What did you remember the most about x-mas??

acatalina

acatalina

Cathlete
When i was little we all had x-mas eve at grandmas. She was wheel chairbound at the time.She died when i was little and i don't remember her much, but:
I remember the favorite thing being (Uncle John) would come in dressed as Santa and have a bag full of presents. We thought he was the real thing.Santa delivered our presents personally.(better than the mall) The grandma would have penny or coin pitch and we would dash for it, and the hot cocoa on grandmas old coal stove in the kitchen.
These are the memories that stuck in my head, so remember the small things matter...
These were the good old days...

Anne
Aka( Storm)

http://www.picturetrail.com/acatalina
 
Anne -

Love this! My mom was one of six kids, most of whom had many kids, and every year around Christmas the entire family would get together and do a gift exchange. It was a mad house as there were so many of us! We picked names because we couldn't afford to buy for everyone. The adults had to make their gifts and it was a hoot watching the various gifts that were made. They did get much better as we all got older - in fact dad still has some around. Christmas day was spent with my dad's parents - and it was a contrast. Dad was the only child of parents who had him in the mid 40's. They lived in rural Pennsylvania and every year we would have a great turkey with all the trimmings and Scalloped Oysters (they were a huge treat). My dad's cousins would come up from Virginia (DC) and spend the day. They were older, and I remember my sister and I always took a long walk after the turkey with Susan - no matter how cold. We would always see horses and cows and have a nice talk.

Christmas Eve was for immediate family only, and mom would splurge (we didn't have much money back then) and serve shrimp. It was a big thing, and very special. Then we would go to Christmas Eve Mass, and afterwords, drive around looking at lights. Then we'd hang our stockings (secured to the stair railing by ribbon as we had no fireplace) and go to bed. Of course, we'd be up with the birds sneaking downstairs to see the magic that Santa created.
 
I have wonderful memories of Christmas with my Mom's French Canadian family. We would go to Mamere and Papere's home (my grandparents) on the afternoon of Christmas Eve. Cousins, Aunts and Uncles would arrive and we would have a big dinner, I remember the raucous din of so many people in the house, my Uncle's birthday is Dec. 24 so there was always birthday cake for 'Mon Oncle Fern'. At 9:00 us kids had to have a nap before midnight Mass. I remember rolling around Mamere's bed all heaped with fancy fur coats, we never slept before Mass and it was torturous to be sequestered to the bedrooms with all of the singing and celebrating going on in the kitchen. Off we'd go to Mass and then when we got back to Mamere's the present were under the tree as Santa had come while we were in Church (it was Papere actually, he would leave Mass do the Santa thing, then come back). We'd open presents and then have a big meal 'revillion' of tortiere and french ragout and so much good food. We were usually in bed by about 4:00 a.m. We'd sleep in Christmas morning and wake up to our stockings full. Christmas day was fairly quiet until dinner then everyone came back for turkey. When I was a teenager I rebelled against the French Canadian tradition as it was so different from my friends, now I love that our Christmas was so steeped in tradition and different from most of the people I know.

Thanks Ann, it was lovely to remember my 'Christmas of old' :)

Take Care
Laurie:)
 
I remember driving the short distance to my Aunt & Uncles for X-mas eve. I loved going there and the memories are still with me. They always had this beautiful flocked tree and I was in awe as we could never get a flocked one as they were too messy! We got to open 1 present X-mas eve. That is still a tradition.

My Mom always cooked dinner X-mas day and still does but my 3 older sisters and I help her alot and the kids do dishes! As a child I remember getting up in the middle of the night with a little flashlight and looking for MY presents under the tree. I laugh as I think I can almost hear my Dad telling us to put away our toys as our cousins were coming and they always broke something! He always referred to them as "The Wreckers"
 
My mom is french canadian.I haven't heard Mamere and Papere in ages.
Where we they from. We never made it to Maine for x-mas due to the weather , Too unsafe driving with all of us in the station wagon.
My granma was a Paradis. Pronounced Paradzee... Too cool.

