Christmas was magic, without razzle-dazzle

By Regina Villiers.  Originally published December 23, 1992 in The Suburban Life, added December 13, 2014

Miss Cleo J. Hosbrook and Mugs sent holiday greetings to friends with this card in 1944.  Mugs was probably her favorite of a life-long line of beloved pets, both dogs and cats.  His pictures still hang on the walls of her room today.

Miss Cleo J. Hosbrook and Mugs sent holiday greetings to friends with this card in 1944. Mugs was probably her favorite of a life-long line of beloved pets, both dogs and cats. His pictures still hang on the walls of her room today.

In earlier days in Madeira, Christmas holidays centered around the family, home and church.  At least, people mention those things first and most often when asked about their memories of Christmas-past in Madeira.

Back then, the holiday hustle and bustle didn’t run for weeks, as it does now.  Christmas and lights did not go up in late September and mid-October.

In fact, lights did not go up at all.  The candles used in the home and on Christmas trees were real candles and had to be watched very carefully.

Miss Cleo J. Hosbrook remembers the real candles used in the tree-lighting ceremony at her home down to the smallest detail.

“When I was a little girl,” she said, “my father would take me out to the (Hosbrook) farm to get our tree.  He’d cut the top out of a tree and we’d bring the top home to use.”

Then she described the room layout of her home and how it was possible to open doors and go from room to room in a large circle.

They’d set up the tree and decorate it.  The real candles, which were about three inches long and sat on a little plate-like holder, would be lit.

“Then,” she said, “my father would put me in my little red wagon and pull me around and around through the house and around the tree.”

As she told the story her eyes glowed with the memory of the scene.

She doesn’t remember receiving toys, though she thinks she did.  She remembers that she always had dolls.  The memories of her material gifts have faded, but the lasting joy and happiness of family and family rituals have stayed with her.

Other than home and family, many Madeira residents’ Christmas memories in the first half of this century center around the Presbyterian Church.

Until the late 1950’s, the church sat on the corner of Miami and Laurel avenues where Fifth Third Bank now stands.

In 1927, major expansion to the church included a gymnasium which served as a community center and soon became known as the place where the action was.

Madeira High School played its basketball games there.  Many community activities were held in the gym as well as dances, live plays, minstrel shows and many other events for the community and young people.

At Christmas, the gym was a beehive of activities.

Doris Burton has childhood memories of the gym as being the party place at Halloween and Christmas.

“Santa would be there at Christmas,” she said, “handing out fruit and little boxes of Christmas candy.  The candy was hard candy and chocolate-covered creams.”

The other Christmas action at the gym took the form of the live plays, staged by the church for the community.  These plays were religious in nature and used local talent.

Mrs. Virginia Perin, who is well known as a civic and community leader, remembers the plays well.  Her daughter, Patti, appeared in one of the plays.

Patti’s grandmother, Lydia C. Perin, also wrote one of the plays produced in the church.  Her play was titled “How the Christ Came,”  and the Perins still have a copy of the play.  Leon Linder was the Sunday school teacher who directed the Perin play.

Geneva Parrish also remembers the plays at the Presbyterian Church.  Geneva is a familiar figure around Madeira and is a fixture at Adrien’s Pharmacy, having worked there since the 1950s.

She remembers that she delivered Mike to the church on the night of the play and then went to sit proudly in the audience waiting for her son to appear.

When he did, his face was all red and flushed.  Throughout the play she sat there, anxious and worried, thinking he had a fever and was coming down with a dire ailment.

After the play she rushed to get him and discovered that it was make-up, which had been applied with a heavy hand.  He was just over-rouged.

The memories of Madeira’s people who were here in the first half of the century picture Christmas as a quiet time, a happy time spent with family and friends.

It was a time without glitter and earthshaking excitement.  But, it was a magic time, remembered still with happiness and joy.

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