Christmas Memories and Thoughts as a Kid

[emax4]

There are things I used to think about as a kid at Christmas, and was wondering if anyone else did the same thing.

1. I was born in 1973, and although I remember a few details of the previous places we lived at, my parents settled on a house in 1977. The house has a former fireplace that has since been plastered up, so it blends in and just becomes part of a wall. Because of this, I had to stop convincing myself that Santa didn't always come down the chimney, but instead had a universal key that could open almost any door. Did anyone else have a similar situation?

2. Growing up in Southwestern PA near Pittsburgh, there were a bevy of department stores around at the time before Wal Marts started popping up: Gee Bees, Hills, Gold Circle, K Mart, Children's Palace. On Christmas morning I'd start opening gifts and see part of the tag from the store it came from. I would think, "Did Santa pay for these before leaving the store? Did he use that universal key to get in, get the gifts, then just leave money on the cash register?"

3. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you first heard a song that you liked? I remember being at my Paternal Grandma's with other relatives and opening gifts, and then we were going to my great Aunt's (My dad's sister's husband's parents) to visit, eat, and open more gifts. My Aunt & Uncle at the time had an AMC Pacer, which I loved because of the large windows (haha). I got to go in their car to my Great Aunt's, and that was the first time I heard "Felice Navidad" and got hooked on it.

4. When I was 5 or 6 I remember going to Midnight mass with my Dad and my Grandma, and this was special because we brought my Grandma with me, which had never happened before (when going to church). At one point we were singing the hymn, "What Child is This?", and when the lyric of "Haste ! Haste! And Bring him laude.." came up, I started laughing my butt off because the word "laude" sounded so funny at the time. I would have loved to have seen how my dad and grandma got me to calm down from that one.

Sort of related.. I remember a girl from my class telling us a story how it was a few weeks before Christmas, and she had a pin on her jacket. There was a string on this pin, and when you pulled the string it would play a Christmas song. Somehow her brother pulled this string during mass when the priest was giving the gospel. So while the rest of the church was silent, you heard the priest AND the Christmas song keep playing..

5. One year my Dad had gotten my mom a Playgirl magazine for Christmas, but this was left under the coffee table with the other magazines and stuff. I remember seeing it, opening it up, and then pointing out to my parents, "Hey, they're showing his pee pee!! haha..."

What are some Christmas memories and pleasantries you remember as a kid, or things you always wondered about?

[sms001]

I was utterly fascinated by the whole "Tactics & Strategy" aspects of the Santa delivery system. I think I even made an effort to figure out exactly how much time he could spend at each house at one point. And the chimney thing just threw me; I didn't make that nice leap of intuition that you did.

[Bardmaiden]

Having a chicken dinner on Christmas day (instead of the UK tradition of Turkey) as my mother is very allergic to Turkey. Still go around to hers and have dinner there with the family around and she makes us all the usual trimmings even though she can't have most of them as she is now allergic to wheat (not as badly as turkey though).

Odd memory is my sister (Lady Legira) going into hospital at 6.30am christmas morning (asthma attack at 6 years old) and mum ringing to tell me and stepdad how she was and all I asked was if I could open the big present and as soon as she said yes I was gone leaving the phone hanging.
LL was fine after being treated and finding out she (and me as well) had asthma. The big present was an awesome train set.

[Andara Bledin]

I never had a house with a chimney that I can recall. I think I figured that since he had to go all non-physical to go through a chimney that he could just do the same thing to go through a keyhole and get in that way. It's just that chimneys are bigger, so he gets through them faster.

^-.-^

[Ree]

One of my funniest memories of Christmas was my baby sister refusing to go to Christmas Eve Mass. (Until she came along and got spoiled rotten by all of us, it was unthinkable to do such a thing.)

My Mom thought she would be impressed if she told her it was to celebrate Jesus' birthday.
She crawled out from under the bed, just to the edge and asked, "Is there going to be ice cream and cake?"
My mother had to tell her no, so she scrambled back in and said, "Well, then, I don't want to go."

We kids were all laughing our butts off, but we got a stern look from our Mom, so Dad finally got down on his hands and knees and dragged her kicking and screaming from under the bed.

[customersruinmylife]

I have two hilarious Christmas memories. Although you're probably going to think they're strange selections!

The first was when my sister was very young. Two or three I believe. She was wearing a very expensive dress that my gran had got her as a gift. Sister got bored and decided to lock herself in the bathroom, take her dress off and stuff it down the toilet. She flushed it several times, flooding the bathroom so bad that water was coming through the garage ceiling downstairs. She did this in the space of 5 minutes. We thought she was playing with her gifts on the staircase!

It sounds bad, but it was one of those situations that as soon as we saw it, everyone burst out laughing. She had tried to put the soaking wet dress back on and claim complete innocence. We never told my gran what happened to the dress

The second was a year later. My mum is a bit of a practicle joker. She loves nothing more than shouting "BOO!" once someone is completely focused on something. She did this to me when I was reading a book. She cheered, jumped up and down and then lost her balance. She fell into the Christmas tree and brought it down on top of her. She wasn't injured, just very embarassed as we had visitors at the time! To this day I still remember the "WOAAAAAA--EEEEE!" she made as the tree came down.

Strange and evil memories, but they never fail to make me smile.

[Bright_Star]

The BEST Christmas I can remember is Christmas 1975 when I was 10 years old. Got more presents that year that I ever got before or since. & everybody in my family that has passed away were still with us way back when.
When I think of the ideal Christmas, 1975 always comes to mind.

[Elspeth]

My favorite Christmas tree was one that my Mom put on the wall. My Dad was gone at the time(work or something) and we had a small house and not a lot of money so she went out and got some pine branches from the yard and made a tree that she attached to the wall. It was the best.

[emax4]

Hearing about these memories is so awesome! I loved the one about opening up the big gift and leaving the phone, the Christmas dress, and Jesus' birthday! ^_^

I love getting gifts as much as the next person, but now I'm at the age where simply having my family and my parents around to celebrate are my biggest gifts. I'd love to hear more memories. It's too bad there's not a Like button for all of these cuz they'd each get one.

[Ree]

It's too bad there's not a Like button for all of these cuz they'd each get one.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Elspeth's story about the tree on the wall was really touching.

I recall another year when my Mom was in the hospital and all the neighbours got together to make a Christmas for us.
Looking back, I now realize some of the toys I got were gently used, but back then, I didn't know any better. Santa brought them, and that was all I knew.

I still recall the gorgeous cake that one woman made for us. It had creamy white icing, and she had made poinsettias all around the top with cherry pieces. (That was probably my inspiration to learn how to decorate cakes. ) I don't even remember how it tasted. I just thought it was the most beautiful cake I had ever seen.

[stephenr]

Last year, I was 20 years old and my mom had broken the tree stand slightly on Christmas Eve trying to hide my TV underneath the tree. The tree was still standing although it was a bit wobbly. Christmas Day, I had the fun task of getting the gifts out from underneath the tree and you can guess what happened. The tree stand snapped and down came the Christmas Tree. All I could hear was my mom going, "Whoa!" as the tree fell down. Luckily, No one was hurt. My dad didn't get mad thankfully but my parents and I agreed that I am no longer allowed to get the gifts from underneath the tree anymore. That was one way to take down the tree.

The best Christmas I had was when I was 10 years old and we were very busy that Christmas Day. Opened my gifts at home than went to my grandparents house and exchanged gifts. Enjoyed spending time with my grandfather who I still miss to this day. He died 3 years later from colon cancer. After that, me and my parents went over to my aunt's house for a bit and exchanged gifts. Spent about an hour there and then my parents and I went up to Rhode Island to have Christmas Dinner with my aunt, uncle, and my three cousins. What a fun day that was.

