The Happy Christmas Memories Thread

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I find the yearly “bad gift” threads entertaining, although this year it seemed like there were a lot of people really upset with their gifts instead of just laughing it off or letting it pass with an eye roll.

That being said, I’m starting a positive Christmas memories thread. What are some fun traditions you have, and will continue to share with your future generations?

Are there any specific (and interesting) memories you have growing up? I’ll start… I started a tradition by accident in my family, and it’s just grown more exciting every year.

Just for fun one year, I used a ‘system’ when wrapping gifts before I put them under the tree. I don’t specifically remember what the ‘system’ was, but it was something like blue bow = son’s gift, red bow = daughter #1’s gift, green bow = daughter #2’s gift. It’s more more complex than that, but you get the idea. The kids were nearly driven to insanity (in a fun way) trying to figure out the system.

Every year since then, it’s brought countless fun times to our Christmases, plus it encourages me to get some of the gifts wrapped early so the kids can figure out what the ‘system’ is. (I use the word ‘system’ in single quotes because my youngest daughter is convinced it’s the same method to identify the gifts each year.

My youngest daughter is now 18, and this year I put gifts under the tree with no names on them again, and she is WAY excited looking at each package trying to figure out which gift belongs to whom.

On a somewhat interesting side note, I may be a grandfather (G-Diddy as my daughter says) for the first time later on today. I may have to think about passing on the ‘system’ to my son. :slight_smile:

2

I love the wrapping challenge idea, Enright3. (And congrats on impending G-Diddyhood!)

I’ve told this on the board before, but what the hell. I’m going to say this happened in the late '80s. My sibs and I were all out on our own, but we still gathered at Mom and Dad’s for Christmas morning. So on this particular Christmas morning, I look out the front door, and there, in the neighbor’s yard, stood a pony with a big red bow on its halter. My parents lived in a very suburban neighborhood, so this was an unusual sight, to say the least. I hollered for my sisters to come see. All those years we’d begged our parents for a pony – and here was proof that some kids actually DO get ponies for Christmas.

OMG!!! PONIES!!1!

3

I have two very good Christmas memories.

First one you need to understand that when I was very young we were quite poor and I would tell my Mom that when I grow up I’m gonna be rich and send you to Hawaii. When I grew up I found out you didn’t need to be be rich and Mom and Dad didn’t want to go to Hawaii. But they *did *want to go to Las Vegas. So I bought them tickets and put in a note that said: When I was young I promised I would send you to Hawaii. I hope you like this better. Dad got all choked up when he read it.

Second one is a little more fun. It was the early nineties and I bought Mom and Dad a Nintendo 128 for Christmas. I dunno what made me do it. It was a whim. But because I buy my gifts early (think August) I started to doubt and worry. It turned out that they loved it. They got hooked on Ms. Pacman. Mom said she would catch Dad playing in the middle of the night (with the sound off) so that he could get good enough to beat her the next night. They would come home late from a trip and say: We’ll just play one - and then stay up until midnight playing. That first year they played every single day except the one day when Dad had pneumonia - and he got out of bed the next day to play. It was the best present I ever gave, because they had so many good memories with it. Dad is gone, but Mom still talks about it. (Wow, why is the screen blurry?)

4

Are you a Granddaddy, yet? How exciting!

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Thank you, Khadaji. That was really nice.

And congratulations G-Diddy!

6

When I was 16 I had my wisdom teeth out over Christmas break. I got ILL in a big way, either from the blood I swallowed or the anesthesia or something, so I didn’t get to Christmas shop, and by Christmas I was barely functional, and still sick and weak. My parents bought me 3 books of poetry (among other things), and it made me so happy I cried all over both of them. Good times. :slight_smile:

When I was 17, my dad got me a calligraphy set for Christmas as a “reward” for having worked so hard to make my incredibly bad handwriting legible and attractive. FF to my early 20’s, when I was young, and poor, and on my own. I used that exact same calligraphy gift to make gifts for my family–poems illustrated or decorated with stickers, drawings, or dried flowers, and framed. I made one for my mom and step-dad called “The Bear-dy Bunch.” They were both collecting teddy-bears so I made a “story” about all of us and illustrated it with customized teddy-bears, one for each person. They both cried. :slight_smile:

When I was a young married, the very last year that my whole family/step-family was together, we snuck off with my adopted sister, who was two at the time and had a group picture made–me, my husband, my brother, SIL, niece, step-sisters, step-brother, and the adopted sister–and wrapped the proof up for my mom and step-dad, since the prints wouldn’t be in in time. They cried again. :slight_smile:

God, I love Christmas.

