for Christmas well into his 80's.

Ken and Jeff with two presents I wrapped

One of my entrepreneurial enterprises in elementary school was wrapping Christmas presents for the family. Family members were able to choose the paper and ribbons for each present and I charged a very small fee.

Horne's 1953

The department store Christmas windows were always a special trip into Pittsburgh. There were three major departments stores back then--Horne's, Kaufmann's and Gimbels. Finishing the afternoon was lunch at Stouffers.

Every holiday season we enjoyed carolers who wandered around the neighborhood in the early evening serenading with Christmas carols and holiday songs. I remember that as a member of the junior choir at Hiland, I also joined the carolers for several holiday seasons.

I have no idea where Mom got our Christmas stockings. Perhaps she made them! I still have mine now and it's been sixty-nine years.

1965 Bramble Lane

1965
House on Bramble Lane

Mom loved to decorate for the holidays. I do too.

For as long as I lived at home, Mom would play Christmas carols during the holiday season. We had Hi Fi Stereo Console as early as 1956 and it was moved to our new home on Bramble Lane in 1961.

There were two specific Christmas albums that were played all day long. I was able to find them both and continue to play them every holiday season. The Wonderful Songs of Christmas by the Harry Simeone Chorale and Now Is The Caroling Season by Fred Waring and His Pennsylvanians.

Unfortunately there are no pictures of this annual Christmas event. When we moved to Bramble Lane and I was in my teens, I decided to have a religious Christmas program on Christmas Day. I read the birth of Jesus story from the Bible with the appropriate religious Christmas songs interspersed with the story. Ken and Jeff were the singers. The performance followed dinner. Our maternal grandmother, Teek, was aways in attendance. I think this was from 1961 to 1965.

The 1950's Christmas Routine

Christmas Eve's when we lived on Washington Drive (1950-1960) followed a pattern. We drove to a local restaurant for dinner out. I remember we all had pancakes. The next stop was Hiland Presbyterian Church for the Christmas Eve service. Following the service, we would drive around the local neighborhoods to see the beautiful Christmas lights.

A neighbor, dressed as Santa, would wander up and down the streets on Christmas Eve passing out candy canes and sending us to bed so he could deliver the presents.

My parents had a group of friends, who did not have children. They would come after we were in bed to help with our presents and party. It's a wonder the three of us ever did get to sleep. 😁

Santa was always very generous with gifts. As I look back at the pictures that have survived, I noticed that Mom did not wrap the gifts. They were arranged in three areas for each of us. When we moved to Bramble Lane, the gifts were wrapped.

Dressed and waiting for our grandparents

Christmas dinner was always at our house. Our three grandparents lived near each other and Pop Pop and Grams would bring Teek to our house for the festivities.

Grams would always bring the dessert. One year she had baked a cake. Our dog, Spunky, jumped up, knocked the cake on the floor and ate it. No dessert that year. 😂

Mom, Teek, Aunt Faith, Pop Pop, Me, Ken
Grams, Uncle Johnny, Great Grandma Hughes

These are the first Hughes family Christmas dinner photographs taken by my Dad in 1953.

Mom: Martha Jean Stark Hughes--numerous blogs under Hughes

Teek: Martha Marie Frederick Stark (maternal Grandmother)

Aunt Faith: Faith Carol Hughes, married Edward Norman Roolf, Jr. in 1955

Pop Pop: George Henry Hughes (paternal Grandfather)--numerous blogs under Hughes

Me: Linda Lee Hughes (married Ted Steven Hiser in 1969)

Ken: Kenneth George Hughes

Grams: Sarah (Sara) Margaret VanGilder Hughes (paternal Grandmother)--numerous blogs under Hughes

Uncle Johnny: John Aiden Hughes

Great Grandma Hughes: Elizabeth Ferdinande Olesen Hughes (paternal Great Grandmother)

1953 Christmas table

My Christmas table 2004

The dishes and sterling silver flatware used for the holiday meal were Teek's, given to my mother, her daughter. In 1999 it was all passed along to me. For years I used it for both Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners; however, to streamline the clean-up, I began using my everyday table ware. Lazy Linda. The china and silver had to be hand washed.

China pattern: La France, Theodore Haviland, Limoges, France

Sterling Silver pattern: Cascade, Towle Sterling Silver

Mom, Teek, Aunt Faith, Pop Pop, Grams, Me, Ken

Dad was always behind the camera--never pictured. I have enlarged myself to highlight the appetizer for every Hughes Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner from the time they were held until Teek's death in 1971--the fruit cocktail.

Teek created the fruit cocktail with fresh pieces of grapefruit, oranges, pears, peaches and maraschino cherries. I image she squeezed fruit from the grapefruit and oranges. It was a lovely concoction but so very very sour. Not a kid fan favorite; however, it had to be consumed before we were able to get to the main event--turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy.

One Christmas, as a joke, I recreated what I thought was in that fruit cocktail and served it at a Hiser Christmas dinner. LOL

Those are the only two years that Dad photographed a Hughes Christmas dinner in the over 3 decades that Mom and Dad were married. Grams and Pop Pop relocated to St Petersburg, Florida when he retired from the American Bridge Company circa 1961-1963. Teek was at the table until 1970. Ted and I married in 1969 and split our Christmas Day between the two families until 1977 when I was pregnant with Aric. From that year until now, I have hosted both Thanksgiving and Christmas.

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