Memories of Christmas Past

[JV]

I just finished watching a travel show of Christmas in Europe and some of the customs remind me of my boyhood.  I remember cutting down sticky ERC trees and dragging them to the house.  Decorations were simple and many passed down.  Real candles on the tree, lit albeit for a short time and watched to make sure they were out.  Mixed nuts in the shell and an orange in your stocking on Christmas morning.  Sled rides down the long lane in the afternoon as we always had snow.  Presents but not excessive.  As I write this, I have a bag of mixed nuts in the shell nearby, hazelnuts, english walnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, and pecans.  I can't find the nutcracker so I have a pair of long-nose vice grips.  An orange sounds good too.  I really don't remember having a lot of turkey as a little boy.  I remember going to a great aunt and uncle's home and having rabbit, pheasant, elk swimming in gravy from a cousins hunting trip, duck, and goose.  Sometimes memories are better than the real experience but I cherish mine.  Christmas morning chores in the barn full of livestock even went quickly inspite of my eagerness to get back to the house.  That big breakfast in a warm, snug kitchen sitting next to a big potbellied stove was a prelude of things to come.  What are yours?

[WDH]

A big breakfast on Christmas morning is a tradition of ours.  It is the best breakfast the entire year. 

[jim king]

Mine are about identical to yours JV

[CHARLIE]

We had electric Christmas lights on the tree but would listen to Grandmother tell us of using candles on the tree when she was a little girl.  I remember the red brick fireplace in the livingroom where Granddaddy would light a blazing fire in the mornings.  Tom and I would stand on the hearth in our pamamas getting toasting and warm and Granddaddy would always sneak up on us and pull our pants legs tight. THAT WAS HOT!!  Starting about a week before Christmas Tom and I would hear a knock at the front door almost every night. We would run to the door and on the front stoop would be two little piles of candy and either an apple or an orange.  Granddaddy would go outside with us to find Santa's helpers footprints in the sand.  We knew it wasn't Granddaddy doing it 'cause he was always sitting in his chair in the livingroom.  Years later we found out that he would put the candy on the stoop about an hour earlier and then while sitting in the chair would rap on the wooden arm of the chair.  Of course we heard what we wanted to hear and thought it was the door.  Tom and I always got a nice gift from Santa and a gift under the tree from the family and one from our cousins. Our stocking would have a small toy, an orange and some peppermint.  I remember all the caroling that went on.  It was a festive time and not focused on gifts and toys but on the birth of Jesus Christ. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I'm with WDH. We have always had the big breakfast. Maybe a different families home but you can bet it's the biggest breakfast of the year.....and the best!

Eggs (sunny side up) sausage, bacon, liver mush, grits, potatoes and tomatoes, hot biscuits,  pancakes with strawberries or blueberries on top, orange juice, hot coffee, and ice tea!

Start the coffee with the timer. I usually smell it brewing around 4am. That's what gets us up.

Maaaaaaaan.......what chu talk'n bout! digin_2

If ya don't understand something in this post....ask WDH. He'll know, he's a SOUTHERN boy.

[Roxie]

When I was a child, my favorite part of Christmas was Christmas Eve.  My sisters and brother and I all got new pajamas.  We would go off to bed with my grandmother's watch in our hand, so we would know what time it was since we weren't permitted to wake Mom and Dad before 5:30.  We'd lay in bed and check out the window, and swear we could hear sleigh bells.  All the whispering we did back and forth, gave the night a sense of being in a wonderful conspiracy.

[jim king]

my favorite part of Christmas was Christmas Eve

I forgot about Christmas Eve.  We used to go to my Grandmothers house in town and the Christmas tree was in the parlor which was opened only for special things.  All the Aunts and Uncles and Cousins were there from my mothers side.

The old 40 something blue Ford did not get warm and stayed cold the couple of miles to the farm. Each family brought food and exchanged small presents.

[WDH]

My whole extended family always got together for food and gifts on Christmas Eve at my Grandparents house.  When they passed away, it was at my Parents house.  Now, it is at my house  .  I am carrying on the tradition.

I am my Grandparents and my parents.  My children are me. 

[JV]

One thing I remembered about our Christmas lights was the Bubble Lite.  A fad from the 40's and 50's that are now collectors items.  The were made, at least in part, here in my hometown.  I think we have a string or two boxed away.  They resembled a glass candle and when the oil in them was heated, they bubbled.

[DouginUtah]

All I remember of Christmases past is when I was sixteen I got a fountain pen. That was it.

Poor me!  :D :D :D

But my mother was a good cook and we had wonderful meals for the holidays--Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter.

[sandhills]

Everything you folks have stated so far brings back memories for me.....well except for the "liver mush" .  Grandmas house every Christmas eve, and the ride home afterwards when dad or an older sibling would swear they saw something flying in the sky.  Cutting the sticky old cedar down, throwing it in the back of dad's home made wagon powered by the mighty team of shetland ponies, Joker and Smokey (onery little ba#%!!ds)  :D.  I hope my kids will have half as fond of memories as I do.  We never had lit candles on the tree but I do remember stringing a LOT of popcorn on fishing line to decorate it, maybe it helped absorb the smell from the erc ?!

[Norm]

JV my grandpa had lights like that! I'm sure they're a fire hazard now but were they ever cool to watch.

[Chuck White]

We never really got much at Christmas, there were 9 of us kids, but we always seemed to be happy and healthy.

The Christmas dinner was usually a big ole turkey with all the trimmings.

I think my leanest Christmas was when I was about 8 or 9.  We got up and sneaked down to the living room and just sat there and looked at the tree and the stuff around it!  When Mom & Dad got up, Mom would hand out the presents and we were all happy.  My present was a jack-knife, you know, the one with one blade, a can opener, a bottle opener/screw driver and a leather punch.  I carried that knife and used it for years, I was happy.

Now adays, kids are a lot different.

[thecfarm]

We did not have much,but boy didn't we eat and we was warm.

[Texas Ranger]

What y'all have already said.  We, my sister and I, would get one big present a year.  Neighbors and relatives would supply me with shotgun and .22 shells for the vermin eradication program I carried on.  One year it was a better shotgun, one year a scope for the .22 and a "real" knife, one with a fixed blade.  Never knew why it was such a luxury to have a "real" knife, seemed I could clean anything with my old Crown knife.

My kids were spoiled, we gave them a whole lot more, because there was a whole lot more to give, and a whole lot more advertising. 

But I miss those afternoon Christmas day quail hunts with my dad.