As a little girl who absolutely loved pretty dresses, I looked forward to the Christmas season with great anticipation. I always got a brand new dress for the Christmas program at school. Sometimes new shoes were needed as well, but always, always there was a new dress involved.
Sometimes my mom made my dresses and other times they were purchased, but I could hardly wait for the Christmas program to roll around. Not because Santa would be there handing out sacks of treats, but because I would get a pretty new dress.
I remember the dress I got for the first grade program was an icy blue affair with a double ruffle down the front from shoulders to waist and little embroidered flowers across the front. I played a bunny in the Christmas play and wore a little white rabbit hat along with my dress. Hopping across the stage was a bit of a challenge in a dress, but that didn’t stop me from proudly wearing it.
One year I had a bright red dress with white lace on the front, another the dress was brown. Although, at that time, I thought the color brown was hideous, the dress was quite lovely in a soft, floral pattern, thick with cream lace.
My favorite dress of all time, though, looked like it came straight out of some Victorian holiday movie. It was cream with tiny pink roses all over it. A pink satin sash tied at the waist while froths of airy lace circled the neck and sleeves. I felt like a princess wearing that dress and was loathe to pass it on to my niece when I outgrew it.
Because of my great fondness for fancy holiday dresses, my two grand-nieces had dresses complete with crinolines, white stockings, and shiny Mary Janes every year for Christmas up until just a couple years ago. The thirteen-year-old has outgrown such silliness and the nine-year-old tomboy much prefers her jeans and holiday sweaters to fancy dresses. My heart is still recovering from the agony of not getting to shop for fancy dresses during the holiday season, but I think I’ll survive.
Maybe I’ll shop for big-girl dresses instead.
I have a few favorite websites where I like to drool over the lovely gowns offered:
She Who Needs a Reason for a New Dress
