Your childhood Christmases

[Night Elf]

Ever since my kids were old enough for gifts and Santa stuff under the tree, I've strived to give them the kinds of Christmases I remember from my childhood. The thing is my family didn't have a lot of money, but my mom always staged Christmas to make it look like a huge affair. I would get board games, puzzles, new crayons and coloring books. She just distributed the stuff over our small living room to make it look like we got a lot stuff. As an adult, I told her I remember those holidays fondly and she was so excited that she created such wonderful memories for me and my sister.

 

I'd say one of my happiest memories is the year I got a bicycle. I was 9 or 10 years old. It was a huge gift that my mom had saved up for months. On Christmas morning, I was so excited about all my gifts and after everything was open, my mom asked me if I liked the bicycle that Santa left for me. I told her that wasn't mine, it belonged to my older sister. I felt like she was the one that got the better gifts and I got hand-me-downs. I was fine with it, but the idea that the bicycle was for me was just completely not in my expectations. It took my sister to tell me that Santa left it for me and not for her for me to finally believe them. Then my sister offered to ride her bike with me. I don't remember her doing a lot of nice things for me but I definitely remember that. I felt so grownup.

[Chris in VA]

That's so sweet!

 

Several things stand out for me. One of them--

 

I had two older brothers (by 5 and 6 years) who, while nice enough kids, really didn't do much with me. On Christmas morning, however, I was allowed into their room. We got our stockings on our beds in the morning so we could give M & D a little extra sleep in time; I'd open mine, then go into their room to wake them up and watch them open theirs. There was no fighting or teasing, only a special Christmas feeling of tenderness and love. It wasn't the only time they were nice to me! But it was a given that I wouldn't be yelled at or disdained, but accepted and loved. We'd call our old beagle, Sam, up the stairs (he wasn't normally allowed in the bedrooms), and troop together into my parents room. Then we'd all wait while Dad set up the big lights and the camera and filmed us coming down the stairs to the tree to begin to open presents. 

 

I give my kids their stockings in their beds as they sleep on Christmas Eve. My husband needs a few extra minutes in the am, as he works the late service and gets home at 1:30 or so. I have the same family configuration as my nuclear fam did--2 older boys, one younger girl. And she opens her stocking and then goes into her brother's room to wake them, just like I did.

 

 

[MyThreeSons]

We didn't have much money either. One year, my sister and I both got brand new bicycles. They were so shiny and beautiful! Many years later, I found out that they weren't new at all. My parents had gotten them at a garage sale, and had spent hours sanding, repainting and shining them up. I'll have to ask my Mom how they kept it a secret from us. They must have kept them stored at a neighbor's house or something, and worked on them after we went to bed. 

[Angie in VA]

I remember a few Christmases w/ big gifts (like a stereo or a ring w/ real diamonds in it!) but it's the traditions I now fondly recall. 

 

Mom and Dad made sausage balls. The Christmas music, one particular 8 track tape that I wish I had to see if there was a cd version of it. Really, it haunts me to this day. I loved that music! Mom's Colonial Williamsburg inspired wreath, oh, and I was always allowed to set up the Nativity set! Talk about feeling special. :)

 

I always had an orange in my stocking. One year Mom realized that it wasn't a big deal for my generation, but she did that b/c she got an orange in her stocking and it *was* a big deal back then! We now put the chocolate oranges in all of our stockings (yes, DH and me, included!).

 

And then there was this: 

 

pic removed 9-11-14 little candelabra that made something spin and hit little chimes w/ an angel on the top. 

 

Ah, the memories!

 

 

[lynn]

My mom always made Christmas good for us.  I know they did not have a lot of money for the 5 of us but we were always happy.  Back then, geesh I'm getting old when I can use that phrase,  some foods were seasonal or mom just bought them at Christmas, not sure which, and I remember always looking forward to the "fancy foods" of olives, cheese, nuts, summer sausage, cranberry sauce being part of our holiday feast.  Mom never baked cookies but would make a batch of sugar cookies and decorated them so beautifully with colored royal frosting, which I never seem to get just right and keeping to her German heritage would make Christmas Stollen.  

 

Gifts were simple one main gift and a couple smaller ones. 

[Plink]

My favorite memory is a goofy one. We were given a Christmas music tape by a friend who was a trucker. It was a freebie from Shell. We didn't have many tapes, so it came out every year.

 

I can still sing the first track on side A word for word. It was the jingle "You get farther down the road with Shell Rotella" and I can't help but think of it as a Christmas song. :)

[RoughCollie]

My sister and I were busy at Christmas.  We saved up our allowance all year so we could buy presents for our parents and our dog.  We made Christmas stockings for all three, and filled them.  The dog's stocking was distinctive because we sewed jingle bells on it ... we didn't want anyone to get her stocking by mistake.

 

My mom put my sister and I in charge of all baking when I was 10.  Mom doesn't like to bake.  We would set up the kitchen and dining room like an assembly line with at least a dozen kinds of cookies.  We looked forward to the special foods of Christmas:  Stollen and Lebkuchen.

 

The tree went up on Christmas Eve, because my mom is German.  We celebrated St. Nicholas Day, and the four Sundays of Advent.  Santa's arrival was much anticipated, of course.  When we lived in Ramstein, everyone had huge picture windows they would paint with pretty elaborate Christmas scenes.

 

Every year, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer was shown on TV.  We really looked forward to that!

 

We had fun at school, too.  Each classroom had a Christmas tree, and we did Christmas-themed activities, read Christmas books, listened to and sang Christmas songs, and had a huge Christmas party.  There was always a Christmas play and concert.  Then we got 2 weeks off from school.  My Dad was in the Air Force, and it was the same wherever we were stationed.

 

My two favorite Christmases were the year I got Chatty Cathy, with a large wardrobe my mom sewed for her, and the year I got a Kodak Instamatic camera so I could take pictures of our dog.  My DD's middle name is Catherine, in memory of Chatty Cathy.

We usually got dolls, games, a few books, and other small things I don't recall.  I remember every doll, though.

 

Our wants were few, which was a good thing since the budget was tight.  I had kids of my own before I realized how many great toys were available when I was a kid that I didn't know about.  The only thing I didn't get that I wanted was a huge $25 stuffed St. Bernard.  In today's dollars, that toy would cost $125, and I knew at the time that it was way too expensive.  I really wanted a real St. Bernard, so this was a disappointment, not a huge deal.

 

 

[AngelaNYC]

We lived with my grandparents from when I was 5 to about 12.  We grew up pretty poor in a small NYC apartment, but my family always made Christmas a special time.  It wasn't until my sister and I were asleep (early) on Christmas Eve that my grandfather would go out and buy a real tree.  Then he, my grandmother, my mom, and my uncle would decorate the tree and the entire house - red lit bells around doorways, brick patterned corrugated crepe paper on one whole wall (to kinda look like a fireplace wall), filled-to-the-brim stockings (oranges and apples in the toe), and the huge nativity scene under the tree.  I would always have new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve (my mom still buys us all new pajamas for Christmas Eve) and wake up and see new slippers next to my bed.  Christmas morning we'd open our presents and have a wonderful pancake and bacon breakfast.  In the late afternoon, we always went to my Aunt Pat's (my grandmother's sister) and stayed there till really late.  Aunt Pat had a big family and I loved seeing them every year.  Her gift to us every single year was a yarn Lifesaver doll and a box of Lifesaver packs (shaped like a book) - with $10 tucked inside.  Anyone remember those?

 

 

[antsam]

Her gift to us every single year was a yarn Lifesaver doll and a box of Lifesaver packs (shaped like a book) - with $10 tucked inside. Anyone remember those?

 

 

Oh my goodness! My godmother used to give us one of those every year for Christmas. I think of her every time I see them during the holidays!

 

Jodie

[lynn]

Her gift to us every single year was a yarn Lifesaver doll and a box of Lifesaver packs (shaped like a book) - with $10 tucked inside. Anyone remember those?

 

 

Oh my goodness! My godmother used to give us one of those every year for Christmas. I think of her every time I see them during the holidays!

