| A big orange and some fresh pine boughs and ‘Silent Night‘ are all I need, and cookies, of course. They are the strings that when I pull on them I pull up the complete glittering storybook Christmases of my childhood.
—Garrison Keillor
|
We are having another GIVEAWAY!!! There’s no better time for a giveaway than around the holidays! Details below!!! You have 7 more days to comment with your holiday memory and be entered in the random drawing!!
We all have our storybook memories of our childhood Christmases. Closing my eyes, and breathing in the aroma of pine, can bring back a multitude of memories. One of our holiday traditions is to rotate a faux tree with live one each year, every year a different theme. But, Christmas is not Christmas without pine scent wafting thru the house! So, if it is the year for the faux tree, we have live pine bough decorations throughout the house- just for that total Christmas atmosphere!
Christmas 2008 is the year for a live tree, whose theme is yet to be determined! Most likely, it will be a rootball tree, so it can be planted here, for a new holiday tradition at our new home in the country!
One of my sweet childhood memories was going to the home of my Great-Aunt Lois and Uncle Paul, and their 3 daughters. We did not go often, but it was always a wonderful time. I don’t remember the presents, altho I am sure there must have been some. What I remember is that we would all gather around the piano and sing Christmas carols. Aunt Lois would play, and Uncle Paul’s booming voice would be heard over everyone. It was the ideal Christmas picture, and a glimpse into the lives of relatives we did not see very often………………..
More recent Christmas memories, and the top one on my list, was the birth of my son – on Christmas morning, 25 years ago this year! You don’t realize, when you are young, how time flies! That day is ingrained in my memory like it was yesterday!
The doctors were sure he would be born in January, but I just knew, in my heart, that he was supposed to be born on Christmas. To the surprise of all the doctors, particularly mine, (who was home, and was none too happy to be called in to the hospital very early on Christmas morning) – the son was born, just as I predicted, bright and early on Christmas Day. He was, and is, the best gift I have ever received on Christmas! True gifts of the heart have no price tag………….
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I would love to hear some of your favorite Christmas memories. Leave me a comment, tell us your favorite memory. On December 1st, I will have a RANDOM drawing for a holiday ‘goodie’ box- so put your thinking caps on and reminisce with us !!!
All is well, at Mountain Meadows this morning…………………………………..
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“Over the river and thru the woods, to grandmother’s house we go.
The horse knows the way, to carry the sleigh, in the white and drifting snow…………”
Ooglebloops's World 
November 12, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Christmas Eve was the day I always tried to make really memorable for my children, because money was always tight so presents would be slight. On Christmas Eve we had a family party. A live tree was dragged into the house and decorated. We made strings of popcorn, listened to Christmas music and ate homemade candies and cookies and enjoyed each other’s company. To this day, my girls come to my house with their children on Christmas Eve.
My favorite Christmas memory is likely yet to come. My dear son, his beautiful wife and their two little ones will join us for the first time in too many years for our Christmas Eve celebration. We’ll all go to my parents for Christmas Day. Having all three of my children and their families together is the only gift I want this year.
The gift of your son is a marvelous one! There could be none better.
November 13, 2008 at 1:40 am
My favorite Christmas memory is when my daughter was 3 and I had a friend who played Santa coming to my house to visit a few nights before. One of my neighbors had a daughter 2 so I told her she should also bring her over. Well my friend had a brother who had some mental retardation and the evening Santa was supposed to visit she asked if he could also come over. Of course I said yes and at the last minute the only thing we could get (we live in a small town) was a package of socks. I put the 3 wrapped gifts out on the porch and when Santa showed up my friends brother was just on Cloud Nine and he just shined. He talked about it for years
November 14, 2008 at 12:51 am
The most memorable Christmas for me was the year my Dad passed away. He left us in Sept 1986. Usually, the Christmas celebration was held at my sister’s home…as it was the largest. Yet, two weeks prior to my Dad leaving us…her husband died suddenly in an accident. She was the Mom of a four year old (Jesse)
I decided to have a Christmas Celebration at our home. Although, I was only going to be back in the USA for 11 weeks…I looked at this as a special time to be a blessing to my family. It had to be special…and had to be a REAL celebration. It had to be something special for each individual.
I enlisted the help of an army of women. The house was decorated as beautifully as one would see in a magazine. The entire length of fireplace mantle was full of beautifully colored candles. The Christmas tree was professionally trimmed courtesy of one of my friends that owned a craft store. There was also a duplicate tree in the basement (the basement was finished off like a small apartment.) The entire house looked like a fantasy land…there were lights everywhere…even along the staricase and in the upstairs bedrooms.
I even enlisted the aid of a friend to play Santa Claus for the children (there were 10…all nieces and nephews) Santa had a wrapped toy for each child…and each child’s PET! Santa would read each name…and I’ll never forget my nephew Jesse yelling when he heard Santa say, “Screamer”. He yelled….”THAT’S MY DOG!” It was this gesture that proved to him (at the tender age of 4) that if Santa could remember his doggy…then surely God knew about the loss of his Daddy. Jesse told me, before they left that he wasn’t scared anymore.
