A Memoir by J.R. Flowers
Christmas Lights andChildhood Memories
A rust-colored house on Sendero Verde, the long Christmas breaks of a Texas childhood, and the December nights he spent more than twenty years trying to write down.
- 10
- Chapters
- 145
- Pages
- 20+
- Years Writing
About the Book
Christmas Lights and Childhood Memories is a memoir of the long Christmas breaks of a Texas childhood, in a rust-colored house on Sendero Verde in Manchaca — the ladder in the yard, the strands cut to special lengths for the chimney, the touchdown wars on the front lawn, and a boy who first learned to pray in a dark bedroom lit by the tree.
Manchaca, Texas, and the lights on Sendero Verde
J.R. Flowers grew up in that house at the bottom of a horseshoe street, the oldest of five children, and these ten chapters are the Decembers he kept: his father on the ladder with the strings he cut to special lengths, the burned-out bulbs he was old enough to replace, and the roof he climbed out of his window to sit on the night the lights first came on.
The book opens on Highway 290 in 2026, with almost no money and too much grief, until an old home videotape unlocks the Christmas breaks of 1988 and all the years around it — a new bike with training wheels, a game called The Robot played only after dark, the afternoon he learned Santa Claus wasn’t real, and the last Christmas night in the house in Manchaca.
“When the switches clicked and the front and back yards were illuminated with that magic glow, I knew that the wait was finally over.”— Chapter 2, A House Transformed
- Genre
- Memoir
- Setting
- Sendero Verde, Manchaca, Texas
- Length
- 10 chapters, 145 pages
- Written
- 2005 – 2026
- Family
- Siblings
- Christmas
- Faith
- Texas
- Growing up
Chapters
Ten chapters, one house
From a videotape in 2026 to a letter to his children: this is how the book unfolds, one December at a time.
- I
Videotape
On Highway 290 in the middle of the night, pumping gas for DoorDash runs with almost no money and a marriage already over. Then an old home videotape his father filmed, and the winter nights come flooding back.
- II
A House Transformed (Christmas Lights!)
The rust-colored house at the bottom of the horseshoe on Sendero Verde, and the ritual of the first lighting: Dad on the ladder, the strands cut to special lengths, the brown cord spliced around the chimney.
- III
Gift of a Necklace
The last day of school before Christmas break, seventh grade, a substitute teacher playing The Abyss. A crush, a seating chart, and a boy who goes home and writes until dark, then rides his bike with the Walkman on and writes some more.
- IV
The Robot
Their own after-dark version of Cops and Robbers, played only in December, between the three trees and the pool deck: cold ground, breath in icy wisps, a sister’s victory, and a foolproof plan for the next night.
- V
Santa Claus Isn’t Real
Seven or eight years old, a golden afternoon in the backyard, and a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He knocks on his parents’ door to confirm his worst fear, then decides not to tell his little sisters.
- VI
An Array of Senses / The Prayer Walk Begins
Christmas summoned on any day of the year by smell and taste: barbecue in the neighborhood, a slice of brisket, cold air out of the freezer. And a dark bedroom lit by the tree, where a boy put his hands together and prayed.
- VII
Christmas Day & The Bike
Christmas morning, 1988, and the extra gifts Dad found in the laundry room. Training wheels teetering through the sunken living room, down a six-inch step and out the door, into the first of many long rides on those streets.
- VIII
The Christmas Day Classic
Touchdown wars on Flowers Field at Backyard Stadium, with Dad on the sideline holding an old red stopwatch and a dry-erase scoreboard. First and five, trailing 21–14, lungs burning in the north wind.
- IX
Christmas Night, 1997
Seventeen, and the last Christmas in the house in Manchaca. He climbs out of his window and sits on the roof where his father once strung lights around the chimney, and closes the shade on the day for the last time.
- X
To My Children
A letter to Michael, Madison and Maylin: why he started writing all of this in 2005, the years he was absent, and his wish that they might know some of the freedom he had on those cold holiday nights.
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- A memoir by J.R. Flowers
- Ten chapters, Manchaca, Texas
- A gift for the season
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