Christmas Presents - Part Four

Today is Ellie's birthday. She is 59 years old.

What can I say about Ellie?

I got Ellie from Nana, my father's mother, at the time of my first Christmas. I was six months old.

She has been with me ever since. She has undergone exploratory surgeries to removed bits of plastic in her foot that at one time had been a squeaker. She has had one leg partially cut off in search of an appendix, then reattached. Her eyes were long, long ago replaced with buttons. Her plush body has been worn bald. Wherever I have gone, Ellie has gone with me. She has never complained about being dragged around the country or sleeping in strange places. She knows all my secrets and has kept them to herself. She has been made wet with my tears and been hugged for joy. She is the guru of the toy box. She has the Zen of toyhood down.

Every year at Christmas she gets the seat of honor under the Christmas tree.

She is Ellie, the Red Elephant. Because she's become modest about her aged body, I made her a dress. The first time I read The Velveteen Rabbit I wept because it reminded me of my Ellie. When I die, I want her cremated with me. I just can't stand the idea of her being tossed in the trash.

Happy Birthday Ellie. Do you see it? That little sly, knowing smile?

What Christmas present from your childhood to you remember most, or still have? Today is the day to honor and remember them.

Jimmy John - by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights. The Twelve Days of Christmas, West Indian style. A Jimmy John is a large jug. Please note that the first present given is Jimmy John of guavaberry!

Christmas Presents - Part Three

For a while, in my early twenties, I lived with my parents who had moved to California to help take care of my father's mother.

While I was there Mom and I got into ceramics. Mom went on to learn about pouring slip, glazing, firing and eventually learned about porcelain. It wasn't long before she got her own kiln and was making dolls. While I was there I enjoyed painting fired ceramic ware. One of the things I painted was a nativity set.

I can't remember when I got the Star Trek dolls, but I had four of them. Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and Scotty. (I swear, these two things are related.)

When I was twenty-five or so I moved back to the islands and lived on St. John in a tiny A-frame we had on our property. One year my best friend and I made a stable to display the nativity set. It had everything: sacks of grain, bales of hay, a ladder to the loft, rolls of rope, a pitch fork, a hoe, a table with cups and many other things.

It seemed obvious.


Every year we put the dolls in the loft. I still have the nativity set, with all the things we made, but the stable is gone. As for the dolls...tropical weather ate them up. This is the only picture I have that proves the Enterprise went gone back in time to witness a profound moment in history.

Mama Make Your Johnny Cake - by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights - a traditional Christmas song. If you'd like to learn more about quelbe music, it's history and the traditional instruments used, click here.

Christmas Presents - Part Two

As I mentioned earlier, the highlight of the approaching Christmas season was the arrival of the Sears Wish Book.

There were a few things I wanted most every year but never got. Like the castle under siege with all those foot soldiers and knights on horseback. I also wanted a batch of cowboys and Indians. One year I wanted a doctor's bag with all the doctors instruments. I got a nurses bag instead. It came with little vials of sugar pills and a pretend syringe. Because I hated getting shots I decided I wanted to be a nurse so I could give shots to bad children. I thought it was the perfect punishment.

A lot of times I got things I didn't expect. One year in particular was a windfall. I woke up to a play stove and a hutch. The stove had knobs I could turn and an oven door I could open. The hutch had shelves above and a cabinet below with doors and shelves. They were made out of cardboard. But what was really neat is what came with the hutch and stove: a complete cooking set of pots, pans, baking wear, and a china tea set, with plates, cups and saucers, tea pot, sugar and creamer.

I actually baked real cakes and cooked with my pots and pans on my mother's real stove. One time I baked a cake for our dog's birthday. The only problem was that I used salt instead of sugar!

The tea set was real china, and the willow pattern. A few years back I saw a set just like mine for sale at an antique store. I would have bought it (though I don't know what for) if it hadn't been so expensive.

I have one piece left from each. The plate resides on my dresser. As for the pot...I can't tell you how much butter it has melted over the years to be poured over pop corn. It still lives in the kitchen, hanging over the stove and is still used.


Quelbe (pronounced quail-bay) is the traditional music of the Virgin Islands. For your listening enjoyment I will be including, at the end of my next few posts, some Christmas music by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights, a famous quelbe band out of St. Criox. Stanley plays the flute.

Jingle Bells - by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights - Same song different lyrics.

Christmas Presents - Part One

Tis the season to remember Christmases Past.

Every year my sister Erva and I looked forward to the arrival of a very special tome. The Sears Wish Book. Most all of our presents came from that Christmas catalog. There were no Wal-Marts or K-Marts, no malls or stores where my parents could go shopping for things we might want. Sears was the ideal solution. They sold just about anything and shipped just about anywhere.

Erva and I would pour over the pages of the Wish Book. We'd ooh and aah and sigh and giggle and dream and wish. Santa was almost always listening because somehow those things we'd paused over the longest, or had out right said we wanted, miraculously appeared on Christmas Day.

We got our Barbie dolls around 1957 or 58. Mom sewed each of our dolls separate wardrobes. All the dresses were made on a treadle sewing machine, either during the day while we were at school or at night after we were asleep.

One time I got a wonderful two-story aluminum doll house that looked for similar to this one that I found on eBay. Mine was light blue and came with all the funiture (plastic) and a family of little dolls. Mom, Dad, sister and brother. But I know it wasn't $110!

When I was nine I saw a beautiful doll in the Wish Book. She was a bride doll with a gorgeous white dress and vail. I wanted her so badly.... This was during the era of our aluminum tree.

And here I am on Christmas day, in my favorite dress, with the red net petty coat, a little Bolero jacket, my white patent leather shoes, and my doll.

You know, I hardly ever played with her. I was just too much of a tomboy. Did any of you girls have a favorite doll you never played with?