OHHAMILT-L Archives

Archiver > OHHAMILT > 2004-12 > 1102604878


From:
Subject: Christmas Traditions in Cincinnati
Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2004 10:07:58 EST


Hello Subscribers,

Since this is the Christmas season for many of us, I'd like to invite
those of you who grew up in Cincinnati to share one of your best
memories of Cincinnati Christmas's.

I grew up in the post WW II years
and remember going downtown on the old Kennedy Heights streetcar
#4 and seeing the corner window at Shillitoes downtown that had
all the little animated characters, the trains at the Gas & Electric
building,
and the decorations on "old" Fountain Square. We tromped all
over town that day, eating lunch at the dimestore lunch counter and
taking in all the sights, sounds and smells. :-)

My grandparents had a big old house on Reading Rd, across from
Makatewah Country Club. The house had those wonderful 12 ft. ceilings and my
grandpa always had a balsam Christmas tree that touched the ceiling.
Underneath was always laid out a little German village in the snow
with a fence around it, in the typical German tradition. Aunts, uncles
and cousins (about 20 of us) would gather for Christmas Eve to exchange
presents
and eat. Then we'd gather in the "parlor" or "front room", as they
called it and my dad, who played the German button
accordion (he called it a "doodlesock") would start to play Christmas
Carols and everybody would join in singing. After a round of carols,
(some sung in German) the grandparents, aunts & uncles would start
singing old German folk songs, in German. Of course we kids thought
this was "boring" since we didn't understand the words, so
we drifted off into other parts of the house to amuse ourselves and play
with our new games and toys. We usually stayed till midnight so we
could wish everyone a "Merry Christmas" and then headed home,
sometimes in the snow! Wheeee!! We went to church on
Christmas Day morning and headed to the other grandparent's home
for the afternoon.

I didin't realize it at the time, but they were giving me a wonderful
treasure..........showing me a small glimpse into my German heritage.

Marilyn

This thread: