Childhood Christmas Memories

I love these types of threads

Post a story about a memorable Christmas where you wanted and received a great gift, or maybe a particularly special holiday gathering

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

When we were little (actually we still do it) we go to my Grandmother's house for Xmas Eve and after midnight me, my sister & my cousins would open presents that were at my Grandmother's house. We are all married adults and some with children and we still do the same thing.

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

i think one of my fav holidays was when i was about 18 or 19 -- and one of my brothers was in the navy--and he was able to come home at the last minute--and my other brother who lived upstate -- managed to make it down.

it was great cause for the first time in like 7 years--my mom was able to have her 3 children home at the same time for xmas.



another great xmas was like 3 years ago--when my dad surprised my mom with a new car. he put the key in a box -- and when she opened it -- she started freaking out and crying and saying "omg! omg!" and we took her outisde and there was her car with a big red bow on it....we got it all on video!

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-christmas will never be the same w/o my grandmother-i always remember her coming over xmas morning and brning a huge stack of gifts



-one year i got all NKOTB stuff..i was in heaven

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

every Xmas with my mother was a memorable one

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

I've got two ... I have (or my parents do) in the back of an old photo album, my Christmas list from one year which was a combination list and "artist's rendering" of the items I wanted ... one being the Fisher Price Fun Jet. Which I ended up getting. For years and years, even into adulthood, my dad would say "No Fun Jet for you" whenever I was "bad".



Second, my dad always got our tree from some connection. And he'd get it like two weeks before Christmas and we weren't allowed to put it up. It would lay on it's side, wrapped up in the dining room until the day before Christmas Eve, it would settle for a day, then we'd decorate that night before family started coming over.

One year I convinced my mom we should put it up while my dad was coaching a basketball game. Now my dad always got really tall trees (they wouldn't fit in the evelator and it would have to come up to our third floor apt by stairs, one or two years temporarily stuck like the couch in the Friends PIVOT episode) so the bottom & top always needed a little trim.

Needless to say, we trimmed and trimmed and trimmed until we destroyed the tree, my father almost killed us when he got home and that year our tree sat on two foot stacks of encyclopedias.

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

I still remember when my siblings and I got the original Nintendo game system as a group gift from my grandparents!

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

my brother and I would read a copy of the night before christmas in front of my parents video camera every year. it started when we were babies and we sat on my dads lap while he did it and it continued through college. now that we don't do it anymore i kind of miss it

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

I miss Christmas Eve at my grandparents house in Uniondale. They used to live across from the Christmas House on Front Street. Every year the place would be packed as everyone anxiously awaited the appearance of Santa. My brothers used to take me over to see him, etc.

Nothing will EVER compare to Grandma's cooking (oatmeal cookies, herb chicken, frozen strawberry desert, beach plum pie, custard cake). I would give anything just to see her again

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

my grandfather made every Christmas special.

the would always dress up as Santa...and since my mom was separated from his son (who was and is MIA) when we couldn't make it for Christmas eve, he'd come to us, dressed in the whole outfit.

He made all us kids (even dh on his first Christmas with us ) sit on his lap before pulling a gift out of his sack.

Unbelievably, this will be our 3 Christmas without him. for one entire HALF of my family, new traditions are not so easy to come by. He cannot and will never be, replaced.

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

Hands down (and sue me, it is gift related)

One xmas all I really really wanted was a Sony Walkman with the cassette. I think I was 10 or maybe 9. I wanted this thing more than anything.

Now as an adult I have come to realize my parents play heavy emphasis on the "surprise" but they have always taught us the true meaning of Christmas.

So after opening all of my gifts, and some of my lil brothers too My parents hand me one last present.....

A knockoff am/fm pocket radio with headset. Trying my hardest not to be disappointed and not hurt my parents feelings I smiled and put the headset on and pretended it was great. About 10 minutes later they began to laugh and said "We fooled you!!!!!" and presented me with the real SONY WALKMAN.

Best
XMAS
Ever

And my 4 year old brother was happy too, bc he got the "fake" one

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

i'll never forget being the angel Gabriel in the Christmas pageant. . . I got to hold the star up high.... of coruse, my sister Sara got to be Mary, but it seemed like she always got what she wanted!

I also remember writing birthday cards to Jesus and leaving them at the creche in Church.

Or the one time when my brother and I snuck into the boiler room in our apartment building to see if Santa came! (My parents were the supers in the building and our Dad told us that since we didn't have a fireplace, Santa came through the boiler room!) We were CRAZY...we're lucky we weren't killed!

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

I loved traveling to my grandparents in Levittown and listening to the Santa Report on the there and back. The house was so small and there was so many of us packed in but it was so much fun!

Message edited 12/11/2007 1:02:09 PM.

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

I remember one Christmas when I was about 9 or 10 years old and my mom had the flu and couldn't make Christmas dinner. My aunt had invited us over for dinner but we didn't want to leave my mom. Noether my dad or my sister wanted to cook Christmas dinner, so they let me cook Christmas dinner and I made grilled cheese for everybody and I even garnished the plate with a pickle & chips.

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

This is a great thread! I remember driving home from my aunt and uncles every Christmas Eve and looking at Christmas lights w/my family in the car.

My mom would let us open our stockings if we woke up too early, but we'd have to stare at the tree and wait until everyone was up before we could open presents.

I also remember visiting my Grandma in the hospital when I was 8. We brought her Christmas dinner and the whole family was there with her. When we got home about 30 min later the phone rang and it was my aunt telling my mom that she passed after we all left.

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When my sisters and I were young, my dad never did give us gifts. From my mom, it wasn't a lot either, socks and stuff. But I knew they cared.

One year, when I was about 10, my dad came home late on Christmas Eve with a sack full of stuffed animals. I was the happiest girl, ever. I got a purple donkey and named him, "Tigger"...my favorite holiday gift as a child...because it was from my father.

Re: Childhood Christmas Memories

When I was in 2nd grade, our school was having a Christmas pageant at mass on Christmas Eve. I had very long brown hair, which my mom put in braids 90% of the time. On the day of the "try-outs," I insisted that I wear it down because I was dying to be Mary and I wanted to look the part. Well, it worked--I got the role!! I was really psyched because I got to hold a baby!! Imagine my disappointment when the Baby Jesus turned out only to be a doll! Ironically, 25 years later, if someone asks if I want to hold a baby, I'm like nooooooo!