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I need to get myself into the holiday spirit right now...

So, I thought, we could all share our most favorite holiday memory.

Christmas or Chanukah holiday memory!

Doesn't matter what it is...as long as it is YOUR favorite!

My favorite holiday memory...

Was when I was 5 years old...Went to bed Christmas Eve, woke up to 18 inches of snow outside! To me that was the best present I could ever receive... A white christmas. It was absolutly magical! It was alot like when Ralphie & Randy woke up on Christmas morning, and looked outside at the beautiful winterscape in "A Christmas Story".

But, little did I know...but, that same day, my dog Snoopy was born in the Congregational church down the street from my home. The minister's dog had puppies. We got him 7 weeks later, and he turned out to be the best Christmas present for 17 years!

Happy Chanukah!

fuzzy

My most memorable Christmas:

My sister and I were "bad" the Christmas that I was ten. Looking back, I wouldn't say were were "bad" we were high-spirited and my mother was impatient and depressed because of her divorce.

She said that we couldn't have Christmas.

I rummaged through the neighbor's trash and found the top of an artificial Xmas tree and my sister and I decorated it with stuff that we found around the house.

We didn't get presents from her, but we still had a tree.

It's always funny to me when families mix for the first time, and one family's cherished traditions are met with slack jaws and wonder from the other family. For instance, my wife's bafflement at our first Christmas with kids where we actually filled stockings for them, when I wanted to include shampoo, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. It never occurred to me before that that people didn't get those things in their Christmas stockings. I am now certain that it was an excuse to buy necessities for us, and to make our stockings look a little fuller through the many lean Christmases of my youth, but to me it was just what always happened.

My mother, OTOH, is still scandalized by my wife's family having carryout pizza for Easter dinner.

I don't know if these are favrotie memories for me, but they sure stand out.

p.s. Fuzzy's spelling of "Chanukah" (I see it several different ways) made me laugh today, because on the way to work this morning, I heard the announcer on my local NPR station talk about the upcoming tchah-NOOK-ah holiday. In case you haven't guessed, we don't have a very big Jewish population here.

mrkelley23 wrote:It's always funny to me when families mix for the first time, and one family's cherished traditions are met with slack jaws and wonder from the other family. For instance, my wife's bafflement at our first Christmas with kids where we actually filled stockings for them, when I wanted to include shampoo, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. It never occurred to me before that that people didn't get those things in their Christmas stockings. I am now certain that it was an excuse to buy necessities for us, and to make our stockings look a little fuller through the many lean Christmases of my youth, but to me it was just what always happened.

My mother, OTOH, is still scandalized by my wife's family having carryout pizza for Easter dinner.

I don't know if these are favrotie memories for me, but they sure stand out.

p.s. Fuzzy's spelling of "Chanukah" (I see it several different ways) made me laugh today, because on the way to work this morning, I heard the announcer on my local NPR station talk about the upcoming tchah-NOOK-ah holiday. In case you haven't guessed, we don't have a very big Jewish population here.

We had toiletries in our stockings as well.

I still put them in the girls' stockings, they get stuff like American Girl Shampoo, from Bath and Body Works. It's stuff that I wouldn't normally buy them, so it's a treat, but it's practical. I don't like stuffing the stockings with too much candy.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:

mrkelley23 wrote:It's always funny to me when families mix for the first time, and one family's cherished traditions are met with slack jaws and wonder from the other family. For instance, my wife's bafflement at our first Christmas with kids where we actually filled stockings for them, when I wanted to include shampoo, toothpaste, and toothbrushes. It never occurred to me before that that people didn't get those things in their Christmas stockings. I am now certain that it was an excuse to buy necessities for us, and to make our stockings look a little fuller through the many lean Christmases of my youth, but to me it was just what always happened.

We had toiletries in our stockings as well.

I still put them in the girls' stockings, they get stuff like American Girl Shampoo, from Bath and Body Works. It's stuff that I wouldn't normally buy them, so it's a treat, but it's practical. I don't like stuffing the stockings with too much candy.

