Remembering the Holidays
Perhaps no other holiday is as steeped in memories as Christmas.
Favorite carols, a special meal, a treasured ornament or Nativity scene can all unlock powerful recollections of past Christmases.
For the members of the Concordia Haven II Page Turners Book Club, a recent gathering to discuss “A Man Called Ove” turned into a discussion of past televised Christmas specials.
For book club member Carole Stolz, 82, a TV movie first broadcast in 1966 is a powerful reminder of the holiday.
Stolz said, “Geraldine Page played the lady. She was mentally challenged. She lives with a boy and his grandmother during the Depression.
“They save their pennies to make fruitcakes for people,” said Stolz.
She was recalling “A Christmas Memory,” adapted for television for ABC Stage 67 by Truman Capote and Eleanor Perry, and first broadcast in 1966.
The production starred Page and Donnie Melvin, and Capote was the narrator.
Both the teleplay and the program's star, Page, won Emmy Awards.
Betty Jane Lehman, 92, said, “ I watched the Hallmark Christmas shows every year. I think they were on since the beginning of television.”
Maxine Seiss, 85, said Bob Hope evokes the Yuletide for her.
Seiss said, “I used to watch the Bob Hope Christmas specials. He was always overseas and they would show it later.”
Starting in 1962, Hope would always produce an annual holiday program and starting in 1967 they became known as “The Bob Hope Vietnam Christmas Show.”
From 1964 to 1972, Hope included South Vietnam on his annual trips to visit troops during the holiday season, a tradition that started for him during World War II.
Lorraine Kesterson, 87 remembered the antics of an ill-behaved group of children pressed into service to be the cast of a Christmas production in the 1983 ABC television movie, “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”
“Their father can't go to bed because they are using his pajamas in the pageant,” Kesterson said.
The movie, starring Loretta Swit, was adapted from a book written by Barbara Robinson in 1971.
It tells the story of six delinquent children named the Herdmans.
They go to church for the first time after being told that the church offers snacks. Despite protests from other church members, they are given roles in the Sunday school's Christmas play, in which they tell the Christmas story in a non-conventional fashion.
Seiss and Betty Jane Lehman, 92, differed on who played the best Scrooge in the many adaptations of “A Christmas Carol.”
Lehman said, “I just remember Lionel Berrymore as Scrooge.”
Berrymore performed the role on the radio every year, creating a 20 year tradition from 1934 to 1953. Barrymore only missed two performances in the 20 year span: in 1936 when his wife Irene Fenwick died on Dec. 24, 1936; and in 1938.
Seiss said that George C. Scott was the paramount Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol,” a 1984 British-American made-for-television film.
Audrey Hoch, 86, remembers many televised musical moments such the St. Olaf's College Choir, which had programs aired on PBS stations.“St. Olaf's Choir had the most haunting, beautiful music,” said Hoch.“Andy Williams always had a Christmas show,” said Stolz.“Fred Waring had a wonderful rendition of 'The Night Before Christmas' that was just amazing,” said Seiss, referring to the bandleader, musician and radio personality, who had a CBS show from 1948 to 1954.Kesterman had a good reason to remember the televised midnigh Masses from St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, she's been there.“I sang at St. Peter's Basilica,” she said. “The organist we took with us, he had to have a recording of his playing accepted. I was on a tour with the group.“I'm not Catholic, but the art ... my gosh,” said Kesterson.When Seiss mentioned “The Waltons' Christmas Special,” (Or more accurately, “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story,” which first aired Dec. 19, 1971, everyone agreed.But when Seiss said, “I still watch 'It's a Wonderful Life,' because Jimmy Stewart is from Pennsylvania,” there was dissension in the ranks.Hoch said, “I've watched it a couple of times, and it didn't move me. What's wrong with me?”It's not just the programs but the television set itself that brought back memories.Seiss said, “Our neighbors had the first TV. Their son had cerebral palsy. They liked all of us to come in. They liked us there for their son.“We watched 'Howdy Doody.' Everyone was thrilled to death,” said Seiss.Seiss said, “I think I was always impressed by the Christmas shows. They always ended with a religious theme. Where now they have just kind of done away with it.”She added, “They had a lot of Christmas shows on back then, a lot more than they do now.“In general, the old TV Christmas specials were way different from today's. They were always wholesome,” said Seiss.
