Christmas Memories

Dejaboo

I am not fond of the Holidays anymore.  

But I do have some Wonderful Memories of them from when I was a Kid.

What are yours?

Pam

Dejaboo

When my Mom bought Ornaments- she always bought 3.  So each of my sisters & me would  get one when we moved out.  (leaving her with no ornaments  ?)

Anyway.

We had the Prettiest Pinecone bird ornaments.  All Glittery. In Pink, Blue & Gold.  On a long string so we could wind them up & watch them unwind all a Sparkle.

Every Christmas we would pick which bird would be 'ours' for that year...And hang it on 'Our corner' of the tree.  Of course then we would seperate our gifts & put them on our corner of the tree too.

We'd sit around the tree for hours in the dark just looking at all the ornaments & singing Christmas Carols.

I still have my Bird & My Sister Carries.

Pam

lovemyfamilysomuch

When we were little, we were so anxious to open the presents under the tree.  But my parents insisted that we all eat a big breakfast before opening the presents one by one together.  Anyway, my sweet Daddy would always stall on that last cup of coffee till we were practically begging him to let us get started!  Great memories!

lvtwoqlt

Growing up we never sat on Santa's lap. We had a Santa in the local dept store who walked around the store wearing real sleigh bells across his chest, we would listen for the bells jingling when we went to the store. He told the Christmas story and at times during the story he would jump slightly and make the bells jingle (suddenly the angels appeared). After we found him he would ask us if we listened to our parents and teachers and if we were good and if we helped others, my mom would ask him how Mrs Claus and the elves were doing and we would get miniature candy canes out of his red bag. When I was in the third grade we moved to another town about 15 miles away and I thought that MY SANTA wouldn't find me. That Christmas we went into the local 5 & 10 store and there was MY SANTA telling the Christmas story as always. Boy was I happy!  We were raised to believe that Santa is the spirit of giving of ourselves to help others. Later years I found out that MY SANTA actually lived in the farm next to my grandparents and Mom really did know Mrs Claus and the elves . One thing I regret is we never did get any photos with MY SANTA.

iodine

Mom hid  gifts in the attic.  When she was at work my brother would open his and wrap them back.  He was really, really good at it.

Not having much money, and a large extended family, And loving to shop, I shopped at the dime store (really had stuff for 5 to 10 cents)  I still blush to remember choosing and wrapping a bar of Cashmere Bouquet soap for an aunt.  Lordy, hope she really understood I was very young.  LOL 

lvtwoqlt

Another Christmas memory of mine. We would go to my mother's parent's house for Christmas Eve with all the Aunts, Uncles, and cousins. When we all got seated around the large table my grandfather would offer the blessing and we had a great meal. After eating the meal we would find our places in the living room, most of the kids sitting on the floor. Grandpa would read the Christmas story from Matthew and Luke and we would sing at least a verse from the carols that went along with the story (the aunts and uncles sang togehter as a gospel quartet). Grandpa would assign which grandchildren would act as Santa to hand out our gifts. there were a lot of homemade gifts for everyone, I remember one year my mother knit everyone slippers.

Meece

My brother was adventurous and fun.  He an I got up one Christmas morning around 3 am.  We opened the edges of the gifts from Santa to see what we were getting.  I loved what I got, but was so disappointed that I knew, that I never did that again.  It was abrother-sister bonding time. 

otter

For me, the best part of Christmas was the family get-togethers. 

My immediate family "celebrated" Christmas on Christmas Eve -- that's when we opened gifts at our house.  Before did that, though, we would drive to town to visit my grandmother (my dad's mom).  She and my aunt (my dad's sister-in-law) would always fix a huge Christmas Eve (afternoon) dinner -- usually something we never ate at home, like goose.  (I just recently learned that goose is a traditional Christmas dinner meal in some European cultures.)  It was a "fancy" meal, with nice table linens and silver and china. After dinner, we would sit around and gossip for awhile, and then Santa (a next-door neighbor) would show up "unexpectedly".  He was always dressed in an authentic Santa outfit, and carried a velvet sack full of packages for all us kids.  Soon after that, we would open the gifts under Grandma's tree.

Once home for the evening, we would open the packages under our own tree.  (When we were really little, my folks would go through a routine of hustling us into the back bedroom, where we would "listen" for the thump of the sleigh on the roof and look out the window for a shadow on the snow.  In the meantime, my dad would scramble around the house, pulling the packages out of where they'd been hidden and stuffing them under the tree, so they would be there when Santa's sleigh finally disappeared and we came out of the bedroom.)

The next day (Christmas Day), we would go to our other grandparents' house (my mom's parents), where we would party with all my aunts and uncles and cousins on my mom's side of the family.  There was a cousins' gift exchange and a sandwich meal, and the kids would goof off in the basement all afternoon while the adults sat around upstairs and talked.

I miss those get-togethers with my extended family. Nowdays, the big family gatherings over the holidays are all with my dh's family. It feels "normal" and comfortable, like the Christmases of my memories.

otter 

Anonymous

My Christmas memories are among the best of all the memories I have of my parents and my sisters as we were growing up. My parents loved Christmas and made it so incredibly warm and exciting and special, from the decorating of our house (as I think back, I realize how truly garish the big, lit-up Santa face and the plastic, light-up religious scene my father hung on the house were, but we loved them!) to the making of batches & batches of cookies that my Mom would load into giant tins, to waking up on Christmas morning and having to stay in bed until my parents lit the tree and called us downstairs. Later in the day, the entire extended family would come over for dinner that was always huge and delicious. Geez, I can just smell the tree, the turkey and, oh yes, that brand-new plastic smell that emanated from the new dolls and accessories! Although I'm guessing that this smell indicated toxic materials, who would have thought such a thing back then, right?

I still adore Christmas even though I wish I didn't get so stressed over lack of time and money. This year, I'm incorporating lots of breaks and plenty of exercise and sleep and I'm trying to avoid Superwoman Syndrome!

~Marin

lvtwoqlt

Another memory was watching the Bing Crosby Christmas specials every year. I realized that I hadn't heard one of my favorite Christmas songs from one of his specials in the 70's yet this year and I found it on YouTube. You can't go wrong with Bing Crosby and David Bowie singing their version of the Little Drummer Boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTHvW2JcAA

Sheila

iodine

I always cry when I hear that one.