Anne
Aka( Storm)

http://www.picturetrail.com/acatalina
 
Hey Anne:) My Mom's family lived just outside of Ottawa, a little village called Cyrville, coincidentilly enough her maiden name is Cyr, pronounced Sear. Mamere's side of the family were Lefebvre (translates to the 'beans':) ). Mom has relatives in Vermont and Connecticut, I thought it was very cute that Mamere always pronounced it phonetically. Because of the language barrier I didn't really get to know her until my teens then realised what a strong, forward thinking woman she was. She worked so hard in her gardens and I just loved her gnarly, twisted but always so soft hands.:)

Take Care
Laurie
 
Oh! I have TONS of Christmas memories as a child, but my favorite:

My grandmother (dad's mom) lives across the street from my parents (the house where I grew up....they still live in it). I am the middle of 3 girls, and Christmas Eve, we would sleep in my older sister's room....a FORBIDDEN activity any other time of year, lol. We'd sleep there and wake, but as we got older and knew the 'secret' about Santa, we'd go to bed and be very quiet till our parents thought we were asleep. We'd then watch out the front window toward my Grandmother's house where they kept our big presents hidden. We'd watch them bring them over and into our house. It was like getting a sneak peak at the next morning's treasures! LOL. I remember one year that my younger sis got a bike and it wasn't wrapped, like the big presents usually are! Imagine trying to keep her quiet after seeing that bike! LOL

AHHHHHHH.......I love these memories!

Gayle
 
Picking out the Family Christmas Tree.
We have 7 in our family. The goal was to find a tree that we ALL agreed upon every year from when we were tots to college students.
Ok, the odds of 7 all agreeing on a tree. Not very high and didn't happen too often. Normally, 2-3 hours to pick out a tree. The tree lot workers didn't like seeing us or sometimes, they had to throw in their opinion too. It was fun, crazy, and family bonding time.
 
I grew up in a house built in the 1920's. It looked a lot like the house in "A Christmas Story". Cmmplete with the huge kitchen sink and the damper to the furnace...

Our Christmas ornaments and decorations came from my dad's family - from when Dad was a boy -- in the 1940's. We listened to carols by Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole - it was something right out of the movies.

I grew up in the '80's, but when Christmas comes around, I might as well have grown up in the 40's. I love nostalgic things like that. I guess that's why I love that movie "A Christmas Story" so much - that was my childhood and that was what my Christmases were like. My dad even had an old car like the one in the movie.

I remember one Xmas my dad made my sister and I a house for our Barbies. My dad made the furniture and my mom made the curtains, bedspread and tablecloth. It was better than anything they could buy in a store because I knew they worked so hard on it. Now it's in the attic of that old house, waiting for my little girl to be old enough for Barbies (she's 2 now).

I have lots of little memories about Xmas. It was so much simpler before WalMart and ipods and those awful Bratz dolls...
 
The sheer excitement of it all, waking up early to feel a lumpy stocking at the end of my bed, even if most of it was fruit and nuts (my parents didn't have much when all 6 kids were grwing up), knowing and feeling that this day was special, the very atmosphere shimmered with specialness. I loved the sparkliness of the tree with all the presents wrapped beneath it as it stood and gently glimmered in the darkness of the dining room, before we were allowed to open presents and before everyone was up. One year (very, very rare for the UK), it even snowed...

And family, family is the meaning of Christmas to me, especially now that I am so far from all of them.

Clare
 
Christmas Eve 1997 is one of my fondest, I have so many.

I had my then 16 yo son, Lee was 2 yo to be 3 in January, and Mac was our foster baby 3 months old. We wanted to adopt him so badly and were so afraid to be come attached. His biological mother seemed destined to reclaim him. Our family attended Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church. Little Mac attached to all his apnea/heart monitor devices and dressed in his little red Christmas jammies. A tiny bundle in my arms. Who was I kidding, I was completely attached to this child I had nurtured, medicated, recusitated...my soul would splinter if he were taken from me.

We entered the filled to capacity church (a large church I add) with the only seats available being the second pew to the right. We NEVER sat down front, not with Lee! We were seated next to one of the eldest, dearest and apparently wisest women of the church. She commented "What a beautiful family. How old is your baby?" My reply, "He is 3 months, but he is not ours. We are his foster parents." These words really hurt when I spoke them. That moment made we realize how much a part of our lives, our hearts this baby had become. The lady looked at me with a face I can only describe as "angelic" and said, "Oh, darling, he is your baby. He IS your baby. Merry Christmas."

Shortly after Christmas the biological mom relinquished him to us for adoption.

I believe in angels. I believe in God.

Merry Christmas.
 
I've been back this morning while I am more awake and I LOVE reading all these memories.

Anne, thanks for a great thread.:)
 
Melody - I'm in tears - thanks for the absolutely beautiful story! You should believe in angels - you are one. Bless you.
 
Don't cry Anne. I can come up with some Christmas memories to make you laugh, too. Like the year 12 people (my side of the family) were at my house for Christmas for two days and nights, and throughout the first night we all became violently sick with only 2 toilets in the house. Apparently, my Christmas dinner poisoned every single one of us.

And that same year my eldest (then teenage) DS woke the entire family screaming "It's a ghost, a ghost!" and he meant it. It was a balloon which was loosing helium and hovering/floating around the room.

Enough?
 
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