What is your best Christmas memory?

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Jackielou
Posts: 13430
Joined: Tue Aug 25, 2015 7:51 pm

What is your best Christmas memory?

Post by Jackielou »

Talk on the daily check ins about Christmas memories makes me wonder about days past in all our lives. Thought it would be nice to share some of our favorite memories.

Mine would have to be the Nancy Drew books I got every year. I would curl up in a corner as soon as possible and start to read them.

Another would be that every time Mom would go shopping during the Christmas season she would put money in the Salvation Army kettles. Usually she would hand one of us the money and we would rush up to the poor Santa and yell Merry Christmas while adding to the pot.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
floridacatlover
Posts: 8060
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: What is your best Christmas memory?

Post by floridacatlover »

Running downstairs on Christmas morning to find lots of gifts under the tree. As an only child, my parents bought me many gifts. Tree was in a lovely spot in the bay window of our home in Massachusetts.

For some odd reason I’ve always loved a small local store called Jack & Harry’s which was fully decorated and had toys in the window. It wasn’t a toy store. I’m not sure what it normally sold. I still smile when I see the building when I’m in RI.

Also, visiting Santa at The Outlet in Providence RI. He was the REAL Santa according to our family.
clemencia2us
Posts: 11446
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 9:21 am

Re: What is your best Christmas memory?

Post by clemencia2us »

Besides waking up to a tree and presents that my family set up overnight while we were asleep - my oldest brother coming home from the Army. He had a duffle bag full of dolls and toys for us.

Not sure what point of his career this was. Maybe before he went to Vietnam?
BevMoore
Posts: 1012
Joined: Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:04 pm

Re: What is your best Christmas memory?

Post by BevMoore »

One of mine is my Dad taking me to the large Harris's department store in Riverside CA so I could do his Christmas shopping for him. :lol: He never had a clue what to buy for my mom so I got to pick out things I knew she would like. He would try to be secretive about the whole thing but Mom knew what was up. It was so much fun wandering around that large store looking at things.

Bev
SandiSAHM
Posts: 2263
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 11:46 am
Location: Oklahoma

Re: What is your best Christmas memory?

Post by SandiSAHM »

France, 1974. Its the first Christmas I remember there, though I'd already lived there as a toddler. The house my aunt lived in then, where we were staying, was the house my mother's parents were in for decades, where my Mom and her mother stayed while her dad was a POW during WW2, it has a keystone over the front door that says "1841" - the carpentry in that house is AMAZING.

At any rate, the French do "Santa" differently, he's elderly and slender there. My uncle (different uncle than the one who lived in that house) pretended to be Pere Noel, stomping around in the attic after my cousins and I were sent off to bed.

My aunt... actually all my aunts, but that one takes it to an extreme, are very decoration and "celebration" people. The big family dinner, multiple courses by candlelight, a tree, the fireplace going, lights everywhere, that's the first memory I have of Christmas that's more than just my parents and me.

The house also had 3 stories and had been renovated only on the first floor. You know what that means - ONE bathroom! Kind of makes me wonder what its like now, no one in my family lives in it anymore, it was sold in the mid 80s.

The Pere Noel impersonator uncle died 4 years ago at 90. He was a BLAST. Had no kids of his own but made up for it, awesome uncle and a kids' ping-pong club coach, he was all of 5' 5" lean and FAST, I never saw anyone beat him at ping-pong.

Okay, I feel old and nostalgic now and have a birthday next week so while 'oldER' may fit, "old" in general doesn't so I'm going to go run the treadmill 'til the endorphins kick in and I feel closer to my actual mental age - 27 here I come ;)

Stay warm!
colonialgirl
Posts: 1835
Joined: Sat Aug 29, 2015 2:01 am
Location: Central Illinois

Re: What is your best Christmas memory?

Post by colonialgirl »

Christmas eve was my brother's birthday and that is when my family celebrated Christmas. Also when Santa came for me. I would be taken out on a car ride to look for Santa and he would magically come in and put my presents under the tree while we were gone.

My best Christmas was when I was 11 or 12. I saw a coat at Sears I fell in love with. It was chocolate brown suede with a fleece lining and a hood. I wanted that coat more than I wanted to draw my next breath. My mother grocery shopped downtown then and I went to Sears every week to browse. The next week I went in there and my size in that coat was gone. I was sick but Mama told me that this was just the way it was and to forget about it. Come Christmas it was under the tree and I would not have taken a million dollars for myself that night. It was my most surprising and memorable Christmas.

I also remember going to downtown St. Louis every year to see the mechanical Christmas windows at Stix, Baer & Fuller (now Dillards) and Famous Barr (now Macys). They were incredible and magical and it was always cold as the &#@! as we walked around those huge buildings looking at the displays with the wind blowing down those city streets. I had such a protected small town childhood that was spent mostly at home that going to downtown St. Louis was akin to a trip to the moon to me.

I had wonderful Christmas's my whole life. I cannot believe the system bleeped out word I put in there which is the last name of the guy who wrote David Copperfield. Hardly a swear word.
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