My family would always get tolietries in our stockings too! Deorderant, bubble bath, powder. We'd also get tangerines and money. But, my Mom would also put the wackiest little gadgets in my Dad's stocking. It was pretty funny!

fuzzywuzzy wrote:I need to get myself into the holiday spirit right now...

So, I thought, we could all share our most favorite holiday memory.

It was Christmas 1971 for me. elwing and I had been dating for a while and I was ready to move on to a permanent commitment (i. e., marriage). We were at her parents' house and I had already mentioned to her mother and father that I was going to do something special, so as not to shock them. I bought an engagement ring, wrapped the box and put it in her stocking. It came time to open presents and we went through the wrapped gifts first (her family tradition was to do the stockings last). She emptied her stocking and found the box, opened it, and as she did so I asked her to marry me. She hugged and kissed me and said yes.

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote:My most memorable Christmas:

My sister and I were "bad" the Christmas that I was ten. Looking back, I wouldn't say were were "bad" we were high-spirited and my mother was impatient and depressed because of her divorce.

She said that we couldn't have Christmas.

I rummaged through the neighbor's trash and found the top of an artificial Xmas tree and my sister and I decorated it with stuff that we found around the house.

We didn't get presents from her, but we still had a tree.

Wow!

Yikes!

My first favorite Christmas "memory" is one that I actually do not remember, as I was probably 2 years old.

It was Christmas Eve with my mother's family, and my parents apparently were hosting it. My uncle had a movie camera, and he was filming each kid opening one present. (Amazingly, in both my wife's family and my family, the one present that you got to open on Christmas Eve always was pajamas. <g> )

On this home movie, you see my oldest brother open his present, see that it was pajamas, stand up and fling the box clear across the room, and storm upstairs. You then see my mom follow him upstairs, and 30 seconds later, he comes downstaiirs to tell my grandmother thank you.

That movie was re-shown when his first wife came for her first Christmas visit.


My other favorite Christmas moment came Christmas 1991. Since my wife (then girlfriend) lived in Kansas City at the time, and I was in Omaha, we had not planned on spending Christmas together. However, we then decided that I would come down for to spend Christmas Eve with her family, and then we would drive up to spend Christmas Day with my family.

When it came to present-opening time, she opened a box containing this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Precious-Moments-Wi ... dZViewItem

When she looked up, I said, "So which is it?"

My family would always get tolietries in our stockings too! Deorderant, bubble bath, powder

I recently got my grandson his first Christmas stocking, and when I showed it to my son (his father), he said, "It had better be filled with socks and underwear Christmas morning, just like mine always was."


As if.


t.

We lived in Newport RI before we moved out to Hawai'i.

So the year I was 10-ish, we went to the midnight service at Trinity Church in Newport. A beautiful place. If you are ever there, go see it.

At the end of the service they dimmed all the artificial lights and all that remained lit were the candle wall sconces. Then we all sang Silent Night. After singing the verse where you sing real quietly, a young childs voice was heard 'Look Mommy, it's snowing'. We all turned to look through tthe gorgeous Christopher Wren designed windows to see the snow falling. And the voices then joined in the loud celebratory final verse.

It was magical!


Thanks for asking Fuzzy!

Elder son, Greg, was 4 or 5. When all the presents from Santa had been opened, he said that he was happy for the gifts from Saint N, but, "Momma, I'm sorry ,but I just can't believe that deal about the flying reindeer."

mrkelley23 wrote:p.s. Fuzzy's spelling of "Chanukah" (I see it several different ways) made me laugh today, because on the way to work this morning, I heard the announcer on my local NPR station talk about the upcoming tchah-NOOK-ah holiday. In case you haven't guessed, we don't have a very big Jewish population here.

So I guess we can't ship our 4 ft. counter full of Hannukah stuff we've had out for sale for 2 months that went pretty much completely untouched out your way....?

Anybody interested in a clearance dreidel or twenty....?

lb13

christie1111 wrote:We lived in Newport RI before we moved out to Hawai'i.

So the year I was 10-ish, we went to the midnight service at Trinity Church in Newport. A beautiful place. If you are ever there, go see it.

