What do you remember?

K

KimDW

Cathlete
What kinds of things do you remember as a child at Christmas or winter time?

I remember on Christmas Eve going to bed early, the glow of my light up Santa in my window, the sound of sleigh bells (my dad used to stand outside with bells to make me think Santa was there), and then being so excited the next morning seeing the cookies and milk gone.
I was a real Santa believer (never a doubt in my head).

The smell of a candle that was just blown out reminds me of Christmas.

Me and my sister playing on the hill in the back yard. We'd wear two pairs of socks under our gloves to keep warm. And then coming in (reluctantly of course) and sitting in our long underwear in front of the fireplace.

My dad putting up the most obnoxious Christmas lights on our Blue Spruce trees in the front yard.

My dad always giving my mom something that made her tear-up.

I just love the Christmas season. I've still got some of the decorations my mom used to put up when I was little and they always remind me of my childhood.

Kimbra
 
Nice!

I remember my Mom and Grandma working for hours making my Grandma's shortbread cookies and French Canadian Tourtiere.

I remember staying up late on Christmas Eve listening to the Santa report - you know, on the radio when they'd tell you where Santa had been spotted in his sleigh?

I remember how excited I would be when my Aunt and Uncle and cousins would arrive on Christmas Day.

I remember watching Rudolph and being terrified every time by the Abominable Snow Monster.

I remember waking up super early on Christmas morning and opening my stocking and it ALWAYS had a Slinky in it:)
 
How could I forget Rudolph.

I remember when it was shown just a few days before Christmas and I too was terrifed of the Abominable Snow Monster. I also cried like crazy everytime Frosty melted - it was so sad.

Kimbra
 
I remember the wonderful Christmas Eve's at My Aunt & Uncles house, they always had a flocked tree!

I remember my Mom slowly putting on the tinsel one strand by one strand and me hiding behind the tree throwing up handfuls of tinsel...:)

Shelley, the Snow Monster always scared me too..

The song I always love, "Holly Jolly Christmas" Burl Ives.

I always took a little flashlight to the tree during the night...and checked for the gifts Santa left with my name on them...

Leaving the milk and cookies out for Santa...:)...Carole
 
I remember leaving out cookies and milk for Santa and being so excited the next morning when the glass was empty and the cookies were gone. Then when I was older, I remember eating the cookies and milk, so that my little sister would think Santa ate them.

I remember having our annual Christmas Eve fire in the fireplace and being very worried that Santa would burn his butt if the fire didn't die out in time.

I remember hearing bells on the roof (or at least outside) on Christmas Eve night. (Although to this day, my dad says my parents really didn't ring any bells).

I remember my parents begging us to not wake them up before 6 a.m. on Christmas morning.

I remember going to Rosemont College for midnight mass on Christmas Eve. My dad was a professor there and I later went there, so we did this for years. There'd be a nice reception afterwards in the campus' beautiful mansion.

Gosh, I could go on and on, the memories are coming back in droves! Nice thread by the way.
Shelbygirl
 
I remember waking up Christmas morning (6 am was the earliest we were allowed to get up) and waking up mom/step-dad and having to wait UPSTAIRS while they used the bathroom, brushed thier teeth and mom made the bed. Then when we could FINALLY go downstairs we had to wait AGAIN while they made themselves coffee or tea! It was such TORMENT!!!! :p

I remember snooping around the tree for everything that had my name on it as my mom wrapped and shaking it all! LOL When I still believed in Santa some of my gifts were held back and put under the tree after I went to bed on Christmas Eve but I would shake anything that was not from him...even as an ADULT when I lived with my mom still!}( }

I remember the Christmas Eve parties we used to have at our house with my aunts, uncles and cousins! They were a blast! What fun! My mom stopped hosting them several years ago because the kids starting growing up and wanting to go to boyfriend/girlfriend's houses, etc. on Christmas Eve. That kind stunk but it happens...I go to DH's family bash on Christmas Eve now...
 
Great great thread!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS :D

I remember:

- food. We used to do the rotation Christmas eve. Drinks here, appetizers at the next house, dinner at the next, coffee somewhere else. This was when everyone lived within "spittin' distance" as my uncle used to say.

- Ponatone bread. Only the old folks ate it.

- HUGE family Xmas parties. Cousins, uncles, aunts...just tons of us. Santa would show up at some point and even the adults would sit on his lap!

- guessing presents. Mom and Dad would put a present for each of us under the tree, one week before Xmas, and we'd get a clue every day. Once we guessed correctly, we could open it.

