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Christmas Memories


1958
The Kirsten Kids at Santa's Village
Jerry, Kathy, Sue & Mike


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Finding the Perfect Christmas Tree!

Some years we would go Christmas Tree shopping on one of the evenings after Mom and Dad finished work for the day. We would have a fun dinner at the Steak House - which was near to the Christmas Tree lots – and then we would go search through the Christmas Tree lots for the perfect tree.

In the early 1960s, Nana Kirsten switched over to a shiny silver aluminum tree with colorful hanging glass balls and there was a spotlight on the floor shining up on the tree while changing colors. Very festive!

Mom loved to decorate the Christmas Tree and the house. For a few years she spread that awful Angel Hair all over the tree - thst fine glass fiber that if it touched your skin, you would get tiny cuts that hurt like hell. It did make the tree look pretty, tho'. Sometimes she liked to have a flocked Christmas Tree. In my opinion, you can't beat a beautiful Noble Fir Christmas Tree!


1954 or 1955

Not sure if this Christmas Tree is from 1954 or 1955. Jerry was born May 7, 1954. We moved into our new home on 2638 DeOvan in Stockton, California sometime right before Jerry was born in May of 1954 or after. But I do remember that we lived there a little before Sue was born on November 2, 1955.


Susan Elaine Kirsten makes Appearance!

We occasionally attended Sunday church services at the Episcopal Church of Saint Stephen, at 3832 Plymouth Road, Stockton, California 95204. And it was on Halloween evening (Monday, October 31, 1955) that we were at the Church's Halloween party and Mom started to go into labor with Sue. Mom was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital in Stockton. Well it turned out that Sue was not ready to join our family yet! However, in two days on November 2nd, she made her official appearance and joined our family!

Before (and a little after) Sue was born Mom took a maternity leave for a few months. Up until then, Mom worked as John Fugazi's Legal Secretary. It was great having Mom home - she created classes to teach me all kinds things to help me get ready for Kindergarden - she even taught me to read The 3 Bears and Little Red Riding Hood fairytales in Spanish and French.


The Sears Big Book of Gifts

Christmas was always a fun family holiday! Every September, Nana Kirsten would have each of us kids look through the big Sears catalog and pick out what we would each like for Christmas. One year I picked out a huge puppet theater made of cardboard!

When I was 8 or so, I loved to torture my family by singing and tap dancing on our brick hearth and making them all watch me. So, I thought this puppet theater would be perfect - I could put on puppet shows for everyone. O' yeah - everyone was thrilled!

Well, the adults decided to play a trick on me and hid my puppet theater in our garage during the day. I waited patiently while all the cars with Christmas gifts were unloded but NO PUPPET THEATER. I have to admit that when my puppet theater didn't arrive at our house that Chritmas Eve -I WAS VERY UPSET. My Mom finally took pity on me after a bit and took me out to the garage where my lovely puppet theater was!!


Every year after Thanksgiving, Grandma Fulton baked and iced 100s of cookies to fill gift boxes for family and friends. Sometimes she would let us kids help her. Grandma was always great fun to spend time with. We loved her very much.

        

Also, she took us to the Annual Christmas Party for Kids hosted by the Moose Lodge #391 that she was a member of. This was so much fun! Santa was there and there were loads of treats and party food and lots of gifts under the tree for all the kids.


Right before Christmas, Mom & Dad would take us kids to the variety stores - Pacific Five and Dime, Woolworths, Sprouse-Reitz, Kress and Newberry to buy shot glasses and other little items that we would give to family members for Christmas gifts.

                    

When I was 9 years old, to earn the money I needed to buy Christmas gifts I raked leaves! My Nana lived on Yosemite Street where there were really nice houses (like Nana's house) and they all had big Oak and Maple trees outside their houses. And I noticed that no one was raking all the leaves. So, right after Thanksgiving that year I started my Holiday Leaf Raking business in my Nana's neighborhood. I think I charged about 25 cents per yard and am happy to report that I always earned enough to buy Christmas presents. I had my leaf raking business for a few years.