At the end of the service they dimmed all the artificial lights and all that remained lit were the candle wall sconces. Then we all sang Silent Night. After singing the verse where you sing real quietly, a young childs voice was heard 'Look Mommy, it's snowing'. We all turned to look through tthe gorgeous Christopher Wren designed windows to see the snow falling. And the voices then joined in the loud celebratory final verse.

It was magical!


Thanks for asking Fuzzy!

I couldn't mention Christmas Eve Midnight Mass as a "favorite memory" because it really is several memories.

From the time that I was 8 to 22, we attended a candlelight service in the monastic chapel at my high school. They still rank as the most beautiful, most spiritual services that I ever have experienced.

You had to get there probably by 10:30 to get seats. There was a pre-service religious carol service.

Afterwards, there were cookies, coffee, and hot chocolate.

As a younger child, the goal was not to fall asleep until the car trip home.

We used to get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. One year, when I was an older teenager (I'm thinking my senior year in high school, as alcohol was involved and the drinking age used to be 18), someone would open a present, which would remind someone else of a gift they had bought, so they would say, "You've got to open THIS!" and so on, until it snowballed into all the gifts being opened on Christmas Eve. Then we all slept on the floor around the tree. There is a picture of my legs sticking out from behind this pile of presents and I'm wearing these shiny green quilted slippers, so it is reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz with the house on the witch, only it's Emerald Slippers.

After that, our family tradition became opening the gifts on Christmas Eve, which worked for getting to sleep in on Christmas morning, since we were all teenagers, and it was also good later, since we could spend Christmas Day with boyfriend and later fiance families, having dispensed with my family obligations.

Now all I need for Christmas is "How to Stop Writing Sentences That Turn Into Complete Paragraphs Like That Boring Old William Faulkner Always Did....."

PlacentiaSoccerMom wrote: We had toiletries in our stockings as well.

When I was very young we got fireworks in our Christmas stockings. I guess that would be considered child endangerment now, but we did have fun with them.

Back in the late '60s (that would be the 1960s), we used to attend midnight mass at a Hungarian church. The entire service was in Hungarian, except for the songs. The lady that sang had an operatic range and could hit some amazing notes. The highlight was her rendition of O Holy Night, which always brought down the house.

She sang it traditionally through the first refrain, then launched into opera mode, rattling the walls when she got to "Oh night Diviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine".

It reminded me of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs plays Leopold the conductor and he makes the opera singer hold the final note perilously long (hey, I was only nine and my mind wandered).

Naturally, there was not a dry eye in the house, which, fortunately, did not come tumbling down like the cartoon.

To this day, I've never heard O Holy Night sung as well. No one even comes close.

That lady was:

Spoiler

My mom! She was a classically trained opera singer in her youth.

True story!

Vandal wrote:Back in the late '60s (that would be the 1960s), we used to attend midnight mass at a Hungarian church. The entire service was in Hungarian, except for the songs. The lady that sang had an operatic range and could hit some amazing notes. The highlight was her rendition of O Holy Night, which always brought down the house.

She sang it traditionally through the first refrain, then launched into opera mode, rattling the walls when she got to "Oh night Diviiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine".

It reminded me of the classic Bugs Bunny cartoon in which Bugs plays Leopold the conductor and he makes the opera singer hold the final note perilously long (hey, I was only nine and my mind wandered).

Naturally, there was not a dry eye in the house, which, fortunately, did not come tumbling down like the cartoon.

To this day, I've never heard O Holy Night sung as well. No one even comes close.

The Christmas after we joined the church where we are now attending there was a woman who would go on to sing with the Met (Marilyn Mims) who sang that song in full operatic style. Meaning no disrespect to your mother, but I thought Marilyn's rendition was awful. That song doesn't need a lot of vocal histrionics, which Marilyn provided.

Vandal wrote:Back in the late '60s (that would be the 1960s), we used to attend midnight mass at a Hungarian church.

Naturally, there was not a dry eye in the house, which, fortunately, did not come tumbling down like the cartoon.

To this day, I've never heard O Holy Night sung as well. No one even comes close.

That lady was:

Spoiler

My mom! She was a classically trained opera singer in her youth.

Wow...There is nothing better than hearing someone sing "O Holy Night" like they were born to do it!