I also had hand printed place cards for each member of the family…including all children. On the inside of each place card…I wrote a Scripture that closely matched each one…then added WHY I selected this Scripture.
There was so much laughter and joy…that even now…writing about this, it brings back happy tears.
Due to the fact I lived outside the USA for so long…memories like this were few and far between. Yet, I’m convinced that it was the Lord that had arranged it so I could be home during this time…when it was so necessary.
Personally, I believe that a coincidence is when the Lord “decides” to remain anonymous…
Michelle
November 14, 2008 at 1:58 am
One of my favorite childhood memories is singing “Over the river and through the woods” over and over all the way to my Grandparent’s house! It must have nearly driven my parents and siblings mad as it was an almost 2 hour drive! I, however, loved (and still do) the song and sang it every year.
November 14, 2008 at 12:15 pm
my best christmas’s are when the whole family can make it home for the holiday-every year is good esp when i have friends and family gathered around
as a child christmas morning always ment the the magic our stockings held-there was always an orange in the toe-each and every little trinket was wrapped- something i have carried on to my son even tho he is 26-and he said just last year that i make the best stockings up:)
and there has to be snow on christmas eve and if we are lucky christmas day too
i enjoy your blog esp when you include pic’s of your world
enjoy your day
tabby
November 14, 2008 at 7:11 pm
My fondest Christmas memory is similar to yours 🙂
9 years ago, my middle daughter was born on December 15th – not quite Christmas day – but I have a lovely fond visual memory of attending candlelight midnight mass on Christmas eve with a newborn babe in my arms. It was a sweet sweet moment that I will always treasure in my heart – like you said – it seems like yesterday 🙂
November 15, 2008 at 2:35 pm
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November 15, 2008 at 2:41 pm
My favorite memory is being home from the hospital a few days before Christmas with my third son. I had a really hard delivery and lost a lot of blood, so I was weak and tired. It was a joy just to be in my own house with my family, nursing my newborn son. Everyone was happy, there was snow outside, and I felt so grounded, in a place I never wanted to leave.
November 16, 2008 at 3:43 pm
My all-time favorite Christmas hymn will always be “Silent Night”. When I was a kid I remember sitting in an big overstuffed chair snuggled in with my younger brother, George, listening and singing “Silent Night” to the radio (that’s all there was in those days, before TV) and it was most poignant in those WWII years, during an evening air raid drill in Silver Spring, Maryland, when we had to sit quietly in the dark and listen to the radio with the lights all turned off. My Dad even placed a piece of cardboard across the dial on that big old stand-up radio to block out the light in that tiny space. But, I digresssed just a bit ~~ my all time favorite memory, and I have so many, would have to be Christmas 1956. My third child and 2nd son, Robert Dow, was born more than a month early on Dec. 19th. I had gone to the dr. that day and on my way home stopped off at Jelleff’s department store to buy my last Christmas present, a gift for my Mom and while doing that my water broke and so after getting the younger children settled down for the evening we toodled off to the hospital to get checked out, never dreaming that I would be giving birth more than a month earlier than expected. Long story made short, it was a touch and go week and on Christmas Day we looked in on him in the hospital nursery isolette equipped with a huge tank of oxygen and his own nurse to monitor him (that scene was the pre-cursor to the neo-natal nurseries of today). That Christmas Day we were grateful to feel that he had survived his first week of life without further incident and we were looking forward to holding him in our arms and bringing him home to his big brother and sister in the near future. And yes, the carolers were walking the halls singing, “Silent Night”. That little guy had a rough first 2 years for sure, but on that Christmas Day he was our best gift ever and he continues to be a gift to everyone whose life he touches; his parents and brothers and sisters, his wife and his own children and grandchilden, and all the men and women he has supported and flown with in the U.S. Air Force as well as Delta AirLines, and so many more. That long ago Christmas was the beginning of a continuing life well lived ~~ What a Memory and what a Blessing for us.
November 16, 2008 at 8:01 pm
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November 16, 2008 at 8:48 pm
Christmas memories – when I was a kid, we drove to my grandparents’ farm – they would leave out hay bales and carrots for the reindeer, and on Xmas morning there would sometimes be baby lambs for us to play with.
