Column: Dick  Herfindahl, Woods & Water

Can you smell it? The aromas of cinnamon and pine are floating through the air in many stores while Christmas music can be heard almost everywhere you go. I really love Christmas music, choirs singing and, to me, the sound of little children singing Christmas carols is always something special. Top it off with a little snowfall and this is the season of Christmas.

Looking back at my youth I can remember the excitement of going to town during this joyous season, looking in the various storefronts and having that feeling of excitement that only a kid can get when anticipating Christmas. It really wasn’t Christmas until the Santa in the Skinner Chamberlain department store window was up and waving at passersby.

Friday night used to be the big night for shopping and of course Saturdays. Somewhere along the way someone decided that Thursday night would also be a good night to stay open late during the holidays. I can remember looking at the corner box on the front page of the Tribune to see when that magical day would be upon us. As I got older and had a family of my own the little box on the front page took on a different meaning. All of a sudden my wife and I were responsible for making sure our little ones had a good Christmas. That was quite a change from my youth when all I did was sit back and dream about the toys that I hoped to be getting. Oh, there were some pretty lean years when Santa couldn’t put much of anything under the tree, but that never made it any less exciting. Having a close-knit family more than made up for not having a lot of those things.

My mother would wrap Christmas presents on the old ironing board that she would set up in her beauty shop. I would be allowed to help her and thought that was a pretty big deal. I waited patiently for her to tell me that it was time for me to leave the room because then I knew that there was a present that she was wrapping for me! There was a no-touch, no-shake rule when it came to a present with your name on it. This however didn’t stop a kid from making a quick weight and volume check when nobody was around.

The smell of Christmas was always one that I loved, that of pine from a real Christmas tree, candles scented with cinnamon and even the dreaded lutefisk as it was boiling on the stove. When it came time to eat I really didn’t give the fish too much thought as long as I was one of the kids sitting at a different table. Once I was old enough and brave enough to sample the first bite of my Norwegian heritage things changed. I was anointed as a true Scandinavian fish eater and welcomed to the main table.

There is one Christmas early on that I can remember clearly. We were spending Christmas Eve, like always, at my Grandpa and Grandma’s on Bridge Street. That evening Santa came to pay us a visit and us kids were excited to see him of course, but for some reason to me he sounded an awful lot like Uncle Benny who was mysteriously absent from the event. We received some presents from Santa and to question it any further, even at a young age would be looking the proverbial gift horse in the mouth.

Christmas is still time for family and friends although like time, family passes and others step up to take their place so the best you can hope for is to pass on some family traditions. Jean and I have taken over the hosting of Christmas on my side of the family and our family looks forward to the traditional Christmas eve feast. I can say that I have gotten both my sons to taste the sacred fish known as lutefisk. This was an accomplishment in itself and Brad, my youngest, does eat his annual lutefisk and lefse in keeping with family tradition. Brian, the oldest however tried a little of it a few years ago and said he was good to go. I guess he’s living by the old fool me once theory.

My sister, Judy, like Brad, will eat her token fish and call it good. When she first tasted it she put ketchup on it! That could be considered sacrilege in some Scandinavian circles. My brother-in-law, Mike, on the other hand will eat his share like I do and his dad, Bernie, was a real man when it came to eating the fish. He would pile it on his plate pour on the butter and dig in. It is definitely an acquired taste, and when I eat it I like to put the fish on the lefse with some potatoes and pour the butter over it topping it with a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper. If eating fish came with instructions they would go something like this: after the lefse is loaded, roll up your sleeves, roll up the fish laden lefse, hold it over your plate and devour it, all the while trying to avoid dripping butter on the front of your shirt or running it down your arm and up your sleeve.

I guess this means that I’ll soon be trolling through the grocery store aisles in search of the elusive lute and most likely its cousins herring and oyster. Got to have the fish for Christmas, and we always top off our family gatherings with a bowl of oyster stew. My wife is the master cook when it comes to lutefisk, and her secret to making good stew is to let it simmer most of the day. Some naysayers may want to know how you could possibly spoil lutefisk but if you want it flaky there is a trick. Years ago it was shipped in salt brine and had to be soaked for a few days to get rid if the excess salt. I still soak it for about two or three days and it seems to firm up when cooking. If you cook it wrong it can turn to jelly and although it won’t ruin the taste it is not as appealing to eat.

Over the last few years I have tried to persuade the grandkids to sample it so they can say they’ve partaken of the fish, but it’s been a pretty hard sell. I do hope that one or two of them will come to their senses and decide to carry on the family tradition. If I use a little imagination I can almost smell the lutefisk cooking on the kitchen stove right now. Um-um-good! It’s making my mouth water just thinking about it.

No matter what your family traditions are, take time to enjoy them and have a very merry Christmas. In all the excitement of family gatherings and such we mustn’t lose sight of what the true meaning of Christmas is.

Please keep our troops in your hearts and prayers during this holiday season. Remember that they are away from home serving our country so that we can enjoy the freedoms that we have today.

Dick Herfindahl’s outdoors column appears in Friday’s Tribune.