What do you remember?

[truton]

We always put the tree up on Christmas Eve. We listened to music while we decorated it. Each of the strings of lights had these big clunky transformers. It's a wonder we didn't burn our house down. I also remember that awful tinsel and pine needles embedded in the carpet for months afterward.

My sister and I would get dressed up in our dorky matching outfits and get our picture taken with Santa.

Dad blinding us with the light from his super 8 movie camera while we were opening presents.

Hey Sparrow: I got a blue schwinn stingray bike with a banana seat too! That was the best present ever, but Mom and Dad made me earn the money to pay for half of it. I think it cost $63 - a lot of money for a bike at the time.

Each year we had to wait for my grandmother and grandfather to get to our house on Christmas morning before we could open our presents. That wait was torture!

 

[gidget1978]

Well we never beleived in santa claus b/c of our religion.I don't think I missed anything and maybe I did. Maybe they saved me from the disappointment I would later feel...who knows.

Anyway, I remember waiting for my brother to come home with the tree.My aunt comming home and helping with the decorations.My grandfather lived with us for years and she never married so she always came home for christmas.
I remember my brother counting his gifts and wondering why he got one less then he did the year before ( I beleive he still does this )
Watching my brother and sister play UNO till our parents woke up b/c we were up to early
Having a bad belly and not being able to sleep!
Mom cooking turkey christmas eve night while everyone slept.
Hearing her walk around the house, knowing she was filling up our stockings.Then she would wake us at 5 to open presents.
Then she would call everyone she knew disguise her voice and say " HO HO HO ...its time to get up" Then she was hang up on them.I think she still does this as well!
Finding a box under the tree in the shape of a barbie box! My favorite gift.
Going to my moms home town every christmas night to visit all of her family and always falling asleep on the drive home.
Oh I could go on and on.Sometimes I wonder if christmas for our kids is as fun for them as it was for us.
Lori

 

[amyg]

Remembering, Christmas Eve was the best day!! My sister and I would go to my dad's office for the (short) day... drink from the water cooler, wear safety glasses (he worked in an office right off the lab), see all the coworkers who loved us, etc. Then we would go home and get dressed for dinner, and go to my dad's friend's house for dinner. He made the BEST food, it was gourmet and it was so fun. He also had 2 poles in his house on one step, so I would swing around on the poles all night long. After dinner, all of us would go to the late church service, singing carols and all the great stuff. We stayed up so late that day!!! We'd come home and Santa had eaten our cookies already. I never thought Santa had actually come, since I knew what my dad's handwriting looked like, and Santa would always write a thank you note for the cookies. So until I went to bed I would be arguing with my dad that I knew he had written the note... but that it was okay, Christmas is good like that.

SO FUN.

We haven't had a Christmas like this for 6 years. I'm tearing up writing this!!! Goodness, I guess I really do love tradition.

 

[acatalina]

I remember spending it at grandmas house every year.
We would have dinner, play, and drink hot cocoa over the old coal stove.
Then, Uncle John would come in dressed like Santa with a bag of presents. We really believed.
We would open presents . Then my favorite was penny pitch.
Grandma would throw pennies and we would scramble after them.
Christmas day, we went to church, came home and had dinner and payed all day.
Those were some good years.
This year Santa is bringing presents Christmas eve.
We will open them Christmas am with my grandson.
Anne
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=8227804&uid=3969941

 

[sbigelow]

Great thread!!

I remember decorating the tree as a family with the Xmas music on. Setting up our Xmas scene with so many cute antique figurines that was passed down from my Great Grandmother. Sitting on Santa's lap, making Xmas cookies with my Mom, buying special gifts for everyone in my famiy and finding that special hiding place so no one would find them til it was time to put them under the tree. Setting out cookies and milk and some sugar cubes for Santa and his Reindeer, hanging stockings before going to bed. All of us running into Mom and Dads room at 7am to go down and open stockings and presents. Having a special breakfast, than going over to my Grammy and Granddaddys for Big dinner and opening more gifts. So many great memories of Christmas and childhood.

 

[purple_magada]

I remember seeing Rudolph's red nose shining on the roof of our front porch. My dad would put the light out and then tell us to hurry and look that Rudolph was on the roof. We believed it. Every year I would go up to my Granny's house and her and I would drag out all of her Christmas decorations and decorate her house. Then on Christmas Eve she would have everybody over for a party. That tradition died out. This is the first year that she isn't having anyone up on Christmas Eve. Then on Christmas Day my mom would have both sets of grandparents to our house for dinner. I remember my brother (my youngest brother wasn't born yet) and I wouldn't sleep all night b/c we were so excited. We'd keep sneaking downstairs to see if Santa came yet. We had to have fallen aslep at one point b/c my parents eventaully got the gifts under the tree. Then we'd wake up my parents way too early to open the presents! My family was very poor growing up and us kids had no clue. We were just so happy with the toys that we did get. And when it snowed, my dad would make us the best sled riding trail. He'd work on it for hours and it would start at the top of our yard and go all the way down into the farmer's field. My brother and I would be out in the snow all day. I remember helping my mom make Christmas cookies - I loved making the cut-out sugar cookies.

Those were some great times. I hope that I make such wonderful memories for my boys.

 

[endorphin_junkie]

I remember French Canadian 'reveillon' with my Mom's family, this is a tradition of dinner and a party on Christmas Eve. We would go to Mamere and Papere's (my grandparent's) house in the late afternoon and have dinner with the Aunts, Uncles and cousins (15-20 people) at about 9:00 us kids would have to go to bed and rest before midnight Mass. I remember this as the height of anticipation, we were supposed to settle in but the grownups were so noisy and who could sleep with Christmas just hours away. We would roll around on the beds and cuddle up with our Aunt's fancy fur coats, I doubt we ever slept in that time. We would all go to Midnight Mass and when we arrived back at Mamere's Santa had come while we were at church!!! I was never close with Papere but I love that he would sneak out of church and do the Santa thing then come back to church. He was the old man who always sat at the last pew and was the first one on the back steps having a smoke after dismissal so we never even knew that he had left.
After Mass (about 1:00 a.m.) we would open up our presents and then have a huge traditional French Canadian meal. We went to bed at about 3 or 4 and slept in Christmas morning. Our stockings were hung on our doorknobs in the morning for one more big treat. I always felt sorry for Mamere having to get up so early on Christmas to get the turkey in the oven for a turkey dinner around 2 or 3 in the afternoon.
My Christmas was so different from my friends who opened presents on Christmas morning. I didn't like being different then but now I love being the one to keep these traditions and our French Canadian Heritage alive.

Joyeux Noel!

Laurie