Christmas Day festivities at our house began early in the morning. I don’t remember a time that it wasn’t dark when we gathered downstairs to check out our Santa gifts. (I think the reason that we got started early was that the cattle had to fed a little later, a chore that took two or three hours).

The night before, Christmas Eve, we had enjoyed a traditional meal of oyster stew and trimmings. Then we opened Christmas cards. Up to that time none of us had been allowed to open the cards, except for Mom who might have needed information to send out cards. So now Mom opened each card from a pile in front of her, told who sent it, and then we passed the card around.

Last, we hung up our stockings. We never bought stockings but instead hunted around for the biggest socks we could find and hung them up. We also put out candy dishes for the candy that we knew Santa would bring.

Sleep was hard to come by on Christmas Eve. My sisters and I slept upstairs, and we lay in bed and whispered and giggled. In those days were didn’t have an indoors bathroom — only the outhouse that was way out back, and we had to cross a plank over the ditch to get there. We had to use a flashlight at night. Today I wonder why we never fell off the plank. Anyway, on Christmas Eve we hoped that we didn’t have to make the trip outside because we might have spoiled Santa’s visit.

We somehow got through the night, and the next morning we waited for Dad to call us downstairs. Dad and Mom had made a fire so the house was warm. The tree was lit up, and there were Santa gifts under the tree. My sisters and I always got dolls, and there were some other things — like sleds.

The stockings were stuffed with little gifts, and the dishes on the table were filled with chocolate candies and orange slices. We checked out our stockings before turning our attention to the presents under the tree — and there were a lot of them. In spite of the fact that there wasn’t a lot of money in those days, we had gifts from relatives on both sides of the family. Many of the presents were handmade — like doll clothes, for example.

One of my favorite gifts was a rocking doll bed. Grandpa Osborn made one of them for my sister Charlotte and me. He cut the pieces from wood, used slats from an orange crate for the bottom, put everything together, and painted the sides white. Decals decorated the cradle. Then Grandma Osborn sewed a mattress, pillow, pillowcase and sheet for the bed. I still have the cradle today.

After opening our gifts, we had lots of stuff for dolls, puzzles, books and games — plenty to enjoy all day. We weren’t interested in breakfast, but Dad ate and then he went out to milk the cow. We fed the chickens but didn’t go to feed with Dad on this special day, and he understood.

Later we ate a traditional Christmas dinner and enjoyed being together during Christmas Day on the ranch.