A Christmas Memory of Marion Conway

For Marion Conway MacDonald of Beacon, Christmas was always the best holiday. During that season her home on North Avenue would be filled with old decorations and ornaments saved from Christmases long ago. And her favorite Christmas toy--an antique wind-up tin Santa from the 1870s--would be brought  out for special company ... to be wound up and let loose  to march across the piano top! 

In the 1980s Marion began a correspondence with Old Christmas expert and author Robert Brenner of Wisconsin. Marion's letters and phone calls to him with reminiscences of the Christmases of her childhood in Beacon (then Matteawan) struck a chord with Brenner, so much so that he asked her for a written Christmas memory to be included in his new book, "Christmas Past, " that would be published in 1985

Here is what Marion wrote:

“It was the custom at our house never to decorate the tree before Santa came. This applied to me and my little brother when we were young. The tree was put up Christmas eve and left for Santa to trim. In the morning it was all dressed up with candles (never lit), canes, popcorn,and some lovely old ornaments and tinsel. As I grew older and understood all about Santa and who he was, I trimmed the tree. Sometimes I trimmed it by myself and sometimes the boy who lived next door to me, George, came over and helped me. We had great fun and Mama would make hot cocoa and give us some Christmas cookies. When we were small, we always put our stockings at the foot of our bed. My mother must have been exhausted with the routine--making sure I was fast asleep while she stuffed the stockings. An orange always went in first and then nice little tiny presents which usually consisted of some beads, jewelry, or a pretty pair of mittens. We always had a lovely wreath on the front door usually made of real holly or laurel. In the windows there were poinsettias.

Early in the morning on Christmas eve, our kitchen became alive with the aroma of all the goodies that Mama was preparing, especially the homemade raisin bread. My grandfather's sister, Aunt Anne, came over early to help Mama. She was a marvelous cook. She would roll up her sleeves and start stuffing the bird. In those early days before supermarkets, the local butchers stocked roasting chickens, ducks, geese, and on order, a suckling pig. A turkey had to be ordered in advance. That was the way small towns operated. Aunt Anne made cookies and pies and could do almost anything in the kitchen. Mama loved her and my mother was her favorite niece.” --from "Christmas Past"

Marion Conway MacDonald (1903-1992) was a member and supporter of the Beacon Historical Society and she knew how to keep Christmas well. Photos: Marion Conway, with her friends the Grady sisters, in 1911 (photo courtesy of Ian MacDonald); a tin wind-up Santa--Marion's favorite antique Christmas toy.