REMEMBRANCES OF CHRISTMASES PAST – Tom and Judy Wink, Christmas is about spending time with family

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By Missy Klatt

Tom and Judy Wink have lived their entire lives in the Emerald area and both come from large farming families. They both learned to work at a young age as they helped on the farm. Judy, who was one of 13 children (one died at just a few months old) born to Margaret and Harrison DeLong, was the second from the youngest.

Although they grew up only about a mile and a half from each other they didn’t get to know each other until later as they went to different grade schools, Judy to Oakdale on highway G and Tom to a little country school on the corner of 130th and 250th.

When Judy was young her mom always made popcorn balls. On Christams Eve Judy’s oldest sister and her husband would come by and her mom always had an extra bag for him because he loved them so much. He was also a big fan of her chicken dumplings so she always had dumplings made for him. However, Judy goes onto say that they always had oyster stew on Christmas eve. “Us kids of course loved the buttery milk and crackers but we didn’t like the oyster very well but we had to eat one oyster, each of us.” remarks Judy.

Then on Christmas day some of her older siblings would come home and they would have a bigger dinner at noon, usually a big ham dinner with mashed potatoes and gravy and all the “farmer food.”

As for treats her mom always made the rolled out sugar cookies that they would frost. She also made molasses cookies, always a big staple during the year but at Christmas they made more of them.

Judy noted that they always had a real Christmas tree when she was growing up. 

“I can’t remember that tree coming into the house but I always remember it being in the small living room.” The tree was always in the front window and they had bubble lights on the tree. 

She also remembers different years stringing popcorn and putting a lot of tinsel on the tree. Judy admits to sometimes getting in trouble when they would put the tinsel on in clumps instead of hanging them one by one. She laughs at that memory.

Santa always brought one gift for everyone and her older sister would give her pajamas every year for Christmas. Judy recalls that one year she got a doll with a crib. Another time she got a nurses kit.

On Christmas day, all the adults would do a gift exchange.

In grade school they always had a Christmas program with little skits that they would perform for the parents. They would get a brown paper bag with an orange and an apple in it as a treat after the program.

Tom

Tom is the second oldest of 12 children born to Merril (Bud) and Lucille Wink. Tom notes that they were about ¾ of a mile from school which they would walk to except in the winter when the road would get snow covered, his dad would take them to school with a horse and sleigh. The school building was very simple. The kids would have to take turns carrying in the fire wood for the stove and someone would go to the neighbors for a bucket of water to put in the cooler for the kids to drink and they had two outhouses out back to use. 

All the kids had chores at school. All eight grades together in their little country school. He also said that the older kids (the 7th or 8th graders) would help tutor the little ones if they were having a problem.

Tom recalls Christmas programs at school were a big production. They would build a stage with a curtain and perform five or six different skits or Christmas songs “we’d start real early and everyone had to learn their parts.” 

After the program Santa would come and have gifts for everyone. He said they would also have a Christmas tree at school which they would decorate with some homemade ornaments.

Tom said that even after he was in high school he and another boy in the neighborhood would come back and help get things ready and pull the curtain for the Christmas program at the country school.

Tom said they always had to have a seven foot Christmas tree at home and his dad liked to have the front porch decorated with lights. On Christmas Eve they would get a smaller gift from Santa Claus that he would hand out to all the kids. Then they would have a big supper with mashed potatoes, gravy and ham, squash and a lot of things that they liked remarked Tom, “a big meal. We always ate good at Christmas Time.” 

Tom continues, “my mom loved to bake so we always had cookies and raisin bread and prune bread, cinnamon rolls.” Rolled out sugar cookies that kids helped frost were also very popular with Tom growing up.

After their big meal and the excitement of Santa coming they would take a little nap before they all headed out to Midnight Mass.

On Christmas day they got to check out their stockings (Dad’s big wool socks) which usually contained a little treat and some candy. They would also get another gift. Tom said when they were young it was cowboy stuff, like guns and holsters. When he got a little older it was a BB gun and then a 22. One of the kids would also get a bicycle at Christmas time. He notes as they got further down the line of kids that bikes would start to get passed down.

Later on Christmas day they would go and see his dad’s mom, Grandma Wink in Hudson. She always had a Christmas dinner for them along with his dad’s two sisters and families. 

Grandma would also always have a gift for all of the kids. After dinner it was a big treat to watch Christmas parades etc. on Grandma’s TV because they didn’t have one back on the farm.

Tom & Judy

Tom and Judy were married in October of 1963. They have seven children; Mike, Mark, Dean, Donan, Barbe (Mrdutt), Brent and Troy. The also have 26 grandchildren and 31 great grandchildren with two more expected shortly after the first of the year.

When their kids were young they would help frost all the rolled out sugar cookies every year. They also helped decorate the tree.

At Christmas time they would take the kids and go visit his Grandma Wink in Hudson and she would have a box with ornaments in it and the kids were allowed to each pick out an ornament to hang on their tree. This was always a special time. Judy said that when they got older she gave each of her kids their ornaments back so they could hang them on their own trees.

At their farm house Tom and Judy had an open staircase and that’s where the kids hung their stockings. On Christmas morning the kids were told they couldn’t come down those stairs, they had to use the other stairway. “Every once in a while you’d see someone trying to peak down,” chuckles Judy. Otherwise the little ones would be standing and waiting in the doorway of the kitchen just waiting for everyone to come in so they could get their gifts, as Judy notes the farm chores had to be done first.

Judy recalls that when the kids were young they had a spare bedroom upstairs that they kept locked. That’s where they would put together all the toys at night, a few days before Christmas. Tom said it got stressful because it was always at the last minute.

The kids would always get one gift from Santa and the rest would be from Tom and Judy.

They usually stayed home on Christmas day and had another big meal.

Judy recalls one year the kids had the measles and then mumps. It started in November and gradually made it’s way through all the kids. So that was the one year they couldn’t get together with Tom’s extended family. So what happened that year was Tom’s youngest brother, Jack, dressed up as Santa and came up on Christmas morning and gave the gifts to the kids that they would have received the night before.

When Tom’s sibling grew up and started having families his mom and dad would have a big Christmas Eve gathering at the farm with everyone. Then it turned into Christmas Eve day when they all got together. Judy states that they would still go to church on Christmas Eve but by then they had moved the service up 11 o’clock. She said that Tom’s mom would always stay home with the baby (at that time there always seemed to be a least one of the siblings with a baby) because she like to go to church on Christmas day.

Judy and Tom started hosting the family at their place in 2002, after his mom died. Last year was their last time hosting. Due to some health concerns they have given up hosting this year. 

However they note that the last couple of years that they all got together they had over 90 people there between all of Tom’s siblings and their families. For many years they would also have Santa come until their grandkids started getting older. Judy laughs and says, “Sometimes they knew who Santa was but most of the time they didn’t.” She said it was always fun to see the teenagers having to sit on Santa’s lap and Tom interjects or the little ones screaming their head off because they were afraid of him.

Even though they won’t be doing the whole big extended family get together this year, they will still at some point get together with all of their children. Judy states that her family likes to be together.