 

Jodie

I remember those lifesaver books.  We use to buy my dad that and Old Spice for Christmas when we were kids.  Actually I think I'll get him both those for Christmas just for fun.

[Sara in AZ]

We got Lifesaver books, too. And my mom has one of those candleholders pictured up thread! I remember when Cabbage Patch kids were huge. I have four sisters, and my parents couldn't afford to buy each of us one. So I remember my mother staying up late in her sewing room for weeks making us each a homemade one, complete with dimpled arms, and beautifully painted eyes, and awesome yarn hair. (Which, of course as a ten year old I did not fully appreciate because I wanted a real one.) But now,I recognize the incredible amount of work that took. My mother is amazing.

[Chris in VA]

I remember Lifesaver books! And we got oranges in the toe, too! And Chatty Cathy! (Mine was an old one given by a neighbor.) 

 

We each got a huge Cadbury bar, too, when I was a bit older, and when I was around 8 or 9, Mom started putting Pepperidge Farm Beefsticks (the big fat ones) in my brothers' stockings. 

[Kathryn]

And then there was this:

 

 

Ah, the memories!

 

We had that! I LOVED it, probably because I got to light the candles.

 

Angie, I tried to PM you about something on the Classifieds, but it says you can't get PMs. Pm me please!

[Crimson Wife]

My mom used to take me to the Boston Ballet's "Nutcracker" every year once I got to be old enough to sit through the performance. We'd go to a matinee and sit way up in the balcony.

 

The Ecumenical council of the 3 big churches in town used to put on a Christmas pageant every year. I was generally an angel, but one of my brothers played Joseph once and the other was one of the Magi once. The father of one of my classmates was the narrator because he had this wonderful baritone voice and every time I read the gospel of Luke I can hear him in my head. After the pageant, everyone in the audience would be given a lit candle while exiting the church, singing "Silent Night". Then we'd all walk down the town common to the big tree for the tree-lighting ceremony.

 

There was also a Sing-Along Messiah. I can remember one year whoever was in charge decided to include the song "All We Like Sheep", which was normally skipped to keep the performance length down. Hardly anyone knew it and a bunch of the younger sopranos got a fit of the giggles because the "all" is kind of an unstressed note so it came out sounding like "We like sheep! We like sheep!" I will never forget that year's performance!

[Heather in Neverland]

Ok, don't laugh but I have a particularly fond memory of the year I got a Donny and Marie album that I desperately wanted. Oh, and an Andy Gibb. The one with "Shadow Dancing" on it. Best Christmas ever. :)

[Angie in VA]

We had that! I LOVED it, probably because I got to light the candles.

 

Angie, I tried to PM you about something on the Classifieds, but it says you can't get PMs. Pm me please!

 

Busted for my e-clutter. Going there now to delete some messages and write you! Sorry about that. Thanks for posting to me. 

[AngelaNYC]

Ok, don't laugh but I have a particularly fond memory of the year I got a Donny and Marie album that I desperately wanted. Oh, and an Andy Gibb. The one with "Shadow Dancing" on it. Best Christmas ever. :)

 

OMG I have a picture of me wearing my Donny Osmond shirt holding my new Andy Gibb album.

[lynn]

Ok, don't laugh but I have a particularly fond memory of the year I got a Donny and Marie album that I desperately wanted. Oh, and an Andy Gibb. The one with "Shadow Dancing" on it. Best Christmas ever. :)I g

 

 

I got the Donny and Marie dolls and stage for Christmas.  I have no idea how my afforded it but at the time it was the best Christmas EVER!

[Xuzi]

In my family Christmas Eve was always included a big family gathering with my mom's side of my family (Dad's side was several states away, I think we only spent 1 or 2 Christmases with them when I was a kid). We'd open our presents from Grandma and Grandpa (usually every grandkid got the same thing, like an electric blanket) and a candy cane with a $5 bill wrapped around it from our Great-Grandma, which I always ended up spending at KayBToys after the holidays. Sometimes these gatherings would be at my Grandparents' cabin in the California foothills, and a couple of times there was snow. I loved that as a kid. :)

 

Christmas morning we weren't allowed out of our rooms until our parents said we could come out, although I always snuck out at some point in the middle of the night to peak at my stocking. They would light a fire in the fireplace, put on a Mormon Tabernacle Choir record, and get the apple cider warming on the stove. THEN when they were ready we could come out and open our stockings, one by one, then my dad would pass out the presents, again one at a time.

