Tom and Judy Knox: Reminisce about childhood Christmases in Illinois

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By Missy Klatt

Tom and Judy Knox of Glenwood will be celebrating 60 years of Christmas memories together later this month (December 21) but their earliest memories of Christmases started back in Illinois where they grew up.

For Tom that was in southern Illinois (just north of St. Louis) on a farm with no electricity and no indoor plumbing for the first 12 years of his life. He lived there with his mom and dad and two sisters, one seven years older and one a year and a half younger. Eventually he got another brother that was 12 years younger. It was at this time they moved to town.

One of Tom’s early Christmas memories was getting the Sears Roebuck and the Montgomery Ward Christmas catalog. “By the time Christmas day came, certain pages were dog eared” chuckles Tom.

Buying a Christmas tree meant a trip into town. “Back then, Christmas trees were not pruned much and shaped. So compared to today’s tree, the ones we had were pretty scraggly looking.” Tom said the trees they got were always big, six foot at least but they weren’t nice and filled out. So they made popcorn chains and put a lot of tinsel on it and a lot of ornaments so by the time they got everything on it, it was all filled out and Tom said they thought it was beautiful.

Tom remembers his mom making a TON of Christmas candy; chocolate fudge, with and without walnuts, caramel, with and without, divinity that had nuts in it and for his dad she made peanut brittle. “I let him have all of that because there was plenty of the other stuff.” His mom made big pans of the candy and with careful rationing Tom was able to make the candy last until February.

Apples and oranges were also a big deal at Christmas time because back then you didn’t get a lot of fresh fruit.

His dad milked a few cows so on Christmas morning they weren’t allowed to come down to the living room until he got back from the barn. “It seemed like hours” Tom relates. On Christmas day they usually went to Grandma’s (his mom’s mom) and had a big turkey dinner with all the  fixings but they always had to leave in the middle of the afternoon to go home and milk the cows. Tom always felt cheated because his cousins that lived in town got to stay while they had to leave early.

Some of his early gifts from Santa that he remembers receiving were Tinker Toys, an Erector set and a wind up train.  All of which he hid from his cousins when they would come over. “They lived in town and they had everything and they would tear stuff up. The only thing I would leave out were some wooden blocks.”

Another prized toy was a farm set. Tom states that during the war the set was just made out of card board. But after the war he had an actual wooden barn. “I farmed on my hands and knees, all I ever wanted to do was be a farmer, like my dad and uncles.”

Tom remembers that they didn’t get a lot for Christmas but they usually got the one big gift that they wanted.

Tom doesn’t remember going to church on Christmas Eve but they did have a big Christmas program at church that involved songs, plays and recitations. “My mom always made sure I knew my parts” remarked Tom. He thought he always wound up with more than his share.

At school the Christmas program was similar with plays, recitations and songs. “We’d practice for a month.” Those first seven programs for Tom took place in a one room school house until they moved to town. Santa always made an appearance at the school program and he would give them all apples and oranges and maybe some hard candy.

Looking back Tom comments that he knew who Santa was, a neighbor but at the time they thought it was the real Santa Clause.

Judy

Judy grew up in north central Illinois about 20 miles east of the Mississippi river. She was raised in town with two brothers, one younger and one older making Judy the middle child.

For Judy’s family, they always went out and cut a tree down for Christmas. She remembers when she was around nine years old and her dad came home with bubble lights for the tree. “We were the only ones in the neighborhood who had them.” Judy boasted.

They also strung popcorn with cranberries for the tree, had tinsel and they made ornaments in art class at school that also got hung on the tree.

Judy briefly attended a one room school for 1st and 2nd grade before a new bigger school was built for the high school and the grade school then took over the high school’s old building where other one room schools consolidated.  What Judy remembers about the one room school was that she was the only little girl there.

Judy’s mom who was a teacher became the principal for the new school as well as doing some teaching.

Right after Thanksgiving Judy remembers making a mad dash to get home after school to listen to the “The Adventures of Cinnamon Bear” on the radio. Everyday there was a new installment about the 

Cinnamon Bear making his way closer to home. Judy recalls that it came on right after the “Lone Ranger”. She listened to the show on WGN radio out of Chicago.

Editor’s note: Paddy O’Cinnamon, The Cinnamon Bear ran for 26 episodes beginning after Thanksgiving and ending just before Christmas. Each episode was 15 minutes long and ends with a compelling cliffhanger, keeping people coming back to see what happens to Judy, Jimmy, and Paddy. It was originally released in 1937 and different versions can be found on Youtube. Audible released a new audio version last November.