[MoonCat]

I have tons of Christmas memories, and they've been making me feel very weepy this year.

When I was oh, maybe 9 or 10, I finally figured out there was no Santa. The previous Christmas I had made a special Christmas card for Santa and of course it was gone on Christmas morning--Santa had taken it! Months later, I was looking on top of the refrigerator for something (I had to stand on a chair to do it) and found the card I had made up there. Well....all my suspicions clicked. But I was careful not to tell my two younger sisters.

And we had chimneys but they were connected to the kitchen stove and the dining room gas space heater. So I figured that Santa could open locked doors...by magic, of course.

To this day, I have no idea where my parents hid "Santa's" gifts before Christmas eve.

[emax4]

Aww, I'm sorry MoonCat. I had posted my stories on my Facebook page to help others possibly get back in the spirit after the recent tragedy. I like hearing other happy memories of others. I had my temp job end a few weeks early so not only do I have to hustle for cash, but it's a little difficult for me to see others being able to live successfully and succeed, and buy gifts for others. Still, the memories of others helps cheer me up. I figured that not everyone would have a happy holiday because of events that happened in their past. I'm just a stranger, but willing to hear you if you need to PM me.

There was another memory from an friend/ex gf: She said when she was little, she left cookies out for Santa, but also 9 apples for the reindeer! She said that her parents got down to maybe 3 apples each before they said, "Ah, we can't eat anymore..."

Another memory is the FOOD! I wasn't an altar boy, but my mom and dad wanted me to be. My Mom was in choir and my dad was a Eucharistic Minister, basically an adult altar person. Since they were running around while I had no responsibilities, we hadn't had time for dinner. My dad was able to run down to the new KFC location and bring home a big chicken dinner. :P

Here's an old photo (probably 1986) of one side of the family with cousins. My sister refers to this as "A row of Italians". I'm the dork in yellow:

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

This would be the Friday before Christmas, 1989. I was in third grade at the time.

That day was bitterly cold and my parents did something they never did before and tried to convince my sister and I not to go to school. After all, it's the last day before Christmas Break, not much if any learning will be missed, it's a big goof-off day. I would've taken them up on it were it not for two things:

1. At the time my class was reading Little House On The Prairie and as part of it we had a gift exchange. You drew the name of a classmate and had to give them a handmade gift. For my gift, mom and I baked and decorated cookies and packed them in a big tin can. I really wanted to give this gift.

2. My school's Christmas concert. I had an important part in it. I and another girl served as narrators telling a story and the third grade classes would come in with the musical selections we'd practiced. I spent a lot of time practicing for this and didn't want to miss it.

So my parents dropped my sister and I off at school but made no promises about attending the concert.

I had a good day, our class party was great and the girl who got my cookies really liked them. And then to end the day we had our Christmas concert.

And my parents were in the audience.

[fireheart]

Some memories from various Christmas gatherings (can't remember years):

-the last time my house hosted Christmas, we had a centrepiece that consisted of a wire cone that was meant to resemble a Christmas tree. It was also big enough to fit comfortably on nearly everyone's head. Needless to say, there were many photos after that!

-For one of my baby cousin's first Christmases, he was lunching with us. Partway through, he started crying for mum, so she picked him up and fed him his bottle. While he was being fed, he was slowly falling asleep while he was still drinking. He'd drunk about half the bottle before he fell asleep in his mum's arms.

-Older Cat's first Christmas was when he was around 8 weeks old. We put up the tree the week after he was bought home. The first thing he decided to do with it was climb up it. He did this every day at least once until one day....*CRASH!* the tree fell over. Luckily there were no precious ornaments on the tree. He hasn't climbed up it since.

-Other cousin came for a visit when he was 2. He was given his gift and was still trying to play it in the package He also apparently called Santa/Father Christmas "Christmas" (dropping the Father)

-