There’s no better Christmas gift than good memories. Recently area residents shared some of their favorites.

 

Elaine Paumen remembers Clearwater Christmas’ past. For years the business people would put up a Christmas tree on the corner of Main and Maple and a public-address system would be installed in Kniss’s to play Christmas music.

 

Students performed Christmas plays upstairs in the Masonic Hall, Santa would distribute candy and the firemen hung lighted garlands across street intersections. A long pole was used to turn the lights on and off. In 1989 the city purchased used decorations to adorn the street lights and the garlands were discontinued.

 

Growing up, Paumen’s family always attended the Christmas Eve Midnight mass at St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Clearwater. When her daughter, Carla, was 14, she described their family traditions, writing:

 

“We give a small gift to all our animals. Christmas Eve we attend a beautiful Mass at our church. Mom makes a great batch of fruitcake. Oh, is that delicious! We go on a sleigh or buggy ride with our horses, depending on the weather. The whole family goes to a tree farm to cut a Christmas tree. We always have a hard time agreeing on the right one.”

 

On Christmas Day Paumen’s family played Royal Rummy and ate freshly baked Christmas cookies and drank slush made of orange juice, lemonade, 7-Up and brandy.

 

Growing up in northern Minnesota, Audrey Lidberg recalls cold days tromping through snowy woods to find the perfect Christmas tree. After bringing the tree home in their 1948 Ford pickup, it had to warm up so the branches wouldn’t break off.

 

They adorned their tree with old-fashioned bubble lights, and every morning she and her sister would each choose a side of the tree and have a contest to see who’s had the most lights bubbling.

 

Mary Wilson’s Sunday school would have a program Christmas Eve night; all the students had a part they had to memorize. After the program, they would come home to find presents on their doorstep from Santa. 

 

Betty Loehr said Christmas was more meaningful when she was young. She would attempt to stay awake all night to see Santa but inevitably succumb to sleep. She kept trying until the year she and her brothers found their Christmas presents in the washing machine where their mom had hidden them.

 

Loehr’s family was very poor and the kids only received one present. Her mom ordered everything COD (cash on delivery) through Sears. One year they received their Christmas presents in July; her mom had to keep reordering until she had enough money to pay for them.

 

Carolyn Boucher’s family was also very poor. Each Christmas they would go out to the barn to do chores, discovering Santa had visited when they got back. Their mom always claimed she hadn’t heard him because she’d was ‘vacuuming’ upstairs. One year Boucher received a little china tea set, which she still has, with plates the size of a quarter. 

 

Some of Jim Eich’s fondest memories of Christmas involve the neighborhood getting together and going house to house caroling. Everyone thanked them with cookies and hot chocolate.

 

His family baked big, old-style gingerbread men; Eich’s job was decorating. They always had peanut brittle and old-fashioned hard candy. One year he received a little car with an electric motor. He couldn’t believe he’d gotten something so great.

 

Eich and Sal Schneider remember St. Nick coming to their house each Dec. 5. At Eich’s he knocked on the door and left presents. (Eich still follows that tradition with his grandchildren).

 

At Schneider’s St. Nick would come inside to discover who was naughty or nice; Schneider was always scared he would get a bag of coal, but always ended up with goodies. Unlike today’s Santa, St. Nick wore robes like a monk.

 

Joan Jendro remembers a lot of snowstorms, and one started once when she and her siblings were at school. Her dad had to get them with the horses and sleigh, which they thought was the best treat ever.

 

Santa came after everyone was in bed. She only got one present, often a doll. On Christmas her family attended church, and the Catholic school she attended always had the students perform a Christmas concert.

 

She and her siblings would help her mom make homemade candy and cookies.

 

“I still like to bake,” said Jendro.