Thanks van for sharing!

fuzzy

We put toiletries in stockings every year. Still do. I insist on two tubes of toothpaste.

I got the biggest kick out of reading something from Caroline Kennedy. Something to the effect that her mother was the last person in North America who thought walnuts were an appropriate stocking stuffer.

I always had a small bag of mixed nuts and an orange in the toe.

Because there were so many cousins on the TLAF side of the family (I am one of 25 first cousins, although my two baby cousins are 11 years younger than I am), we had a Pollyanna each year, exchanging presents at Marietta and Pop's house in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia.

We usually had shifts, since almost all of us lived in the same neighborhood -- Paradise, a couple of neighborhoods down from Roxborough.

The families with far-flung in-laws went to Roxborough first, then to the in-laws. Those of us with Paradise or close-by in-laws went THERE first, then to Roxborough. As a rule, we'd crossed shifts for a bit for the present exchange.

Anyway, when I was in about fifth grade, I got a very nice fourtain pen. I was beyond excited. I was a grown-up.

One other Christmas really sticks out. I was three, I think. Maybe four but I don't think so.

My dad had been on strike for a couple of months, although I think he was back to work by Christmas. If not, he was back right after the new year.

But, I got wonderful presents. A floppy yarn dog, made by the wife of one of dad's fellow bus mechanics. And two yarn dolls in red outfits. TLAF made them. I called them Ann and Feeney, for my parents.

There's a picture of me, squeezing Ann and Feeney. I have the silliest grin on my face but I was so happy to get them and I loved them so much.

Yarn Ann and Feeney now sit in a basket in my bedroom at the shore. They are in their 50s but very happy and looking good for their years. I gave the floppy yard dog to my cousin, Regina. It's in her granddaughter's bedroom now.

December 1989-the week before Christmas was spent in London. This was a "combination present" for my brother and me-we were both born in December. All four of us flew over 2 days before my brother's birthday.

London in December is cold and rainy. I think we only had one nice day the whole week, and that was the day we saw the Tower of London. We also saw the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, the Tate Gallery (my dad wanted to go there), Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, Westminster Abbey-we were still jet-lagged when we walked there from our hotel,
the British Museum (this place is HUGE and you'd need several days to see everything in it!) and we had lunch one day at the original Hard Rock Cafe-it was really NOISY in there!

We all had a great time and my dad took lots of pictures-he was an amateur photographer. Looking at the picures brings back a lot of fun memories.

It was when my older brother came home from Vietnam on Dec. 17. He left on Jan. 3 and was supposed to be over there a year, but they let a bunch of them go home early.

As Jean Shepherd says about the BB gun, "It was the best Christmas present I had ever received or would ever receive."

Skoop was asking about what to send to a solder overseas -- I guarantee that homemade baked goodies are gonna be in anybody's Top 10. He used to trade "Twists," a specialty of my grandmother's, for just about any commodity he wanted.

OK, first a totally materialistic memory. I'm not sure if I'll get around to the others, but they do make me very, very happy.

We were a family that got to open one present on Christmas Eve. Like some others here, it was ALWAYS pajamas. My theory is that my parents wanted my sister and I to look respectable for the pictures the next morning. LOL

A couple of years after my parents divorced we were at my Dad's house for Christmas Eve. I was either 10 or 11. My dad did something out of character and said that we could each open one other gift, besides the usual pajamas.

I opened mine............


It was an Atari game!


We didn't HAVE an Atari console yet, so I knew what I was getting!!! LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!!

It did suck though, because Dad had no idea that we needed the little switch (TV/Console switch) from Radio Shack so that we could play. First thing on the day after Christmas we were there!


Cindy, girl-gamer, but shhh don't tell.

I can't remember if this was Christmas, but it was cold, and it was special, so here goes....

I was nine, and we were broke. Dad could not find work in his field (drafting/design), and was selling smoke alarms, not very successfully. Mom had not yet started working at the arts center, so there was very little money. We lived in apartments near the Coliseum, and got flooded every so often because our apartment was near the creek. I know we were broke because Mom and Dad wanted to take us to the Baskin-Robbins, which I just checked, is 3 miles, and they did not want to spend gas to do it, so we walked.

