Christmas Memories...

[Amerikaner83]

OK here's a little something for everyone - What is your favorite / best / most memorable Christmas memories? I'll start:

It was 1993 or 1994 - Lake Tahoe, CA. I'm 10 or 11, my sister and cousins are with us...big family gathering: me, sis, dad, mom, aunt, uncle, cousins, grandparents - you know.

Christmas Eve day it's snowing HUGE, big flakes. We've got a cabin (timeshare) and it's all warm and toasty

So us kids are in bed now...and waiting for Santa to come, my sis and I are awake upstairs. we hear a bunch of "pop pop" noises coming from downstairs...so the little sleuths we are, we crawl over to where we can see what's going on. Our parents have these Nerf ball cannons out and are shooting each other! OUR Nerf ball cannons that WE wanted for Xmas!!! You know - the ones that shoot out foam balls the size of a raquetball?

So we watch them shoot each other for like 20 minutes, having a hell of a time! Then they pack up the cannons and put them back in the boxes...

So come Christmas morning, I tell my two cousins what we saw...so we have a plan. We save the Nerf cannons for last, then we all open them up at the same time and shoot our parents for playing with OUR toys!

That turned into a day of snowball fights - kids vs parents, stuff like that.

Fun times.

Ah, to be a kid again.

Merry Christmas Y'all!

[DocDon]

I remember my brother and I falling asleep on Christmas Eve listening to the Christmas with Johnny Mathis album playing on a behemoth stereo console.

Of course it wasn't really sleep. At 4:30 in the morning we'd barge into our parent's room, jump on the bed and announce that Santa had come.

We'd rip open our toys, arrange them in "our" sections and compare. Then we'd fight because each of us wanted to play with at least one toy the other one got.

Then mom and dad would go back to bed around 7:00 or so. One of them would come back downstairs every fifteen minutes before finally declaring that if we didn't knock it off, the toy's going back and nobody will get to play with it.

We'd finally pass out from exhaustion.

When we woke up, we'd get bundled up with the intent of going sledding or something, but it was just a ploy to meet up with all the other kids on somebody's porch where we would all flaunt our recently acquired bounty.

Then we'd have dinner. Usually a salty Thorn Apple Valley ham with canned pineapple rings and maraschino cherries jabbed into it with smoldering toothpicks.

After dinner we'd play with our toys again and our parents would visit with the neighbors. Invariably some long-lost relative would show up unannounced, drop off presents wrapped in grocery bags, then make their way to the neighbors.

Not two minutes would pass and my mom would storm in and proceed to unleash a torrent of Korean curses - until she found herself stuck on untranslatable words like "banjo" and "piece of sh*t car".

Dad would finally come in and they would spend the rest of the night exchanging four-letter Christmas wishes.

My brother and I would be sent to bed where we'd listen to Christmas with Johnny Mathis. Sometimes, if it was timed right, Rudolf had a shiny a**hole and the other reindeer used to laugh and call him stupid b*tch.

Ah... memories...

[brokeinok]

When my daughter was younger, we did the "mom and dad as santa" thing. I loved doing it and I was VERY GOOD at it. My daughter was still fence straddling on the Santa issue for many years.

On Christmas Eve when she wasn't looking, I would sneak a very fancy gift bag full of hay into the fireplace. Surely you know that Santas elves chose certain boys and girls each year who have been very good to feed his reindeer during the long night? She'd squeal when she discovered her bag of hay and we'd drag out the ladder to put it up on the roof before preparing Santa's milk and cookies.

Long after she was in bed, I ate my cookies and milk, then took the old boots and made my santa tracks out of ashes from the fireplace to the tree finally bundled all up I went out on the roof to pick up all that hay. The look on her face the next morning as she climbed up the ladder to check for eaten hay and saw all the "hoof prints" I'd made was priceless.

She's all grown up now and I so miss that magic that only young children can bring to the holidays!

[DocDon]

I think my attempt at creative writing scared everyone away from this thread

[Amerikaner83]

I liked your story, Doc!

[J_Snow]

I think my attempt at creative writing scared everyone away from this thread

I just read it and it made me LOL!

I have no fond memories of christmas as a kid... only ones with the kid...

[Amerikaner83]

I have no fond memories of christmas as a kid... only ones with the kid...

That still counts J!

[DocDon]

Well for the sake of the new members who don't know me that well yet...

[virtualrn]

No specific memories here.....too old to remember or alzehiemers.....no lake tahoe memories to say the least-just remember 2 very hard working folks trying to make christmas great for six kids-and remember overcompensating for my 2 kids trying to make the perfect xmas....the present is the present of our presence.

[rmuse00]

Well for the sake of the new members who don't know me that well yet...

I was alittle in the beginning but then I was like... how sad...and at the end....

One memorable Christmas mom and dad got all friends to bring over their kids "Santa" Christmas presents and one of the dads played Santa. There were so many kids and presents! I remember 2 dads by the front door bringing in bag after bag of presents while the moms helped Santa read the names on the gifts. After it was all done dad played the piano while grown-ups ate and kids played with their toys. I can't imagine the trash left behind after that party! Mom and dad had taped tons of the little netted stockings with candy and toys in them on the ceiling. I remember looking up and feeling like I was in a Christmas wonderland. Of course I was skeered of Santa! When my name was called I was all boohooing cause I wanted the gift but damned if I was gonna go near the weird man with the beard! Mom had to help me get close enough to grab present and run.

This thread started me thinking of all the cool gifts throughout the year like:

Who'd a thunk this would have given me so much practice! Think I jinxed myself with this one.

Mystery date behind the door? Hope it wasn't the "dud".

and remember this game?

Got this as a cool teenager. Wish I knew what happened to it.

Yup!!! Those were the memories!

Oh, and something about seeing "vintage" in front of some of these pics when I searched them just doesn't feel right.

[ceowens]

As a kid we always went to my grandparents christmas eve. My Dad always made sure the TV was on to the news channel (back then the weatherman would see Santas sleigh on his radar.) On the way home my Dad would have us watching the sky for any signs of Rudolphs nose and Santas sleigh. We would see airplane lights and light on top of radio towers.....and my Dad would have us totally convinced that it was Rudolph. By the time we got home we would be freaking out! So, one year after he had us worked into a total frenzy thinking we had seen Rudolph, we got about 2 miles from home and my Dad slams on breaks and swerves the car almost off the road and skids to a stop. Santa's sleigh had totally dipped down in the road in front of him and we nearly ran him over! We were all squealing and hysterical. It had happened so fast that we just knew it was real. Afterall, Dad wouldnt nearly kill us all in the car if he wasn't trying to swerve to miss Rudolph. So this game changed up a little each year. One year we got home and raced to our rooms to get in our pjs. Santa tapped on my sisters bedroom window and then you could hear sleigh bells as he sped away. Of course he was warning us to get in bed! And one year we got home to find candy dropped all over our porch and driveway,....obviously Santa had been trying to deliver our gifts and we scared him off causing him to drop his goodies. And then one year we got home and Santa had already been there!!!!

Anyway....now I do the same whith my kids (although we have never run off the road trying to swerve and miss Santa ). And I have to be a little more savvy these days since you can get on the internet and track where he is....... But my kids have scared him off and caused him to drop his goodies. And Santa has landed on our roof when the kids were being slow to get to bed...and you could hear the hooves and the sleigh bells. And this year, since my older kids are doubting and watching me like a hawk, Santa will prolly come while we are at my Moms Christmas Eve (that ought to totally throw them for a loop). Jusrt fun stuff..... cool memories. Makes me want to go call my Dad.

[rmuse00]

Just talked to my sis about this thread. She's like "Oh, yeah remember how skeered you were of Santa?" He creeped me out for some reason.

Sis also said my other sis will swear to this day that she saw and heard Santa's reindeer out her window. She's 43 Yrs old. Dad will not fess up to having been the one to jingle the bells outside her window.

[Amerikaner83]

Of course he won't fess up to it - can't admit to somethin you didn't do

[rmuse00]

Riiiight!!!

[isislc]

I would have to say my best Christmas memory AND Thanksgiving memory was this year. My mom was dying at home and woke up all of a sudden on Thanksgiving night asking to talk to each person by name and she told me she saw her tree I put up and had the grandkids decorate for her and said it was beautiful. It was her dying wish to have Christmas before she left us. She passed away 2 days later.

[lavs412]

This whole Nebraska shooting has flooded me with a memory I have of 27 years ago while I was 5 months pregnant with my second son.....5pm on Christmas Eve, I was held at gun point while working in the back office of a major toy store chain. Robbers managed to get into the store/office fully armed and one grabbed me while they collected money from registers and safe.....the whole thing lasted about 15 minutes but it felt more like 15 hours. Only 1 shot was fired as they began to exit the store, I think it was more of a signal for the gunman holding me that they were done. That was the scariest moment in my life and doesn't even come close to comparing to all the people who lost their lives in Omaha but the memory of Christmas and gun will always be in my head........Most of that Christmas was spent answering questions

I have been blessed to have had the greatest Christmases each and every year! Even the year that the robbery happened, I still had a 5 year old that I had to play Santa for and with that, seeing his excitement took away all the badness that year!

God Bless the victims of the mall shooting and their families!

[wdspeedbump]

i was raised in a family of jokesters. mean jokesters.

every christmas , no matter how far the navy or air force had flung them, my uncles and aunts managed to gather at granny and granddad's big old house.

one christmas eve, the "wimminfolk" had just got the young ones to sleep, and uncle joe,(bolstered by a little egg and a lot of nog) grabs the double barrelled shotgun off the wall and eases outside unnoticed. he touched off both barrels, then ran in the house screaming," oh my god...i think i shot santa!" the little ones heard this ,being awoken by the gunshots and began a cacophony of screaming ,wailing ,crying and gnashing of teeth. it was close to daybreak before the moms got them calmed down and convinced that santa was indeed safe and well.

christmas day was strained because the women all kept giving joe the evil eye all day long. he just sat there sheepish looking while the rest of us sniggled under our breath.