Trumbull – Christmas Greetings to Lad (1) – December 25, 1939

Grandpa leads off the holiday greetings to Lad in Venezuela with an original poem. It is followed by letters from some of the family members and guests at the Christmas Dinner table in 1939. 

December 25, 1939

Dear Alfred the Distant:

I am the Spirit of Christmas.

To those who are gathered to celebrate the “birthday of a King” in a spirit of goodwill and to men, “Peace on Earth” at the Guion home, I am the messenger of him who in distant Venezuela has made possible a day of joy and gladness in a very practical and material form. Though far from the old home and those with whom his boyhood and youth have been spent, in a clime far different from the snow-covered hills of Connecticut, memory has built a strong chain of kindly thoughts connecting both places so that you are near and dear and real to us all as we gather around the tinsel decked Christmas tree, and as the little lights shine out cheerily, trying with their steady glow to express the warmth and steadfast affection we feel toward our far away boy, we are endeavoring to make real in some slight measure this same spirit of Christmas by each writing you a message –

In distant Venezuela

Perhaps the day is hot.

No matter, we will try to say:

“Indeed, you’re not forgot.”

 ADG

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Merry Christmas

Dear Junior,

Please come home. A light burns in the window every night. We miss you. Your Packard is being mistreated, though everyone will deny it, but you know I would not mislead you. Well, this is Christmas and everyone has made a pretty good haul. Dickie is ecstatic over a pair of skis (he just pushed my elbow) and David likewise over a tennis racket. I got mostly stuff, but good stuff. I certainly hope that all’s well with you, and I hope to see you within the next decade.

Hasta luego,

Donald

(Cousin Donald Stanley, son of Anne (Peabody) Stanley and one of the children that Biss cared for in St. Petersburg, FL)

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               Aunt Helen Human

Dear Lad,

All of the weathermen said we would have a green Christmas but it snowed a little this morning and made it a very pretty white Christmas. I know if my sister was down here she would want to wish you a Merry Christmas so I’ll send a double one for both of us.

Aunt Helen ((Peabody) Human)

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Richard Peabody Guion

Chico –

We just came back from skating, boy, it’s the best! I hope I don’t make you green with envy, there was a coating of snow but it didn’t cramp our style. Dan, Ced, Flora, Lucille Becker, a friend of Benny’s, Benny Slawson and yours truly. Dave was there, but he didn’t have skates. Ced had a pair of skates that he got for Christmas. I got skis. They’re “Paris” with the ski harness.

Until later,

Dick

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            Daniel Beck Guion

 

Oigame, Hermano,

Este muchacho qui escribia arrib sabe nada!

To express myself colloquially, to enjoy real ice and snow is the nuts! But I am planning definitely to line me up a job in some sector of Latin America, for which I continue to prepare myself by studying Spanish etc. Dick and I have acquired a complete “Cortina method” set of recordings and books for learning Spanish.

Ced, Dick and I have set out to learn to speak it well enough to carry on conversations with you later in the event that you have forgotten Ingles!

Hasta luego, pues,

Dan

Tomorrow, I will post the rest of the Greetings from those who gathered at the Trumbull House on December 25, 1939. On Friday, two Christmas Cards sent to Lad in Venezuela.

Judy Guion

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