- the hiss and pop of scratchy Christmas songs on a record player. Anyone remember, "I'm gettin' nothin' for Xmas" ?

- playing in the snow and cold, then coming in to the fireplace, hot chocolate and brownies.

- my dad on the roof in a red nose and antlers, stomping around and pretending to be rudolph. (no he wasn't drunk, just coerced. My mom LOVES Xmas.)

- sneaking downstairs in the middle of the night with my sis, to look at all the presents under the tree (couldn't touch though!) then tiptoeing back upstairs so we wouldn't get caught, though my parents knew what we were up to the whole time, of course.

- my new bike. Blue Schwinn with a banana seat. :)

- feeling as if all was right with the world. Christmas was just magical in my house. I miss that.

Sparrow
 
I remember eating a nice dinner with my family and grandparents. My grandmother was bragging sooooo much about the gifts she got us all and I just couldn't stand it anymore so I asked to be excused from the table and then immediately went and looked for my Christmas present under the tree and took it into the bathroom very quickly and opened it up to see what it was...a beautiful dress. Then I put it back under the tree as if it was never opened. LOL! I can't stand not knowing things. To this day, DH always hides my presents until Christmas morning. LOL!

Charlotte~~
 
-Going to cut down the Christmas tree
-Getting home and we were allowed 1 real alcohol drink as we decorated the tree...Tom & Jerry's became our favorite
-Waiting for my Nana and Gramps to arrive the day before
-Trying to catch my Gramps at the silly thing he did to win the $1.00 (he'd wear mismatching socks or something silly for the kids to guess)
-Waking up the next morning and the whole family going into the living room together and seeing the "presence" of Christmas
-The "smell" of Christmas

This is the first Christmas without my dad and I'm so thankful for the wonderful memories. DH and I drank our Tom and Jerry and toasted him. I drank an extra one for Dad, too :)

Colleen
 
long drives to see my grandmother on the jersey shore. yeah who knew at 14 i would get to live with her LOL. then it was more of who the hell was coming over and going to sneak in my room.

always remember my mom fighting with 1000 pieces of tinsel b/c it made the tree look pretty. that stuff hung around the shag carpet until easter LOL.

i always asked for little things like maybe one barbie outfit and some coloring books and my step-mother insisting i have things like a camera or walkman. gee you would think some parent would like there kids asking for small item LOL

i won't bring the party down but there are some painful xmas memories so i am trying to start my own tradition with my family so we can always remember good stuff.



kassia



When they discover the center of the universe, a lot of people will be
disappointed to discover they are not it -- Bernard Bailey
 
Before my brothers and I were old enough to understand that our family didn't celebrate Christmas, my parents put up a tree and my grandparents bought us Christmas gifts. I will never forget my first Christmas opening that gigantic box with the Saucy Walker doll inside. She was almost as big as I was. And my brothers each got a Mr. Machine Man. It was the most incredibly exciting holiday ever. Those toys are now antiques and so am I, but I will always remember them.
 
I remember leaving my Grandparents' home late one Christmas eve and we spotted a moving red light in the sky as we were getting in our car. My dad convinced all 6 of us kids that it was surely Rudolph's nose. We were small and gullible and soooo excited at having seen such a rare glimpse of an actual reindeer in the sky. (Okay, yeh, it was a plane, but the memory still makes me tingle a little!) :)
 
singing Christmas carols with my cousins

my aunts making homemade garlands out of starfruit leaves and popcorn

the elaborate masses in church

all these big gift baskets arriving at our doorstep, courtesy of all the vendors that supplied materials and equipment to my father's construction company

opening these gift baskets and taking out goodies from everywhere around the world (I remember Queensland butter from Australia -- it was very good)

my father handing out gifts to his nieces and nephews

my parents always reminding me how much better it is to give than to receive

firecrackers of all kinds

our table laden with fruits -- I remember the pomegranates most of all

Pinky
 
You lose so much of the Christmas magic when you find out *gasp* the truth.

I have fond memories of sitting in the dark, curled up in a comfy chair by the Christmas tree, enjoying the scent and the flashing colored lights. (We had the old, big bulbs that flashed on and off individually.)

I remember falling asleep Christmas eve watching the colored patches of light flash on and off on my bedroom ceiling - my room was close to the tree.

