Christmas
was such a special time when I was
growing up. Months before
the preparations would start, my
Mother and her sister, my Aunt
Bea, would go down town to 13th
& F Streets NW to the G C
Murphy 5 & dime store.
Their favorite vendor set up a
booth every year in October and
sold glazed fruit and a variety of
nuts. This is the only place in
the city where they would shop for
these items. Sometimes they took
me along and we would go down on
the streetcar and then walk the 2
blocks to the store.

The
special fruits and nuts were
selected, which they would turn
into fruit cakes using their
father’s family recipe. The
cakes were always baked in October
and stored away in air tight cans,
first with slices of apple then
wrapped in cheesecloth that had
been wrung out in Brandy.
Every 2-3 weeks the cakes were
checked and more brandy
added if needed. They said
this was to age them and they were
kept on a screened in back porch
in a cabinet. All I know is that
as a young girl I thought it was a
lot of hard work, and it
was. What seemed like
endless hours were spent chopping
the fruit and nuts by hand. (no
food processors in those
days) This would take
forever - or so I thought.
My Mother would go to my Aunt Bea’s
house and help her chop, then Aunt
Bea would come to our house and
help Mother chop.
The fruit
and nuts were dusted with flour
after they had been chopped, then
they were set aside and the pans
were made ready. This
involved greasing the pans, (some
were one pound coffee cans) then
lining them with strips of brown
paper bags, then the paper was
greased, the oven was turned
on and the temperature set.
Now it was time to mix the
batter. Butter, sugar,
flour, eggs, extracts and spices
were carefully mixed by hand with
a big wooden spoon. Then the fruit
& nut mixture was added and
the rest of the mixing was done
with the hands as the batter was
so heavy. After the pans
were filled they went into the
oven for the slow baking they
required. After a long
cooling over night they were
stored away to age.
These
cakes were served at Holiday
parties and when the family would
get together. As a young
girl I didn’t like them very
much. It was the only time of the
year that we ever had soda in my
house and that was ginger ale and
root beer. The grownups
would have coffee.
The only
other thing I could drink was milk
or water. I was not allowed
iced tea as it had Caffeine.

Other
treats that were baked for
Christmas were my Grandmother Eva’s
ginger cookies. She
mixed up a large amount by
hand, with her special wooden
spoons, two of which I still have
and have used many times myself.
The batter
consisted of flour,
sugar, eggs, cinnamon, ginger and
lard. The batter would be cooled
then rolled out and cut into
rounds using a glass dipped in
flour. Grandmother stored these in
a big tin with a tight lid.
Sometimes a piece of apple was
added if needed to soften them. Oh
my but the smells in the house
when they were baking was just
wonderful and they filled me with
anticipation of the goodies to
come. These were delicious and are
still my favorite cookie with a
glass of milk.
Grandmother
also baked cakes, some with a
cooked chocolate frosting and
others filled with jelly and then
dusted with powdered sugar on
top. These were served to
friends and family over the
Christmas holidays. Pies were made
for Christmas dinner, pumpkin and
mincemeat. I didn’t like
the mincemeat but I loved the
pumpkin.

Christmas
Eve was a very busy day at my
house. Daddy would always go
for the tree and
keep it in the back yard in a
bucket of water. Then he
brought it into the house
and it was set up and the lights
were put on. My Daddy was
such a perfectionist that every
thing about it had to be
perfect. After my
brother and I were in bed,
Mother and Daddy would trim the
tree, set up my brothers train
set, with tracks that ran around
the bottom of the tree, wrap the
gifts and fill our
stockings. By this time my
brother and I were waking
up. We wanted to dash
downstairs to see what Santa left
for us, but Mother and Daddy made
us open our stockings in our
room. This gave them a
chance to go downstairs and turn
the tree lights on.
Christmas was always so special. |