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rfstmo* Memories
For my brother Lee and myself, Christmas has always been a time of happiness — of sharing priceless gifts and memorable, heartwarming experiences
By GEORGE LIBERACE
Whether rich or poor, Christmas is a time of happiness. I remember those early Christmases when my brother Lee (Liberace) and I were very young. Our mother and father struggled to make a living, but when Christmas came the struggle couldn't keep the smiles off our young faces.
I think we all have a sense of expectancy during the Christmas holidays — probably because we know that spring, with all its new growth, is just around the corner; more probably because the season really is a symbol of new birth. A new year is beginning, and hope and courage are born again in the hearts of men — just as they were on that Christmas morning almost two thousand years ago.
It doesn't take much to make children happy at Christmas. Lee and I learned that when we were very young. I remember those first Christmases our family spent at Grandmother's home up in Menasha, Wisconsin. Grandmother dressed as Santa Claus! During her summers, Grandmother spent her days knitting gloves, socks, and tasseled caps which would cover our ears. We needed them; Menasha in the
winter months usually stood window-high in snow.
No, it doesn't take much to make children happy at Christmas. Dressed alike in Grandmother's knitted outfits, Lee, our sister Angie, and I felt like miniature royalty riding along in Grandfather's sled. We lived from Christmas to Christmas, I think, in anticipation of those sleigh rides — and they didn't cost a cent.
I can still remember the cold crispness of the snow and the warmth of the lap r,obe; and I still can see the steam (as Lee called it) choo-choo-training out of the horses' noses. We three (Rudy hadn't been born yet) grinned so much, so widely, racing through that frozen air, that our faces hurt.
And after the ride, of course, it was the men's duty to feed the horses; that meant Lee and me. To make a young boy happy, there's nothing like the thrill that comes from feeding his horse — and Grandfather's horses were ours for the holidays. A warm velvet nose pressed against a five-year-old boy's hand, full of oats, is a sensation that sets his young world tingling. All the wealth in the country couldn't have bought us more pleasure. (Continued on page 66)
The Liberace Show is seen in most major cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Check your local papers for correct time and station,
for both the TV presentation and The Liberace Radio Show.
Christmas, 1952, was memorable for two wonderful friends and associates — Lee's arranger Gordon Robinson (left) and director Duke Goldstone (at right with Lee and me) — for Lee really went overboard and gave each of them a piano.
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