I remember watching the T.V. weather guy track Santa's progress on the satellite. LOL

We set up our tree in the formal living room where it could be seen in the big picture window on the front of our house. Because the livingroom wasn't used much (we couldn't even afford to furnish it when we first moved in), we were allowed to keep all our Christmas toys spread out around the tree and to play with them in there... a rare treat in our neat-as-a-pin household.
 
Fun thread! I remember getting fun little presents for 8 straight nights!!!! WOO! I remember the chocolate gelt, the latkes my mom would make, and lighting the menorah and singing the blessings. It was a happy, fun time :)


"you miss 100% of the shots you never take"


Debbie
 
>You lose so much of the Christmas magic when you find out
>*gasp* the truth.

Oh boy, ain't that the truth... My parents always said Christmas was for the young.

Pinky:)
 
I remember the tree we used to put on a little table that my dad made so the cat couldn't climb it.

I, too, remember the tinsel - with the one strand at a time. I also remember my cat eating the tinsel and it going right through him to hang around *shudders*

We would all get dressed up (my sister and I in matching outfits my mom made us) and drive an hour south to see my Grandparents in Peachbottom, PA. We'd open more presents there, eat a huge meal, then go for a walk with my cousin Susan who was 10 years older than me and very cool. It was always very cold outside, but we enjoyed the walk anyway.

Christmas Eve, after mass, we used to drive around and look at the lights. We had one house up on a hill that always outlined their whole house in blue lights. It was pretty. Plus we had obligatory Christmas junkie in the next neighborhood who put every ornament known to man on his front lawn and about a million lights. So we had to go see that house!

Funny thing is, I too, remember hearing bells, even though mom and dad swear they never had them, let alone rang them... Think there's something to it?!? I'm a kid at heart - I want to believe in Santa! Even if it's only the spirit of Santa!
 
I remember making Christmas cookies from Pillsbury sugar cookie dough that my mom would slice and then cut to make different shapes.

I remember going to see Santa when I was six years old and I was starting to have the idea that maybe Santa wasn't real. This Santa had the moms sit behind the children on a bench, and when I told him what I wanted he would look at my mom and she would nod yes or no, and he would drop a gentle hint if it wasn't gonna happen (I didn't realize this at the time, of course). Then he would add something special and make sure the mom heard him. He told me to look outside my bedroom door on Christmas morning and I would find barretts with ribbons and beads for my hair. I still remember finding them. Kept me going for another year!

Kelly
 
I remember my sister and I putting on our angel costumes and dancing around the living room to Christmas music. We LOVED to do this.

We also used to leave the radio on all night so we could fall asleep to and wake up to Christmas music playing.

I remember mom and dad used to make us go to bed and shut our doors and we weren't aloud to come out and we would hear them bringing out the presents and putting them under the tree. They used to rattle and make lots of loud noise on purpose to enhance the excitement. My sister and I would stay awake as long as we could. When we heard no noise we would sneak out of our rooms to peek at all the gifts under the tree.

My mom and dad used to make up wait until they got up and fixed there coffee. They would take their time on purpose and drive us crazy. We had to wait out in the hall behind the closed door while they made "last minute preparations." They made this up of course so they could enjoy our hooting and hollering while they rattled a few more packages.

My mom used to always tell us that if we saw our gifts b/c we were peeking she whould return them. As we got older my sister and I used to say, "I'll tell you one gift you are getting if you tell me one gift I am getting." We didn't let my mom know we did this until MUCH later in life.

Christmas M&M's are a long time tradition and one that I keep going!
}(

I really miss having Christmas with my brother and sister. Sometimes it would be nice to pick one happy memory and crawl back in and stay, just for a short while.
Angela

P.S. My dad used to throw up whatever outside lights he had. Wherever they landed is pretty much where they stayed. Us kids loved it, but my poor mom...:)

P.S.S. I remember my first snow. We lived in Georgia and one night after we had gone to bed it started snowing and sticking. My mom woke us up and bundled us up so we could make a snowman and play in the snow in the middle of the night. She was afraid it would be gone by the time we woke up.
 
Decorating the tree was a real family event. Hearing my dad cursing under his breath trying to get the lights on right (after cursing while trying to untangle them lol).

Begging to open just ONE present on Christmas Eve-we opened the rest on Christmas morning.

Getting up just before dawn and waking my parents up to open presents.

Watching my dad's pretend excitement while opening the gift from us girls--a bottle of Old Spice and a box of chocolate-covered cherries. Same gift for about 15 years and yet he still acted surprised lol

Shaking every present with my name on it to try to guess what they were.
 
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