7

When I was a kid, my parents had a little store on a shopping street in south St. Louis, so from Thanksgiving to Christmas, Mom and Dad both worked 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Then they’d go to the store for a few hours on Sundays to tidy up and redecorate the windows. When we weren’t in school, my sisters and I would be in the back room at the store with instructions to be quiet so the customers wouldn’t hear us. Or even worse, when they’d put me in a suit and have me wait on customers. It was back in the time when you expected someone to wait on you and show you stuff when you went to a store. I hated talking to people, but it was great marketing; they sold purses and costume jewelry and women thought a 6-year-old in a suit was adorable. I had to stand on a stool to work the cash register or get purses out of the display cases.

It was cold in the back room, so we had a couple of space heaters - that we named Robert and Roberta (I can’t remember why). There was a huge, obsolete world map from between the world wars that entertained us for hours. A lot of times our folks would turn us loose on the street. I guess it was the 1960 equivalent of a shopping mall. We were just like 5-6-7 years old, but it seemed like everyone who had a store knew who we were. So basically, we were safe but we also had to behave. The street was all lit up, with garlands across the street for the holidays and all the stores were playing holiday music. It was cold and snowy and slushy and sloppy and full of people shopping and colorful and happy. Stores with creaky wooden floors (we even knew where the creakiest spots were), narrow aisles with stuff sometimes stacked to the ceiling. If our folks gave us money to eat at the SS Kresge lunch counter (MAJOR treat!!), we’d scam extra pickles and potato chips from the counter lady by being all polite and friendly and such well-behaved little kids.

Finally, on Christmas Eve, Mom and Dad closed early, at 5 PM. We’d all pile into the car, Dad yelling at us kids to shut up because all the water vapor from our breath was fogging up the windows. We’d go drive around looking at people’s Christmas lights and yard displays, and then we’d go to a burger joint to pick up dinner before we’d head home. We could have whatever we wanted: I can remember one time at White Castle, Dad and I ordered 120 burgers. We’d head home and the family would feast on burgers, potato chips and soda. Then we’d hang up our stockings and head to bed. I can remember being snug under the quilts, wearing mittens and a knit hat and Mom would read us “The Night Before Christmas” before turning out our bedroom light. We’d whisper to each other to stay awake till Santa came, but alas, we always fell asleep.

8

What’s the appropriate comment here? “sqweeee?”:
YES!!!
Charlotte Grace, 8 lbs, 6 ozs. :slight_smile:

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Congratulations!

One of my best Christmas memories is from just last year. I was up late on Christmas Eve, just sitting in the living room in front of the tree with a cup of tea and a book. I wasn’t tired, (probably from the anticipation; at 19 I’m still a kid at heart) and it was maybe 3 in the morning. My mom got up to adjust the heat or use the bathroom or something and she heard me, so she came out and we just sat talking. After a few minutes, she turns to me and asks if I want to open our presents. Of course! We opened all of our presents and made my brother open his when he rolled in around 5 or so, then we went back to bed until 10 whereupon my mother made us a big ol’ breakfast. It was just so quiet and nice, it wasn’t like any other Christmases I’d had. Not the most exciting memory, but it’s still a really pleasant one.

10

Most excellent! What a gorgeous name! Is this your first grandchild?

11

Ohhhh I love the name. My daughters middle name is Grace too!