 

One silly tradition my dad came up with was labeling all of the presents with numbers. There would be oodles of presents under the tree, but you never knew which ones were yours because you didn't find out until Christmas morning whether yours were the #6 presents or the #9 presents, etc. It was both cruel and ingenious. :lol:

[Tap]

I am the baby of a big family.  We got 3 presents and usually at least 2 were practical things.  For me, Christmas always seemed like it was supposed to be more exciting than it was.  I don't really remember much of Christmases growing up because of it. We had a tree full of presents (due to the amount of kids) and we really only got one 'fun' present.  It was hard when friends had the 'what did you get for Christmas' conversation and I tried to just keep quiet and not say anything.  I remember one year in high school, my big present was a new coat and my two small presents were a couple of shirts from the deep discount store.  It was a nice very stylish coat, don't get me wrong, but it was.....well practical and... a coat.  This was in the 80s when materialism was high, so that most likely tints my view significantly.   Another year, we all got new comforters for our beds.  I admit, that I have redecorated my daughters room for Christmas before, but it wasn't just a comforter and it was for fun (and it was what she wanted), not just a comforter because she needed a warmer blanket.

 

 

 

In true 'I won't parent like my parents' fashion, I do the exact opposite.  LOL   Christmas is pretty good here.  I don't spend lavish amounts but my kids definitely get many 'fun' presents and very few, if any practical.

[JustEm]

The things that stand out to me are the what we called "Baby Jesus action figures"  that we played with every year during the season images.  Going out to the same place to get the Christmas tree with my dad and usually at least one other sibling,  the shop had free peppermints at the counter that we'd each get.  I mail one to my sister who now lives 900 miles away every year.  

 

My best Christmas was also almost the rest of my families worst Christmas ever.  It was the year my dad was in the hospital for about 9 months.  He went in in Oct and was not expected to live long.  I was in 2nd grade and had no idea how serious it was, neither did 3 of my brothers who were in 3rd grade, 5th grade, and 6th (I have 3 other siblings who were all in high school who knew.)  Well Christmas rolls around and my mom tells us to make our lists. The 4 youngest being kids make the most ridiculous lists ever (super long)  and the older 3 knowing money is tight and what is going on ask for one or 2 things.  Well it turns out my dad's work offered to do the shopping for my mom and paid for everything.  And I mean EVERYTHING.  We all got everything that was on our lists!!  Our living room had never been so filled with presents.  It was a second graders best dream!  

 

We can all now laugh at how it was the younger kid's best Christmas ever because my dad survived and 20 years later is healthy as can be.  

[Onceuponatime]

In our stockings: An apple, an orange, some nuts, a candy cane, and  a book of lifesavers. Presents were usually clothes and games after we outgrew toys. The highlight of the Christmas season for me was watching The Sound of Music. It first came out in theaters each winter, then later on tv. I remember listening to Johnny Mathis, Bing Crosby, and Dean Martin sing Christmas songs. My father would go out to the woods somewhere and cut a tree. We would put the fiberglass angel on the top and glass German ornaments on the branches, also clip on glass birds with fiberglass tails.

[PrairieSong]

We always got an orange in our stockings, as well as peanuts in the shell and hard candy. We got those orange foam circus peanuts. Yuck. But the rest was good!

 

We opened our presents on Christmas morning. There were usually toys, games, arts and crafts, etc., and sometimes clothes or pajamas. My German grandma lived with us after Grandpa died and she always made peppernuts (pfeffernüsse). Dinner was usually a repeat of Thanksgiving but we loved it and didn't mind having it twice a year. We usually went to midnight Mass. We also rode around and looked at Christmas lights.

