Christmas Reflections 2021

Christmas Reflections 2021/Lawrence S. DiCara

? I have very early memories of celebrating Christmas at my grandparents’ house on Maywood Street in Roxbury, the third floor of a classic Boston three-decker. There were three families who would gather for holidays back then, maybe 15-20 of us squeezed in around the dining room table (and the children’s table to which I was relegated).?I don’t recall much of anything else except we ate, a lot, and it was good. Stuffed artichokes were always served. There were pastries from a store, which was a special treat, even if the white sugar from one of them would easily scatter.?

? I recall our Christmases on Codman Hill Avenue when we would head downstairs since Grandpa couldn’t leave the house without difficulty in his last years.?We would be a smaller group – 8 of us, as I recall - but we still would eat heartily.?My grandfather took enormous pleasure in spending time with the three of us, as most grandparents do.?

? One year, Vinny and I convinced dad that we should chop down our own tree in the Blue Hills, only to be dissuaded from doing so by a uniformed police officer. That may have been the closest dad ever came to violating a law!

? When I went to Latin School, I became an altar boy and started attending Midnight Mass.?In my senior year, I was given the most important role, that of assisting the priest.?It snowed and almost nobody came! Midnight Mass at St. Gregory’s was a reunion of sorts, as well as a religious celebration.?I passed the box at many a Midnight Mass, down the center aisle, often with my neighbor Jack Cronin, a detective in the Boston Police Department.?I even wrote a piece about Midnight Mass, which the Globe published!

? After moving to JP, and the girls were born, Christmas was absolute mayhem.?One year, a drum set appeared, to my great amazement.?It was sad that the recipient was almost tone-deaf!?Those were very happy days, and??I recorded for posterity six little feet running down that big staircase. That old Victorian also hosted almost twenty December open houses where power brokers and politicians, neighbors and clients would gather.

? We also spent many Christmas Night dinners with my friend, Tom Stemberg and his large family. My girls’ memories of Uncle Tom remain vivid.

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