Speaking of favorite "originals" or "classics,"

[Apiphobic]

what special something do you miss from childhood? I guess it could be anything, but I was thinking more in the line of Christmas traditions, music, food or decorations.

 

I miss the Christmas lights we used to have when I was a kid. They're getting harder and harder to find these days. They were the large, clear but colored twinkling lights for the Christmas tree. They all blinked at different intervals, and I remember I used to stare at the tree for long periods of time because it was so beautiful. I remember my mom always had to have a Douglas fir tree, too. Nothing else would do.

 

We had a tough time finding the large twinkling Christmas lights during the years we were stationed overseas, so I was hoping to find them once we moved back stateside. Nope. But I've heard they're making a comeback, so I hope to find some this year!

 

Just found it funny that I was hankering for more of my childhood Christmas memories after the recent discussion on classic covers and original songs.

[Mom2legomaniacs]

I loved how whole neighborhoods would decorate with lights only (no blow up things then). And they would line the streets with the candles in the bags. It was so nice to drive through with my family and see all the lights. I miss just lights.

[Garga]

I miss feeling almost sick from anticipation. Time was just so slooooow when I was a kid.

[Ali in OR]

Bayberry candles at Christmas. My mom always had one--I can't find them in stores, but that scent is always Christmas to me.

 

It's fun being the mom and making Christmas magical, but I also miss being the kid just enjoying a magical Christmas with no work/expectations/obligations on my part!

[Kris]

I miss feeling almost sick from anticipation. Time was just so slooooow when I was a kid.

 

This really got my attention -- I had forgotten that. You described it perfectly -- "almost sick from anticipation."

 

I just miss the way my mother "did" Christmas. It was her favorite time of year, so she decorated and baked and shopped. The whole house was magical for almost a month. My Dad was the "Scrooge" in the family, and while the rest of us wanted to be up at 2:00 a.m. -- we couldn't sleep anyway -- including my Mom, he made us stay in bed until a "decent hour" which was usually past when we had to get up for school anyway!

 

One year, we were all up in the middle of the night and he shooed us all back to bed. He put an alarm clock in the hallway and said when it went off, we could get up. Well, none of of knew how to tell time yet! So we watched that minute hand go around two or three times -- waiting waiting waiting -- the darn thing never went off! Mom said she could hear us "panting" on the other side of the house. :lol: We were asleep when it finally went off.

 

That's what I miss.

[Happy]

 

I just miss the way my mother "did" Christmas. .

 

Yes. I just plain miss my mom. More so at Christmas than any other time. A friend who had lost her mom told me after I lost mine that you can't really ever go home again once your mom is gone. Too true for me.

 

I miss those twinkling lights that blinked randomly, too. We had some as newlyweds. Enchanting.

[athena1277]

I miss believing in Santa. He would always bring what you wanted, even if mom and dad couldn't afford it. I miss being surprised at what was under the tree. I miss the magic that comes with believing.

 

I'm trying to relive the magic now with my kids. They are young and it's all wonderful to them. My 17 month old ds loves to just stare at the twinkling lights on the tree. I love to watch him.

[abbeyej]

Caedmon audio recordings -- they had so many *wonderful* cassettes for kids in the 70s and 80s. The "Sing Children Sing" series that took quality children's choirs from various nations and had them sing some of the best folk music from their countries... We had the US, UK, Mexico, Italy, France... Caedmon had Rosemary and Stephen Vincent Benet's "Book of Americans". There was "Oscar Brand Celebrates the First Thanksgiving". "Alice in Wonderland" read by Christopher Plummer. "The Secret Garden" and "The Nutcracker" read by Claire Bloom... So many *wonderful* things I'd love to share with my kids!

 

But Caedmon was bought out by HarperCollins, and their mission was changed a bit. They still do good things, but I guess they just decided that some of those recordings weren't worth continuing to produce, didn't fit their "mission". And it appears they're all lost in some sort of copyright limbo...