 

One year shortly before Christmas when I was in the 8th grade and was home alone, I carefully opened up all my Christmas presents, cutting the tape with a sharp knife. Then I re-wrapped them and put them back under the tree. It was no fun opening presents that year!! I never did it again.

[gaillardia]

nm

[AndyJoy]

When I was about 6 my dad brought a wooden train set back from a TDY in Korea.  Each year my sister and I would decorate it for Christmas, adding candy, stuffed toys, lights, wreaths, bows, etc.  It was pretty garish, but we loved it.  My parents recently gave it to my and I'm excited to let my 4-year-old decorate it for the first time this year!  We also had a wooden nativity set that my sister and I would set up, adding baby Jesus on Christmas morning.

 

We always opened a new pair of pajamas on Christmas Eve.  We've continued this tradition with our family.  Even before we had kids DH and I would pick out new ones for each other.

 

When we were teens my sister and I took over the setting up of the Christmas village.  It would take us HOURS as we obsessed over every little detail, but we had a wonderful time doing it together.  We weren't as close as teens, but this is one thing we really bonded over.

 

I only remember one Christmas present that was a major fail.  One year our big joint present was a karaoke machine.  My sister was thrilled--I was disappointed.  I never let on, however.  The only thing I used it for was converting my CDs to cassette tapes for my sister.

 

One year we traveled several states away to visit my grandparents in our tiny compact car.  My mom asked grandma to please not give us anything big, as we had very limited space.  Grandma verbally agreed, but then got my sister and I each a sleeping bag and a 24" tall nutcracker!  We spent the whole trip home with a wall of sleeping bags/pillows between us while laughing at grandma.

 

When I was 9 I sprained my ankle badly right before bed on Christmas day.  The next morning I woke up at 6:00 am unable to bear weight, so I crawled on hands and one knee to the living room to play with my new Lego fire engine (with lights and sound!) before everyone else woke up.  After they awoke we went to the hospital for x-rays and I was bummed I had to miss a day trip to Old Sacramento with my grandparents.

 

When I was a teen we usually went sledding with several other families in the afternoon on Christmas Day.  Afterward we'd head over to someone's house for cocoa and cookies.  One year we stopped at a truck stop instead.  The cocoa was cold, so we complained to the waitress.  She took all our cups back to the kitchen, then brought them out again after reheating in the microwave.  She couldn't understand why we had a problem with this.  She thought we were odd for not wanting to mingle saliva with another random person from our group of 5 families!

 

The Christmas when my sister and I were 14 & 16 or so, my mom was sick with the flu.  My sister and I made Christmas dinner completely by ourselves and had a wonderful time.  A few years ago we kicked mom out of the kitchen with orders to play with my toddler son and did it again :)

 

ETA: We have a funny video from the Christmas when I had just turned 5.  As my 3-year-old sister is opening various coloring/activity books I'm using my imperious-big-sister-voice to declare them unsuitable for her, saying, "I think L is too young for these.  I think these are too hard for her."  Then my sister opens a new dress and wants to put it on immediately.  My mom tells her no several times, but is too distracted by my grandpa's constant chatter to really pay attention to her.  My sister tries unsuccessfully to strip out of her pajamas herself, complains of being hot and itchy, etc. until my mom finally gives in.  As an outsider watching the video you can see the wheels turning in her little head as she figures out how to get her way!  The camera cuts out for a minute then we are back, both dressed in our new dresses.

[Liz CA]

I remember being mostly in awe of the decorated tree which I was not allowed to see until Christmas Eve when we celebrated and opened gifts. The tree was decorated with old ornaments from way back when...lots of tinsel, shiny and straight. I was never able to replicate quite the same effect with my Christmas trees or perhaps they have just grown more beautiful in my memory.

 

One year I asked for a highchair for my Teddy Bear. I did not play much with dolls. To my great astonishment my mother found one. I did not think I would get one and it was a huge surprise. Another fond memory is the walk to the small chapel for midnight Christmas Eve service. All lights were off, the only light came from the Advent Wreath with its four candles lit and the lighting of the large nativity scene. After the service all kids were allowed to come to the front to see the manger figurines up close. Somehow that was intriguing.