Congrats!:slight_smile:

12

I love these stories! I could never get my mom to leave our home town. I never even tried for anything as exotic as a trip to anywhere exciting. I just wanted her to come to Atlanta (from Oklahoma) to visit. NoCanDo. My father in law used to love playing his regular old-school Nintendo. I hinted that I might get him a Wii for Christmas because of another thread on the SDMB! My mother in law didn’t care for the idea. I might do it just to piss her off anyway, because I know he’d love it!.:stuck_out_tongue:

Oh, and regarding the blurred screen? I’m having that problem too after reading your post. My mom died last March (even more sadly… nine months prior to seeing her first great-grand-child). :frowning:

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Yes. My son is leading the pack on the new brood of cousins. :slight_smile:

14

Growing up we always opened our gifts on Christmas eve. Out in rural Oklahoma Santa had to come early. It never even seemed odd to me until I got married. My mom would have some reason for us to leave the house, and we’d come back and the gifts would be there! :smack:

15

Enright3, that’s awesome! Have a virtual cigar. Last year my GF’s ex-husband and his wife had to leave her Christmas Eve party early to have a special gift delivered on Christmas Day. Little baby Ian is the cutest thing. (Next to Charlotte Grace, of course!)

Three years ago my then-GF and I couldn’t get to Florida, because we waited to long to get plane tickets and they were way too expensive. We ended up spending the day at her sister’s house. It was an especially tough year for them, because they had lost their mother the previous summer.

There was no room at the house, so we ended up staying at a Holiday Inn. I woke up early on Christmas morning, threw on my bathing suit, and went to the pool. I had it all to myself, and it was incredibly peaceful.

Later that day, Bobby’s mom set up an elaborate scene with little wooden cars, streets, buildings, and trees. It took up most of the living room floor. Bestest toy ever. When Bobby got up from his nap, he ran into the living room and stopped short. You see, he was adopted from a dysfunctional family where he got zero love, and he had never before received a Christmas present. He just stood and stared, mouth wide open, with his rosie cheeks and curly blond hair. There was no joy, only astonishment. Someone asked him what the toy was, and he just let out a bewildered “I don’t know.”

I spent the rest of the morning helping Bobby with the rest of his toys, all of which were labelled “Some assembly required.”

After lunch, GF and I headed off to catch a ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. It was light out when we embarked, and dark when we disembarked. The island is absolutely gorgeous at Christmas. No gaudy inflatable Santas there – everything has a real Victorian look.

We ended up eating a fancy French restaurant, the only one open on the island on Christmas. I had the duck. It was awesome.

After dinner, we were walking down the street, and a car pulled up beside us. “Excuse me, have you seen a couple of yellow labs? They got out, and we can’t find them anywhere.” Sorry, lady, we haven’t. Wish we could help you. They pulled away from us and turned the corner. At that exact moment, there they were – thick as thieves and up to no good. They were clearly in the mood to eat some pussy. We tried to hold them there while we waited for police to arrive, but they eventually ran away.

16

Maybe I’m extracting too much out of once sentence, but it sounds like you have a good relationship with your GF’s ex-husband and his wife. That alone does my heart good. :slight_smile:

I’d like to go to Martha’s Vineyard. I have some friends that live near there… so maybe some day.

The golden labs were clearly in the mood for what? :o

17

I didn’t know them (or her) until this past spring. But they still attend her Christmas party every year, plus their kids’ birthdays and a few other events. In fact, last weekend, we all went out to chip in for a guitar for their son. It was a lot of fun for all of us.

18

Oh and…

Yes, go there. I love that place. I can recommend some great places to stay and to eat.

19

Congratulations!! I just found out my baby girl is expecting next summer! First grandbaby!
I remember one xmas eve, my Daddy read “Rudolph” to me when I was in bed. After finishing the story, he said “listen–I hear them on the roof!”. I heard the sleighbells jingling, and closed my eyes to sleep. It was years later that I realized he was rattling the keys in his pocket. To my four year old mind, it really was sleighbells. Now my screen’s blurry. Miss you, Daddy.

20

My favourite is when I was very young, up until I was about 6 or 7.

My mom never decorated the tree before Christmas - it was all done on Christmas Eve after I went to bed.

It was magical in the morning with the Christmas lights and decorations on the tree.

I loved it. It was much better than now, when everyone puts up their tree so early.

It was just magic.