Christmas Decorations

[57Tbird]

Some old friends and I were discussing some of our memories of Christmases past, and where we would go to see the decorated homes.

When I was very young, in the early 40's, the place of choice was River Oaks... hands down. Nothing else in Houston was on the same level. Since the new Foley's downtown had not been constructed yet, the best place to see Santa and window displays was Sears on South Main. No trip out to see decorations would have been complete for me without traveling west on Bissonnet, where it curves just west of Montrose, to see a lifelike, lighted-up Santa on the roof next to the chimney on a big two-story house that sat right on the curve in the road.

When we had kids, the downtown Foley's was fantastic for their window displays and, inside, the most realistic looking Santa you could hope to see was taking orders for Christmas from a long line of kids. We still have pictures of ours in the lap of that Santa.

While visiting one of our kids in Pearland a number of years ago, he took us to a neighborhood in the area that had an endless stream of cars going through it to see their very elaborate displays. It was very much on a par with my memories of River Oaks.

What are some of your memories of your youth? Where did you go? Where do you take your kids now?