To wish you all a Merry Christmas I'm repeating this wonderful post that my sisters helped me write last year.
Christmas time often makes me think of the wonderful times our parents made possible for us. They did not have much money but it was important to them that we had a bountiful Christmas. My Mom, being the industrious and hard working lady she was, came up with the idea of making Christmas candles to finance our gifts. I learned today that she got that idea from a Christmas candle my sister Theresa made at Girl Scouts when she was 10 (the year I was born) and brought home. Theresa and my late brother Roy were out selling Christmas candles probably when I was just a baby.
Our Christmas candles were made with blocks of paraffin wax. A line was scored down the center of one block and the wick laid along that line. Two blocks were then put together and stood on end on a third block and straight pins were inserted to hold them together.
The pictures were old Christmas cards that we saved and also collected from relatives. The old parchment cards were best as they were translucent, allowing the pictures to glow when the wick was lit.
The chosen card was cut to fit the face of the candle and a 'frosting' was made with cream of tartar and melted wax, which was applied warm to the candle and sprinkled with glitter. I remember using a stainless steel bowl and handmixer to beat the cream of tartar and melted wax. It was always quite a production that would fill our kitchen and get us excited about the holidays coming up.
Our father drove us all over the North Country well over a 75 mile radius of Tupper Lake to sell the candles. We'd knock on a door carrying a flat box filled with candles and when someone answered we'd say, "Would you like to buy a Christmas candle? They are only $1.00 and when you light the wick the picture glows." Theresa believes the price increased to $1.50, then $1.75 and finally $2.00. I don't remember.
Our mother (with our help) would make about 500 candles each year and this enabled our parents to give us a wonderful Christmas each year. $500.00 was a fortune in the late 50's and early 60's. We would go shopping in Plattsburgh and Burlington with our bounty. I remember shopping the Grand Way in Plattsburgh on Christmas Eve and Woolworth’s in downtown Plattsburgh (or was it Fishman’s?). I know Montgomery Ward was downtown in Pburgh.
My sister Mary was at a friend's house back in 1983 and the friend was cleaning the previous owner's belonging's out of the cellar. She pulled a candle out of a box and Mary gasped......hardly believing what she was looking at. She asked if she could have it and told the friend of the story of the Christmas candles. This candle is well over 45 years old! The candle comes out in a place of honor on Mary's sideboard each Christmas and then is lovingly and carefully packed away for another year after Christmas. If she
were to light the wick - “the picture glows.” Merry Christmas!