My brothers would have been 8 and 6. It seemed like it took forever to walk there. I know it was coldish and overcast. We were happy to be getting ice cream, but there was some sense in which I thought it would be our last treat for a very long time. We ate a lot of pinto beans and cornbread then, and macaroni and tomatoes my great-grandmother had canned in the summer. Even now I do not like cornbread much. It sticks in my throat even if it's not dry.

We could see the B-R a couple of stores down, as we walked through a parking lot. My dad stopped, and bent over, and picked up something. He showed it to Mom, and their faces both changed. It was a $20 bill. This was 1976, so that would go a little farther than today. They could not stop smiling. I don't know how close it had gotten, but that may have bought us another week's food, and then maybe something turned the corner.

I can't remember all the details, and the filter of a nine-year-old is not that reliable. But it made a big impression on me, that sometimes you get lucky, and you get saved by something you didn't earn even though you were trying.

Ritterskoop wrote:I can't remember if this was Christmas, but it was cold, and it was special, so here goes....

I was nine, and we were broke. Dad could not find work in his field (drafting/design), and was selling smoke alarms, not very successfully. Mom had not yet started working at the arts center, so there was very little money. We lived in apartments near the Coliseum, and got flooded every so often because our apartment was near the creek. I know we were broke because Mom and Dad wanted to take us to the Baskin-Robbins, which I just checked, is 3 miles, and they did not want to spend gas to do it, so we walked.

My brothers would have been 8 and 6. It seemed like it took forever to walk there. I know it was coldish and overcast. We were happy to be getting ice cream, but there was some sense in which I thought it would be our last treat for a very long time. We ate a lot of pinto beans and cornbread then, and macaroni and tomatoes my great-grandmother had canned in the summer. Even now I do not like cornbread much. It sticks in my throat even if it's not dry.

We could see the B-R a couple of stores down, as we walked through a parking lot. My dad stopped, and bent over, and picked up something. He showed it to Mom, and their faces both changed. It was a $20 bill. This was 1976, so that would go a little farther than today. They could not stop smiling. I don't know how close it had gotten, but that may have bought us another week's food, and then maybe something turned the corner.

I can't remember all the details, and the filter of a nine-year-old is not that reliable. But it made a big impression on me, that sometimes you get lucky, and you get saved by something you didn't earn even though you were trying.

I knew I dropped a bill near a Baskin Robbins back in '76! I'm glad you found it for me.

I will take it back, along with the $8,526.44 in interest that has accrued on that loan in the past 31 years.

Don't make me send Bob "The Hatchet" Cratchit out looking for you....

Ritterskoop wrote:I can't remember if this was Christmas, but it was cold, and it was special, so here goes....

I was nine, and we were broke. Dad could not find work in his field (drafting/design), and was selling smoke alarms, not very successfully. Mom had not yet started working at the arts center, so there was very little money. We lived in apartments near the Coliseum, and got flooded every so often because our apartment was near the creek. I know we were broke because Mom and Dad wanted to take us to the Baskin-Robbins, which I just checked, is 3 miles, and they did not want to spend gas to do it, so we walked.

My brothers would have been 8 and 6. It seemed like it took forever to walk there. I know it was coldish and overcast. We were happy to be getting ice cream, but there was some sense in which I thought it would be our last treat for a very long time. We ate a lot of pinto beans and cornbread then, and macaroni and tomatoes my great-grandmother had canned in the summer. Even now I do not like cornbread much. It sticks in my throat even if it's not dry.

We could see the B-R a couple of stores down, as we walked through a parking lot. My dad stopped, and bent over, and picked up something. He showed it to Mom, and their faces both changed. It was a $20 bill. This was 1976, so that would go a little farther than today. They could not stop smiling. I don't know how close it had gotten, but that may have bought us another week's food, and then maybe something turned the corner.

I can't remember all the details, and the filter of a nine-year-old is not that reliable. But it made a big impression on me, that sometimes you get lucky, and you get saved by something you didn't earn even though you were trying.

If your family had drived to B-R, your Dad would have never found the money.