As a child growing up on Limekiln Lake, there were many things to do the first week of December.
My father would comb the woods for just the right Christmas tree to fill a corner of our living room.
The back corner of the tree was to remain hidden and therefore could be scraggly.
He always found one that had two great sides and two scraggly sides at the same time.
The effort put into positioning the tree was akin to watching a great rendition of The Nutcracker ballet.
Then there were the daily Advent count-offs, coloring holiday themed coloring books and the watching of Rankin/Bass animated Christmas specials such as Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.
We waded through our wish book catalogs, ate our holiday cookies and listened to mother’s old record player filling the house with Harry Belafonte Christmas music.
We sat in our footie pajamas in front of the Ben Franklin wood stove with a bowl of popcorn, stringing the popped kernels we did not eat.
These were Lee family traditions that continue to be a big portion of my holiday season.
We had another tradition that I continue all these many years later.
Holiday candles in the shapes of angels, snowmen, carolers, and Santa were placed on our windowsills..
They were for decoration only and never burned.
In my own home each holiday season, I lovingly unwrap hundreds of holiday candles, which I call my ugly holiday candle collection.
Each one on its own merit is not much of a work of art. But together these little holiday candles are a joy to see.
They create a sort of December magic like a melding of holiday voices singing the Hallelujah Chorus.
Every family has its own holiday traditions, carefully cultivated each year so that they can recapture the magic of December.
But my favorite one of all was opening up the boxes of candy canes and finding spots for them on the tree…knowing each one would be plucked free and snacked on as the next twenty days rushed by.
Mitch Lee, Adirondack native & storyteller,
lives at Inlet. ltmitch3rdny@aol.com