In my 20s, I liked to buy Grandpa Fulton a Chopper Hopper for Christmas. I would order it from the Lillian Vernon catalog that I received in the U.S. mail. I would complete the order form and mail it back to Lillian Vernon with a postal money order to pay.


The Christmas Eve Party

We usually celebrated Christmas Eve at our house with the 4 Christmas-crazy kids! All of our Cousins, Aunts & Uncles, Grandparents and friends came to our house for a wonderful fun-filled Christmas Eve Party. Nana and Jack would arrive at our house on Christmas Eve with their car packed full of presents! We exchanged gifts with each other and really had a jolly time.


Nana Hansley always brought a fruit cake (I actually like fruit cake). There were boxes of Sees Candy, loads of fancy hard candy and Dates sprinkled with powdered sugar & stuffed with walnuts and all kinds of drinks and spiced egg nog. At the time, us kids were drinking Shirley Temple and Roy Rodger drinks!


There would be Clam Dip & chips – along with trays of sliced Italian roast beef and turkey and gourmet cheeses. We would eat scrumptious Italian Deli food and baked goods from Webb's Bakery and Delicatessen on Pacific Avenue. The cakes and pastries were out of this world. There was also another Italian deli where we boughht Italian seasoned turkeys already roasted and ready to eat. I think it was Gaia Delucchi Delicatessen. So good! Also, don’t forget Ruhl’s Bakery – where Nana Kirsten always got me a chocolate whipped cream cake for my birthday!! And best of all - right next door to Webb's Bakery and Deli on Pacific Avenue was Pardini's Toy Box with Fabulous toys!


One Exciting Christmas Eve I believe this was Christmas Eve 1959 when Dad worked for CECO Steel. He arrived home from the Office Christmas Party with pretty corsages for all of us girls, boxes of candy and gifts for everyone. He was so happy and we all had a great time dancing and being silly.

For many years Dad worked as an Estimator/Bidder for CECO Steel in Stockton. He did quite well – especially that one year – I think it was 1959 when he helped win a huge business contract with Arden Fair in Sacramento for CECO Steel right before Christmas. That Christmas Eve was absolutely the BEST!


After such a wonderful feast, we went to bed and dreamed of the gifts that Santa would bring while we were sleeping – waiting to be opened Christmas morning.

Pardini's Toy Box


It’s highly likely that the presents under our tree on Christmas morning were wrapped in the familiar red and white striped paper from Pardini's Toy Box.

In 1948, when Guido and Gwen Pardini, opened Pacific Five and Dime - a variety store in Stockton, CA - there was no such thing as a toy store in the area. Toys were bought at Kress or Woolworths or stores like that. Variety stores would usually bring toys in for the Christmas season only.

 

But things were about to change for the lucky children of Stockton. The Pardinis had a variety store and they brought in loads of wonderful toys to sell! They were worried that they may have overestimated their toy order but were quickly proven wrong. They sold out!

And this is how the Pardini's variety store became Pardini's Toy Box with fabulous toys of every kind.


The Pardinis succeeded because of customer service. Christmas was tricycles, Radio Flyer wagons, bicycles, scooters and baby carriages. All were assembled at no cost. They had a layaway plan. Because parking was limited, they had workers carry gifts to cars or, better yet, deliver them to the home. And they wrapped them in that pretty telltale red and white paper.

My very favorite Christmas gift purchased at Pardinis - that I still have but needs a little repair - is a beautifully illustrated Chinese Fairytale book. I love this large book. I do remember all the shelves of dolls. I loved Barbie dolls and all of the beautiful cloths. The Toy Box had toys of all types - every toy that a child dreamed of!



1950's Christmas Pictures

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More Christmas Pictures

Santa's Village

1950's Christmas Pictures (above)

1960's Christmas Pictures

1970's Christmas Pictures

1981 Christmas Picture

1998 Bill & Marlene's Christmas Pictures

2003 Modesto Christmas Pictures

2013 Rancho Mirage Christmas Pictures

2014's Disneyland Christmas Pictures

2016's Disneyland Christmas Pictures - Part 1

2016's Disneyland Christmas Pictures - Part 2