SNO-TIME
I remember the year my dad decided he was going to go all out on indoor decorations. I don’t think we ever had outdoor lights at our house, but I do remember clear as a bell all the mini lights we would put in the windows. After painstakingly checking each tangled string for which light was burned out so the string would work, he would string them with the help of thumbtacks. I learned some fancy new words during this procedure.
This particular year, my father had come home a little late from work, as usual, and this time he was in a strange but happy mood. He was carrying a bag under his arm, which he said was a special bag of Christmas decorating tricks. I couldn’t see through the bag, but there were at least two rolls of something sticking out from the bag. Was dad going to tell me that he just discovered wrapping paper?
I would have to wait until the next day to find out. Dad headed right to his bedroom to hide the bag out of my sight. That was one room I didn’t go in uninvited, unless I wanted to feel a good smack on the posterior end.
I pondered what could possibly be in that bag. Could it be a poster of Santa? Maybe it was a wall mural of a nativity scene. Perhaps the hardware store where he worked had a new product? Something magical! Something only a child could dream up. I could hardly wait.
It would be straight to sleep after the dishes were done. Apparently Dad had eaten at the St. Clair, and so we could now do the dishes, even though it was almost my bedtime. He was quite late arriving home that night. It wasn’t until years later I discovered this place that he so frequently dined on a Saturday night was the St. Clair Hotel. They must have made really good food.
Off to my room I went with my mind racing about everything Christmas. As I lay there in my bed, I thought about all the great things Santa would bring me in a couple of weeks. A race car set. Maybe some new Hot Wheels cars. Maybe that new toy, the SSP racer. I might even get that walkie talkie set I had always wanted. It wasn’t long before I drifted off.
Morning arrived and I was up early in anticipation of what the day had to bring. Mom was drinking coffee and had my breakfast ready for me, Puffed Wheat cereal and Vim powdered skim milk.
I would sit there and stare at the big Santa poster rooftop scene we always put up the first day of December. I got lost in that poster more often than I can remember. It was big: six by three feet. It was printed on corrugated cardboard. On it, Santa and his reindeer were flying through the night sky over the snow covered rooftops. It only had five colours in it: blue, white, red, yellow, and brown, but it made a huge impression. I would always imagine which house was mine. This poster and the special Christmas countdown calendar were the only two decorations Mom and I put up until Dad was ready to decorate later in the month.
After I was done eating, Dad woke up, shaved, and washed up. He would drink his instant Chase and Sanborn coffee and eat his toast as I dusted the living room and helped Mom clean the windows so we could decorate them. Dad made his way into the bedroom after he was finished his breakfast, and emerged with the magical bag of decorations. He took a spot on the couch and set the bag on the floor beside him and motioned for me to sit on the on the other side of the coffee table as Mom sat beside him on the couch.
The first things that emerged from the bag were the two cardboard rolls. It was a new product, a new decorating fad: coloured foil wrap. One roll was blue, the other green. He said we were going to wrap the front door in blue foil. The green foil he ended up using as a liner in the wall alcoves that he decorated with mailbox and snowmen candles. There were two of these alcoves. They kind of reminded me of the laundry chute we once had; only they were open and were like a built-in shelf.
Then Dad pulled out a small flat package and laid it on the table. What was it? There were pictures of snowflakes, snowmen and bells on the cover. He opened one of the packages to reveal a stack of punch out stencils. The first stencil I saw was of a wreath. Then there were reindeer, snowmen, candles, holly leaves, and a huge assortment of other interesting Christmas things.
Then he pulled out the most amazing thing I had ever seen. It was revolutionary for sure. I was certain it would change the world. There it was, a blue can with red accents and white lettering. It read, Sno-Time. It was some sort of spray snow. Dad took a piece of cardboard and sprayed some on it. I will never forget the smell that penetrated my nostrils. It was sort of like paint, but not really. The smell was unforgettable. To this day, whenever I smell something similar, it takes me back to that magical moment. Amazing! It looked like real snow, and we would have lots of it. Dad always got a special price at the hardware store. He then explained that we were going to spray the windows with snow scenes, using the cardboard stencils, before we put the mini lights in the windows. Oh, this sounded like fun, something really different!
Dad began by wrapping the front door and taping ribbon to it like it was a big package. Thinking back, Dad was pretty artistic. As he wrapped the door and lined the alcoves, Mom and I punched out the stencils. I remember that being a hard tedious task. It seemed like it took forever.
Then Dad started with the stencils. First, he sprayed the outside of the now blue foil wrapped front door, with snowbells and holly. He then did the alcoves, spraying stars of different sizes on the green foil. Then we tried to tape stencils on the windows. The tape would not stick, so Dad held them in place and sprayed them. I got to hold one as he sprayed, and some snow got on my hand. Oh, it was cold—just like real snow, I thought. Dad sprayed big scenes: a nativity scene on one window, a Santa scene on another. He also sprayed the corners of the windows to make them look frosted. He did something on every window, and then we hung the mini lights. It was the most beautiful house in the city, I was sure. I don’t think Mom was convinced. I do remember her saying more than once, “Harry, don’t you think that’s enough?” I guess it wasn’t because every time she asked, he found something else to spray.
He made sure he saved some so he could spray the tree when we got it in a couple of weeks. We always got our tree just before Christmas. Dad always waited for the man at the tree lot to mark his prices down. That is a story in its self that I’ll save for another time.
The house was complete and Christmas would soon come. We had our place looking great. I will always remember that Christmas. I had more fun helping with new decorations than I can ever remember. Magic existed that Christmas, magic I’ll never forget. Something that special ingrains itself in you.
The other thing I remember about that year was the week after Christmas and my mom working at trying to get the spray snow off the windows, tackling it with a razor blade and Windex and then vinegar.
My wife and I tried that stuff years later, but after she cleaned it a couple of times, Well, that tradition ended.
To all the parents with small children: Do something special this year and make a magical moment that will stay with them forever. Kids remember the most unusual things.
Merry Christmas
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