Late To The Haight with Patricia Corrigan: December 2024

Many family Christmas photos look alike, right? You may have one similar to this in your treasured collection:

(Just so you know I refused to leave the department store without that stuffed doggy, and that may explain my lifelong admiration for Snoopy, though Charles Schulz had yet to draw the beguiling beagle when this photo was taken.)

A leisurely scroll through my phone on a lazy Saturday yielded all kinds of odd and unexpected photos from Christmases Past, and I’m posting some of them here with brief explanations.

Hope this inspires you to have a look back at your own holiday pictures and to enjoy how you got to where you are now.

2023

My holiday habit is to wrap gifts while "The Nutcracker" plays and then sit down with a mug of hot chocolate as I read Truman Capote's brilliant story "A Christmas Memory." This photo was taken halfway through those two delightful tasks.

2022

I took this while literally sitting among the (outer) branches of the vintage tree on display at Vierra and Friends — my favorite hair salon for almost 15 years now — where the decorations always spark memories of days gone by. What a collection of goodies are on view!

2021

This ornate handmade cornucopia filled with fresh-baked cookies is proof that Gerry and Tom were in town for Christmas — and a kid made the accompanying sign after learning a new word!

2020

This bargain-basement tree worked fine — for a few hours. Then it fell over. Repeatedly. As I recall, the season ended early at my place. Enough already! (See that dancing orange elephant? When I was pregnant 51 years ago (gasp), I painted more than 100 tiny wooden ornaments and then gave that up for good. But I kept the dancing orange elephant.)

2019

How's this for a minimalist approach? And yet it got the job done. Sometimes, I don't want to unpack my sturdy box of Christmas items — so I don't.

2018

How cool is this! My friend Barbara Deuel made this ornament. I bought it — actually I bought a short stack — and gave them out as gifts to friends who adore the Golden Gate Bridge as much as I do. Barb now makes amazing miniature rooms!

2017

For years, this was my favorite fruitcake. Then the monks changed the recipe or something, because the last one I ordered, maybe three years ago, was dry and flavorless. Even when the cakes were excellent, the monks will never match the fruitcakes made each year by Patricia Rice, my friend and colleague at the Post-Dispatch. The newsroom always loved getting tipsy on her fruitcakes!

2016

More food — this time, an elegant display of appetizers at our family's Christmas dinner, served in the living room with mood lighting. Perfect.

2015

So happy to be in a family that includes Marylou and Mario, the lovely parents of my daughter-in-law's sister-in-law. Marylou is the "Glam Gram" in the family, Mario is a karaoke master and together they are accomplished ballroom dancers.

2014

Bet you did not see this coming! Actually, this was just a few days after Christmas in 2014. I was browsing in the bookstore just around the corner from Berkeley Rep before seeing a show, and I squealed aloud when I saw these collectibles from "The Big Bang Theory." I still regret not buying them!

2013

Wowsa! How's that for a Christmas stocking? Bought this at one of my friend Judy's craft shows, as it clearly is an expression of my inner self. (Okay, my inner self in my 30s and 40s. I used to be fun.) Anyway, after the first of the year, I gave it to the Glam Gram in the family, who was still into cute shoes. (See 2015.)

2012

Well — where does the 49er sit when he shows up at your family's Christmas dinner? Grandma Sue's plan worked well, we all thought — and what a great tree!

2011

Here's another expression of my inner self, the one who bought this felt stocking on a college campus in 1968 when the peace movement was in force. I'll never part with this. I still have that floppy-legged raindeer, too.

2010

Tradition! Or as much of one as I'm usually inclined to follow. Don't misunderstand. At one time, back when I played Santa, I cherished the ritual of bringing a live tree into the house and hanging all my nifty ornaments — many of them handmade by friends — on it.

Then, the fifth consecutive year that I ended up in the doctor's office in between Christmas and New Year's Day, my ENT pointed out the pattern. "You're not putting up a live tree, right?" he asked.

Guilty — all five years, and many before that.

The doc informed me that mold spores come into the house with live trees, and more mold grows in the stand that holds the water. Patiently, he reminded me I was allergic to all airborne molds — and then he told me I should not bring live trees into my home ever again. Even the Druid tradition of decorating with aromatic evergreen branches is risky for me.

That said, I still can go festive with the best of them — and one year, I had a little help from a friend, who sent me this glorious bejeweled humpback. That's quite an unusual holiday centerpiece!