Christmas 1965
Despite the fact that over a half-century has elapsed since the Christmas of 1965, I remember it well. I was nine years old. Christmas and nine year-old boys were made for each other! With my little family – there was Mom, Dad and me, an only child - the Christmas of 1965 was notable for a number of reasons.
We had just moved into our house in Burbank, California earlier in the year, so we were house poor. Dad worked at the nearby Lockheed Aircraft Company, and a co-worker had given him a second-hand artificial Christmas tree. Calling it artificial is deceptive, however: it was one of those silvery aluminum trees that had a brief popularity in the 1960s. Unpackaging it was somewhat disappointing. In the daylight it looked ridiculous, like something crafted badly out of Reynold’s Wrap. And the branches – which we assembled one by one into a silver-painted wooden pole – had strange poms at the end. There never was a tree that looked like this in nature!
But! Along with the tree we were given not just one, but two-color wheels. And for the benefit of the younger members of this congregation I should probably mention that aluminum trees like ours were not lit with a string of lights. An ever-changing assortment of colors were flashed onto the tree by specially-built color wheels, which sat on the carpet nearby. With two color wheels at night, the tree took on an absolutely fabulous aspect. The colors were mesmerizing, and the aluminum branches flashed the colors back at the viewer like emeralds, rubies, sapphires and whatever gemstone is yellow and orange. I loved that tree and spent hours on the floor just gazing at the light show.
I also remember a fierce December windstorm in 1965. We had a stuffed Santa Claus that my father or mother had placed on our fake chimney in front - he blew off. The wind also took off a shutter or two from the front of the house, where they were attached to each side of the windows. These were laying in the middle of Lincoln Street. And Mom had placed a large plastic hanging of Santa on our garage; some kid drew a well-known two word insult beginning with "f" upon it. Mom used to lipstick to somehow cleverly conceal this into "Merry Xmas!" A Christmas miracle!
On Christmas Day in 1965 I got the first of what would become a selection of the best toys of my youth: Lego kits. Lego was very primitive in 1965 – not at all the sophisticated, electronically-powered kits of today. And since they were foreign, in the United States they were strangely marketed by Samsonite, a well-known manufacturer of luggage! I didn’t care. Lego sets fired my imagination as well or better than a big assortment of crayons and an unlimited supply of paper or cardboard boxes for spaceships, and I was in heaven. I am happy to note that my grandchildren are third generation Legomaniacs.
But the best and most lasting memory of December 1965 was the world premiere of what has since become a holiday classic: "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Every kid I knew was tuned in to CBS on December 9, 1965 to watch Charlie Brown, Linus, Lucy and especially Snoopy. I must admit that the show took me by surprise. The voices of the characters were spoken by actual children – which was novel. Adults always did the voices in cartoons. And the jazzy score was a first, too. I have come to love it, but on a first hearing I found it somewhat off-putting. By far the best thing about this production is what it is primarily known for: the scene where Linus explains to a jaded and disenchanted Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about. To do this he quotes scripture – a first for an animated feature. I can do no better than to quote Linus in his reading of the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verses 8 through 14:
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not; for, behold, I bring you tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and goodwill towards men."