Every Christmas Judy’s family would take the train to Chicago and walk downtown to see all the decorations in the store windows. She remembers even the train was decorated. They did this every year until she was 12 or 13 and then her dad got sick (he had Parkinson’s disease) and that changed a lot of things, Judy commented.

Judy also recalls getting apples and oranges and mixed nuts in the shell. She said they got them in their stocking, at school, at Sunday school, everywhere you went it was apples and oranges. Judy continues, “They were those great big red delicious apples, I think from the state of Washington. At the grocery store we got to scoop out the nuts and I guess we were surprised when they came out of our stockings.” Judy laughs, “I never thought about that before.”

One prized gift that Judy got was a pair of roller skates. “That was absolute heaven and I was just so upset because there was snow all over.” She also remembers ice skating all winter long on the local creek. Playing “hockey”.

For the church/Sunday school program she always wanted to be Mary but they always made her to be an angel because she had blonde hair. The one lady, Mrs. Baxter told her she had to be the angel because all angels had blonde hair. “Shortly after Christmas Mrs. Barlow died and she always let us kids get strawberries out of her strawberry patch and I didn’t like Mrs. Baxter from that day on because Mrs. Barlow was not blonde and she was an angel!

When asked if she ever got to play Mary, Judy responds coyly “I’ve just been an angel all my life” which garnered a hearty laugh from Tom.

After their school program, Santa always came and handed out apples and oranges and candy and popcorn balls.

Judy remembers that most of the time she can’t remember getting a single gift but they often got a game for all of them to play; Monopoly and Carrom. They also played all sorts of card games. She said that her grandfather lived with them till she was nine and was a great card player. They learned pinochle, cribbage and poker from him.

For Christmas Eve they always had spaghetti which was cooked by her dad, his specialty. Judy remarks that her dad was a fabulous cook, however her mother was not a great cook. He also made what he called a celebration cake which was a white cake with seven minute frosting.

On Christmas day they always went to grandma’s (her mom’s mom) where she made the biggest chicken dinner. Fortunately Grandma was a fabulous cook who taught Judy how to cook. They were also joined their by her mom’s brother and his family. They would get together with her dad’s side of the family at New Year’s.

Tom & Judy

Tom and Judy met while both teaching school in Illinois. They met in August and were married on December 21st. Judy tells the story that they taught school till three o’clock (Tom interjects, two o’clock), got married that night and spent their first Christmas at her parent’s.

Tom and Judy had four children, Lisa, Patrick, Jane and Michael who were all born in Illinois. They moved to Glenwood in 1981 when their eldest, Lisa was a freshman at Stout and Patrick was in seventh grade with Jane and Michael following right behind.

They kept a lot of the same Christmas traditions with their kids that they remembered from their youth. Before they moved north, they always spent Christmas Eve at Judy’s parents and often Christmas day at Tom’s folks which the kids didn’t like because they would have rather stayed home to play with their new things. Judy said they got a lot of games. I don’t remember so much toys except tractors, she chuckles, “they always got tractors.” Tom also made them a doll house one year.

Judy commented that more important than Christmas presents to them were their summer vacation. Usually fishing and swimming. They enjoyed their time, all being together.

When asked if she made candy or cookies with her kids Judy replied, “I’m not a candy maker at all. I’m a cook.” She goes on to say “I used to make Christmas cookies and I burned a hell of a lot of them. Baking is just not fun.”

Tom states that they had pretty normal Christmases with their kids, church programs and such. Some years they would cut down their Christmas tree and sometimes they bought one. To these trees they would string popcorn and cranberries. To which Tom stated that they grew popcorn and shelled it. They also made homemade ornaments, some with egg shells that were blown out and a lot with construction paper and lots of glue. They also made a lot of Chrismons made out of tinsel and pearls. Chrismons were Christian symbols. The little Lutheran Church that they attended in North Henderson, Illinois had only Chrismons on the tree while their tree at home had a variety of homemade ornaments.

Now a days Christmas is all about the grandkids to which Tom and Judy have ten, ranging in age from 5-24. Judy states the hardest thing is finding a time when they can all get together as their family is spread out around the country. Fortunately for them their youngest grandkids also live the closet (in Prescott) and they enjoy coming over and helping grandma and grandpa decorate for Christmas which includes helping to put up their extensive Christmas Village.