 

But these were wonderful, and I wish I could get them for my kids. We still have a few of the cassettes, but of course after 25 years or so, the quality is poor. My project this Christmas is to get as many of them as I can converted to mp3... They'll be saved from further disintegration, but they're still 25yo cassettes. ;) I'd much rather buy new, remastered digital copies!

[abbeyej]

Oh, and another, sillier one... I bet you'll like this one, Stacey... ;)

 

 

 

My brother and I were just lamenting the loss of my great grandmothers *hideous* and yet *oh*so*fascinating* 70s "oil rain lamp". My mother cannot understand our nostalgia for it. To her mind, it was simply horrendous. And, of course, it absolutely *was*!!! But we also loved it. The gold trim! The Venus statue! The plastic foliage! The dripping oil! It was utterly entrancing.

 

We would beg and plead for Grandma Laura to turn it on for us. How we loved that paragon of tackiness!

 

(The video isn't mine or anything -- it just gives you a *glimmer* of how awful and wonderful the one our great grandma had was...)

[unsinkable]

I miss shopping with my brother for my parents' Christmas presents. We would walk together to a department store. I miss lying under the Christmas tree with my brother and wondering what we're "gonna get." I miss looking through the Brand Names catalog and circling toys I wanted.

 

I miss rotary dial phones.

 

And I miss the pop tabs that pulled all the way off. I told my kids that if you didn't ever cut your foot on one of those, your mom must have never let you run barefoot.

 

(and that is hyperbole...and I know they were dangerous and you could get a bad infection from a cut from one...)

 

I miss corner bars and vinyl bar stools that spin. I miss juke boxes with 3 songs for a quarter. I miss shuffleboard bowling games.

 

I miss meat markets with sawdust on the floor. And candy stores.

 

I miss TVs with only 5 stations.

 

I miss big bench-style front seats of cars. I miss that safe, wonderful special feeling of being able to sit in the front between my parents.

 

I miss the days when "cooking out" could only mean charcoal grilled food.

 

I miss the days when running through the sprinkler meant using the sprinkler dad used on the lawn, not some plastic-cartoony-colorful-craptacular thing that is marketed especially for kids.

 

I miss "riding double" on a banana seat on a Huffy bike.

 

I gotta go.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I miss shopping with my brother for my parents' Christmas presents. We would walk together to a department store. I miss lying under the Christmas tree with my brother and wondering what we're "gonna get." I miss looking through the Brand Names catalog and circling toys I wanted.

 

I miss rotary dial phones.

 

And I miss the pop tabs that pulled all the way off. I told my kids that if you didn't ever cut your foot on one of those, your mom must have never let you run barefoot.

 

(and that is hyperbole...and I know they were dangerous and you could get a bad infection from a cut from one...)

 

I miss corner bars and vinyl bar stools that spin. I miss juke boxes with 3 songs for a quarter. I miss shuffleboard bowling games.

 

I miss meat markets with sawdust on the floor. And candy stores.

 

I miss TVs with only 5 stations.

 

I miss big bench-style front seats of cars. I miss that safe, wonderful special feeling of being able to sit in the front between my parents.

 

I miss the days when "cooking out" could only mean charcoal grilled food.

 

I miss the days when running through the sprinkler meant using the sprinkler dad used on the lawn, not some plastic-cartoony-colorful-craptacular thing that is marketed especially for kids.

 

I miss "riding double" on a banana seat on a Huffy bike.

 

I gotta go.

 

It was just all of a sudden, all so familiar you know?

I miss those things too, every one of them. Thank you so much for the memories.

 

One of my favorite memories was piling into the station wagon with pillows and sleeping bags, back seat down so there was lots of room and the long drive to Needham to spend Christmas with my grandparents. I loved the days of no seat belts and no car seats. Sprawled out back to back with my twin reading and playing games the whole way. That was awesome.

 

I miss the way my grandmother smelled. This magical blend of peppermint Chicklets, moth balls and Taboo.

 

I miss sitting at the big round table in my parents kitchen in front of the huge window and watching the birds while we had breakfast. All of us together.

