What's your favorite special Christmas memory?

[countrygirl4513]

I come from a large family so Christmas wasn't like it is now, presents, presents and more presents. Little was spent on gifts.
My favoite memory was when my oldest sister, Sandra, came home from Florida.It was Christmas Eve (I was @ 10 yrs old) and she was crocheting snowmen puppets. She had glued eyes on them and asked my older sis Jan to take it into the front room and lay them near the wood stove to dry the glue. Well, Jan being the brain she was and is, laid the snowmen on the pipe running into the wall to the chimney-flue. 30 seconds later they started melting and caught fire! The house filled with smoke! The burning yarn smelled horrible!!The damage was only to the snowmen. But it took a while for the smoke to clear! Here we are in TN, 28 degrees with all the windows up trying to clear the smoke. We still to this day tease Jan about the melting snowmen! Of course she doesn't appreciate the teasing!

 

[Hotwings]

My favorite would be my last Christmas I spent with my mother before she died.

 

[justusnak]

I came from a poor ( only in money) farming family. There were 5 of us kids, and money was always tight, especially around the Holidays after haveing to get winter boots, coats, gloves( if we were lucky) for 5 kids. We used to make gifts for each other...and I have always treasured the " Golden RR Stake" My sister made me. She found one by the train tracks, and painted it gold.

I remember one Christmas...we had popcorn and cranberries on the tree....and we were all sitting watching specials on TV one night...when we heard the tree shake...after a few shakes, we all started watching it, and soon we watched the popcorn/cranberry string being tugged into the middle of the tree....then we would see a cranberry fall to the floor. Guess the little mouse didnt like them, but LOVED the popcorn!

 

[Katy]

I got married on Dec. 22, had my daughter Dec 16, and my first granddaughter was born last Dec 22, so those three Christmases are probably my fondest memories.

 

[Scrambled Egg]

The Christmas my daughter turned two (she is a December 18th birthday) I had real candy canes all over a real douglas fir Christmas tree that year. Erin somehow had gotten herself under the tree and had picked off all the low hanging candy canes and licked them all until she was sticky all over, well her being so sticky meant all those little teeny tree pieces stuck all over her, I mean ALL over her!! They were stuck ALL over her face, her arms and hands and her bare feet! Only her clothes kept her from looking like a baby fir tree! We cracked up and then she thought she had done something wonderful because we were all laughing so much!! 18 years ago this year and I can still remember that like it was yesterday!! Definately my favorite Christmas memory!! Darlene

 

[gritsar]

Ironically, my favorite Christmas memories are the ones where things were the hardest for my family; either financially or in personal ways.

The year we were so poor we couldn't afford a tree at all, but talked a tree lot man into the top of one that was leftover on Christmas Eve. It was one of our prettiest trees ever.

The year after my mama died; she died on Dec. 29th

The year my divorce was final in November and my teenage daughter had gotten mad at me mid-December and moved back in with her father. I had a beautiful tree and lots of decorations, but no presents and not a single person to admire the tree. Put all my nativity sets (all 17 of em) under the tree instead of gifts. Now that WAS my most beautiful tree.

 

[lizardz]

The year I was ten, my grandfather gave me a big white box tied with a red bow. When I opened it, it was filled with straw and horse poop! Could not figure this out - the old man had finally lost all his marbles. He told me to "dig on down", so I did (yes, the poop was dry). There was a note and a picture of a horse - my Christmas present! Every little girl's dream come true!! We lived about a three hour drive from where my Grandfather did, so there was no running out to see her right then, but guess what we were doing the next day! I had that horse for ten years and she was a wonderful teacher and listener.

 

[chickiepoo]

Thank-you. A true story about shoveling the poop and finding a pony/horse in there somewhere.

 

[Henrietta23]

One of my best adult Christmases was the year I woke up with a stomach bug on Christmas morning. We had been with my family the night before but were due to leave right after breakfast to travel to my in-laws about 3 hours away. I was dreading the trip and stressing out over it. Well, when I woke up sick early that morning there was no question we weren't going at all. I lay on the couch while my then 2 year old son opened presents and played with his dad. I had saltines and ginger ale for dinner and the guys had canned soup.
As for childhood memories, I don't actually remember this one because I was too young. The Christmas I was 2 I asked Santa for an orange ball. Orange was my favorite color only I called it "juicy" instead of orange. My dad, who usually left most of the Christmas shopping to my mom, was worried that Santa wasn't going to find a "juicy ball". He spent hours in the toy stores looking for one. And sure enough under our tree on Christmas morning there was my juicy ball- a basketball!

 

[chickiepoo]

Going out Christmas carolling in the back of Daddy's work truck in the residential sections of town to the family and friends and then going into the cemetery and singing "Silent Night". Over 30 years ago. Now it is a "family tradition". But now we have to sneak into the cemetery cause they lock them up at night.