Christmas Memories

[Dyna64]

Our theme this year is Special Christmas Memories. Does anyone have any special Christmas memories that you would share? I would love to know what made/makes Christmas special to you. What are the smells, colors,or sounds related to your memory? Im hoping to draw inspiration from your memories to help me pull it all together. I appreciate any ideas that you have to share.

[josh24.15couple]

Here are a few of my memories that come to mind...

Our house did not have a fireplace for Santa Claus to come down, so Mama made sure the front door was unlocked. One year we put out cookies and milk for Santa and wrote a note to him that said, "Did you like the cookies? Yes or No." and Santa had to circle yes or no with a crayon.

My favorite smell of Christmas is a real cedar tree. We always had cedar trees, cut from the woods around our neighborhood.

One year was a sad Christmas----a couple of weeks before Christmas my sister and I were playing hide and go seek and I hid under Mama and Daddy's bed. Guess what I found? You got it, I found some games and puzzles that weren't wrapped. When Mama told me the truth, I cried and cried. My sister laughed at me!

After Santa quit coming, our Christmases were timed according to what shift at work my Daddy was on. He worked for International Paper and worked a different shift each week, so if he was working the day shift, we opened gifts that afternoon when he got home. If he was working the evening shift, we opened presents the next morning. if he was on the graveyard (night shift) we would open presents the next morning or in the late afternoon if he was able to get up earlier than usual before going to work.

Our mother was the one who taught us how to correctly wrap presents so they turned out really pretty and nice. My sister and I have relied on those lessons all through our lives.

Our family does not like turkey, so our meal (and usually at Thanksgiving also) was ham, chicken and dressing, English peas, fruit salad, strawberry congealed salad, deviled eggs, and sweet potato casserole or creamed sweet potatoes. For dessert it was usually pecan pie, egg custard pie, coconut cake, etc. Our mother is an awesome cook, taught by her mother, who was taught by her mother, etc. She doesn't fix fancy dishes and meals, just wonderful Southern cooking!

All of this talk of memories has made me ready to get out the decorations!!!

[Dyna64]

What great memories! I hadnt even thought about cookies for santa. THANK YOU! Thank you for your reply, and for your detailed description!

[Borntoserve]

The memories I have of Christmas I looked forward to watching Rudolf the red nose reindeer and all the other specials on T.v. every Christmas the excitement I felt thinking of what I wanted for gifts and couldn't wait till it was time to go to bed on Christmas eve so we could get up early to open presents. I was pretty disappointed one year to find out Santa wasn't real...one year I had some sleigh bells in bed with me and when all was asleep I rang them so my younger siblings would think Santa was on our roof to only hear my mother a couple minutes later call out my name to stop it! When I was 5 yrs.old I was dressed as Mary sitting on stage looking down at baby Jesus lying in the manger I remember feeling so delighted in playing that role in Church. I liked helping my mom decorate the tree and I loved the smell of the tree. I enjoyed putting decals on the windows. At dinner I stuffed myself like a turkey! The thing that puzzled me as a child was some of the things that were in my stocking like these big nuts at that time i didn't know what they were I remember trying to bite into it and wondered what to do with it? My mom put oranges and apples in our stocking too thinking about it now makes me chuckle As a child knowing that it's when we celebrate the birth of Jesus I wondered why we were getting the gifts... but I never complained!

[PastorsWife]

Christmas Eve we always meet with our entire family which is lots and lots of people. We read the Christmas story by candle light. It really helps us keep our focus during the exciting time of presents and such.

We do a "special dinner" with our immediate family members with china dishes and crystal out. (15 people) The kids always think this is so special.

I love giving presents at Christmas. This year my seven year old daughter is making Christmas presents for everyone in our family. She has been working already for a couple months. Potholders for each lady, bookmarkers for each man, necklaces for her cousins.

Decorating our home just makes me smile walking around. My husband likes to do his morning devotions by our Christmas tree with only the lights of the tree on. Or in the kitchen as I put lights all over our house.

Christmas cookies are a special time too as I like baking with my daughter. Special memories.

Something else I love is at Christmas we go around and visit each family in our church (which takes most of the Month of December) and look at their Christmas trees and decorations. This year we are giving out an ornament at each house as we visit.

Can you tell I just love Christmas!!!!