 

I miss the huge orange in the bottom of my stocking.

 

I miss waiting for our favorite Christmas shows to come on and not just popping in a dvd when we feel like it.

 

I miss my grandparents.

 

I have to go blog now.

[Apiphobic]

It's been nice reading your posts. Thanks for sharing your memories!

[Peela]

I miss my grandmother's house and the way she made Christmas happen. Helping her make the pudding, licking the bowl. Her silver sparkling tree. She really valued family, since she didnt have any extended family herself as a child. She had ornaments on the shelf. I miss plaiting Pa Jacks few strands of hair with my cousins. I remember my grandmother peeling her grapes. And she loved mangoes, which I detested as a child. She really made christmas happen. She is still alive, in a nursing home, with bad Alzheimers. I just wrote her a letter with pictures in it of my family. I hope she still remembers us- she lives on the other side of Australia.

It makes me think, I really dont try to make christmas a big deal for my family- I dont like it much, acutally, because of the commercialisation of it. But when I think of my own childhood Christmases, I feela bit sad that my kids arent getting that.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

What a beautiful post.

[Hannah]

I just plain miss my mom. More so at Christmas than any other time.

 

It's been 21 years, but I still miss my mom terribly every Christmas. She held our family together. We always did a big family Christmas Eve meal on the 24th (from the Dutch tradition) with her side of the family and then drove out to be with my Dad's mom and his side of the family on Christmas Day.

 

My Gran lived close to the beach, so all the cousins would go swimming together (it's summer here!!) and gather mussels as part of the meal. When I eat fresh, salty mussels, I think of my Gran and big family Christmases!

 

Our own Christmas is very modest. We go to Mass on the 24th, open presents on the morning of the 25th and my mil comes for lunch. This year another couple is joining us. It's nothing like the Christmasses of my childhood and I don't really know how to recreate that for my children. My siblings (and cousins) are living all over the world.

[unsinkable]

It was just all of a sudden, all so familiar you know?

I miss those things too, every one of them. Thank you so much for the memories.

 

One of my favorite memories was piling into the station wagon with pillows and sleeping bags, back seat down so there was lots of room and the long drive to Needham to spend Christmas with my grandparents. I loved the days of no seat belts and no car seats. Sprawled out back to back with my twin reading and playing games the whole way. That was awesome.

 

I miss the way my grandmother smelled. This magical blend of peppermint Chicklets, moth balls and Taboo.

 

I miss sitting at the big round table in my parents kitchen in front of the huge window and watching the birds while we had breakfast. All of us together.

 

I miss the huge orange in the bottom of my stocking.

 

I miss waiting for our favorite Christmas shows to come on and not just popping in a dvd when we feel like it.

 

I miss my grandparents.

 

I have to go blog now.

 

I know what you mean about the blankets in the car. I loved taking blankets in the car...it usually meant a drive-in or road trip.

 

And I miss the way my mom smelled...she smelled like freckles, I used to tell her.

[unsinkable]

It's been nice reading your posts. Thanks for sharing your memories!

 

I enjoyed everyone's posts, too.

 

I think Christmas is a very intense time. I feel so much pressure to do it "right" whatever that means!

[lynn]

*tinsel, mother used to put the tinsel on the tree so perfectly.

*I miss my mother singing along with every christmas song. Funny my kids are always asking me "how do you know all those" I guess because mother loved to sing all the time.

*I miss coming home and finding the christmas cookies made and frosted. I never can get the cookie glaze just right, mothers was always perfect.

*I miss mother Christmas stollen. I tried to make it once, what a lot of work, but she does not have a recipe just kind of about this much of this or that is all she can remember. I buy her christmas stollen for her now at World Market of Whole Foods. *

*I miss Aunt Christa's green jello mold she made every year.

*I miss mother lighting the candles on the tree while we sang a couple Christmas songs before opening gifts.

[mellifera]

I miss how excited I used to get when it snowed. I watch my kids now and it's almost as good.:001_smile: