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sylviatexas1

Post Your Favorite Christmas Memories

sylviatexas1
17 years ago

When I was little, Thanksgiving & Christmas were *always* at our grandparents' house:

Granny & Papa had 12 children, scattered from Texas to California to England, so their little house was the central point!

& being the early 60's, when 4 kids & a station wagon were the ideal, I had lots of cousins.

We kids usually had "dinner" (mid-day meal) at a picnic table in what we called the "park", a wooded area with persimmon & pecan trees & a fish pond.

It was heavenly.

We often had fresh cantaloupe & tomatoes from the garden along with our turkey & dressing & ham & green beans & cranberry sauce.

The Christmas Tree, where presents were opened, was held on Christmas Eve.

Every year, when the party was in full swing & we were distracted with the festivities, my father & my Uncle Nick would leave, saying they had to run by our house to feed the cow.

By the time they returned, it was late, & we went home.

& guess what???

*Santa* had been to our house!

The explanation was that our small town in Texas was one of Santa's first stops on his very long route.

Comments (12)

  • pjtexgirl
    17 years ago

    Lights. You can't put up enough Christmas lights. I still love them!PJ

  • Jacquelyn8b
    17 years ago

    The Christmas of 1999.
    My husband was working 7am to 7pm and I was off. The kids came downstairs, looked at all the presents and started to cry. They refused to open anything without daddy being there!
    Our son snuck a call to the station, spoke to my husband's sergeant and got daddy sent him home for an hour to have Christmas with his family. It was the only time we were all together on Christmas morning.

  • natvtxn
    17 years ago

    When I was growing up, we always had our "tree" Christmas morning, before driving to Grandmother's.
    One year we begged and peaded to have the "tree" on Christmas eve, like a neighbor did. That was such fun....until we got up the next morning to a "naked" tree.
    Never again did we want to do that.

    Christmas of 1989 my jewish step-granddaughters were visiting. Their mother explained that Santa went to Christian homes. If they just happened to be there he would bring gifts for them too. When I got up they were both sitting there in awe of the tree and gifts. They looked like little angels and had not touched a thing.
    I played all excited that Santa had been there. I never dreamed one would be upset that someone had been in the house while we were sleeping. I don't remember now how we settled that, but eventually she forgot it and had a good time.

  • mikeandbarb
    17 years ago

    Oh Kathy, the poor girl but I'm sure she's over it now and laughs at the memory of it as you do.


    LOL PJ, I'm with you but I love seeing OTHER peoples Christmas lights, shame on me for not hanging many out and forgetting to turn them on at night.

    I don't have just one favorite Christmas cause I'm the type that loves having the family together and if we're all together I'm happy.

    As a child I do however remember waiting for our package to arrive from our grandmother in Colo. every year without fail she'd wrap every package then place them in a large box for shipping to us and every year she would place a silver dollar inside, one for me and one for my sister, of course I spent mine on candy as fast as my little feet could take me two blocks up to Motts. Year's later and to this day I wish I still had those silver dollars but I know I made the little ol' ladies happy at Motts every year, cause one time I seen one of them take a dollar from her purse slip the silver dollar into her purse and place the dollar bill into the cash register.

    One other special Christmas that I remember was the time my grandparents and cousin's came from Colo, for Christmas. We had a family reunion I was 9 / 10 LOL BD being the third day after christmas, this was the first time I remember all of us being together for christmas. The family had rented a hall and my cousin's being teenage boy's had the bright idea of taking some of the cars and parking them on the ramp that was in front of the doors blocking the door way, Well, you can guess what happened next, one of our uncle's came down and saw all the cars parked on the ramp and he yelled out and the boy's went flying everywhere trying to get out of the way, I know they rounded up all that was involved but what they did to them I don't know. I do remember all the one's who's cars were parked there had a scowl on their face.

  • olphart
    17 years ago

    Back-to-back, and exact opposite Christmases.

    1969 Â I was sitting in the galley on the submarine I was serving on Christmas Eve when one of the officers asked me why I hadnÂt gone home for Christmas. I told him I didnÂt have any leave coming. He took care of that. I arrived at the house (in Houston) about 11pm that night surprising my wife and mom. My dad knew cause he had to pick me up at the airport.

    The next year was memorable for an opposite reason. I never would have guessed I would be spending Christmas Eve eating watermelon and pineapple slices with chopsticks while watching a floorshow of Chinese acrobats, jugglers and other performers while eating a 9-course Chinese dinner. I was in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

  • PKponder TX Z7B
    17 years ago

    When I was about 10, a bit past the age of believing, I pretended to be asleep on Christmas Eve when my mom came in to check. I had found her stash of gifts in one of the barns a few days before. I heard her quietly slip out the back door and I peeked out the window at her opening the gate and walking up the path to the barn. I felt so smug because I was in on the big secret...I was the eldest with 2 younger brothers who still believed in Santa. I laid back down on the bed, thinking about all the toys I had seen in my sneaked peek of the gifts! Suddenly I heard a jingle of bells from outside, then another. The sound was coming from the front side of the house and my mom had gone out the back. I raced to the window, almost afraid to look out and I swear, high in the sky was Santa's sleigh. All I could see was lots of red lights, very high and in a configuration that I imagined to be Santa's sleigh! I could still hear the bells jingling!

    Maybe I was dreaming, maybe something just wanted to keep me young and believing for a few more years!

    Pam

  • Jacquelyn8b
    17 years ago

    I love all of your Christmas memories!

    This may be the one my best friend remembers.
    So far this week, her daughter (age 4) has opened all the gifts, and I mean ALL of them, after everyone had gone to sleep. She was helping her momma by sweeping the kitchen and "accidently" turned the stove on and lit the broom. Then she calmly walked out the back door as if she were carrying a ceremonial torch and tossed it into the pool!
    Her coal-in-the-stocking move was letting the cat out so, "Fluffy can find Santa's spys."
    Unfortunantly, Fluffy hasn't been seen since.

  • natvtxn
    17 years ago

    OMG! How funny, but I bet her mother doesn't think so.

  • mikeandbarb
    17 years ago

    OMG, Jac...
    Your poor friend is in for a long busy road keeping up with her DD LOL.... Opening all the presents is funny, to bad they didn't have a video camera set up to cacth it all.

  • carrie751
    17 years ago

    For her own safety, maybe they should consider "locking" her in for the night. LOL Whew -------------- she is a challenge!!!

  • natvtxn
    17 years ago

    I just got off the phone with my DIL. Her mother's name is Donna. My granddaughter told Donna the reason Santa does not go to Donna's is because she doesn't have a "real" tree.
    Well,.... DS and DIL bought an artificial tree this year. They had to come up with a plan so Jesse would not freak out. They explained that the tree turns real while santa is there.

  • Jacquelyn8b
    17 years ago

    Why not! Santa's magic knows no limits ;)

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