November 17, 2008 at 3:00 am
One of my very favorite Christmas memories was in 2001. My father had been battling cancer for more than six years. Approximately two weeks before Christmas the cancer penetrated his spinal column and left him paralyzed from the waist down. My family was at the beach with him and my Mom. He woke up that morning able to walk and by the time the night was over he was unable to walk and never walked again. Anyway, he had spinal surgery to try and do damage control with the cancer in and around his spine and after a week or so was transferred to a rehabilitation hospital to begin to learn how to live life as a paraplegic. So, it was in that rehab hospital that my father and mother, myself and my children spent our last Christmas together with my Dad. My children and I had brought and decorated a small Christmas tree for him to keep in his room and on Christmas day we brought food and presents with us when we came to spend Christmas evening in the hospital with my Mom and Dad. I made a book for him with my 3 year old son’s help that was titled “Why I Love my Granddad”. When my Dad opened it he couldn’t stop crying and said it was the best present he had ever gotten. It was that year that I really learned what Christmas is about. It is about being with the ones you love and appreciating the real gifts of Christmas…….having special people to love and who love you in your life…..and being grateful to be with them. Celebrating Christmas in a hospital room really makes you realize that you don’ t need the decorations, the food, the gifts or anything else that we think makes Christmas what it is. We had our family together in that room and that made our Christmas complete. My father passed away eight months later…..I miss you Dad……
November 17, 2008 at 1:06 pm
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November 17, 2008 at 3:08 pm
In my mid twenties I visited “family” in Germany at Christmas time – folks I had heard about but never seen. On Christmas Eve they opened double doors leading to the dining room and there stood, in all its glory, a ceiling high tree that actually had lit candles on it. What a sight to behold. I can’t even remember today whether or not it had additional decorations, only the beauty of it standing alone and the heavenly fragrance of pine! No other tree will ever compare.
Another remembrance is the Christmas Market in Nurnberg. Every goodie imaginable was there to enjoy visually or even purchase. Every child’s dream of what St. Niklaus might bring. Many memories remain in the heart but the best ones are of the great love shown and shared on this holiday.
November 18, 2008 at 1:29 pm
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November 18, 2008 at 2:30 pm
My fav. memory was in 2006. It was my little boy’s first christmas and of course he doesn’t remember but I held him and his gifts on my lap and took his little finger to rip the paper at a very easy spot so in all actualality he opened his gifts. This year he’s going to tear into them with reckless abandon so I’m sure this will be a great memory as well 🙂
I have enjoyed reading your blog, and we too got snow this morning!
November 19, 2008 at 4:41 am
Christmas season in our family as a child was always made very special by both my parents. It was a significant religious season and one for family togetherness. I came from a very modest income family who made most of their gifts. However, the season was very special even though there was little money. The most memorable Christmas happened many years later when I was grown & married. My husband & I had tried to have children for over 5 years without success. We applied for adoption mid-summer that year & were told it would be about a year. To our great surprise, early December we were called & told there was a little boy ( 7 weeks old) that we could come see. Well, the rest is history—we brought him home on Dec 20th– this by far was the most memorable Christmas. It gives special meaning to “the gift of life” for us. We have keep many of the traditions that we grew up with & our boys (grown now)
learned the same values as we did — Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ and the celebration of family.
November 20, 2008 at 6:10 am
Christmas for our family begins with German Christmas on the 24th with my Mutti in MD. We always drive home through Wash DC and stop at the Capitol Christmas tree (our fav) and do a drive by of the White House tree. The 25th is a day to stay home and have a special breakfast enjoying the day together. Since 1999, when our son Alex was killed, holidays are all bittersweet. My first instinct this time of year is to run away to a far off island, but in the end Christmas is still one of my favorite holidays with family as the heart of the celebration along with so many memories…….
November 24, 2008 at 1:24 am
My first grandson was born on December 20, 2001 and I went to be with my daughter. It ended up that he had jaundice and had to go back to the hospital and then my daughter caught a virus so I stayed longer than expected and Christmas quickly approached. I had married the love of life 2 years earlier and we hate every minute we spend apart, but he was so understanding and supportive as I cared for my daughter and her new baby. It snowed in West Texas, which never happens, so he was unable to fly in to be with us. I didn’t care about having a tree, or having presents or having anything that Christmas. I was so happy and in love with my new grandson, and glad to see my daughter recovering. Although, it was bittersweet without my husband, it was the sweetest Christmas of all.
November 24, 2008 at 6:53 am
I also had a Christmas time baby. Our first son came early and was born tiny but healthy on the 22nd, 20 years ago. Yes, where does the time go? We were so thrilled when he was born and he was the best gift ever. Santa even visited us in the hospital. The doctor let us go home on Christmas Eve so we were able to be with family for that evening and the next day. We hadn’t finished our shopping or the gifts I was making but nobody cared. We just relaxed, visited with family and passed the baby. For many years after Santa came to visit my son on his birthday.
November 24, 2008 at 3:36 pm
One of my favourite traditions/memories is of playing games at Christmas – when I was a kid we’d often get new ones and try playing those during the day (my dad used to help us figure out the rules), and it’s still a tradition in my family to play crokinole after Christmas dinner and throughout the holiday season.
November 29, 2008 at 11:56 am
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November 29, 2008 at 1:45 pm
One of my favorite memories of my childhood is hanging the christmas stockings. There were five of us kids in the family, my mother knit us each a unique sticking, mine was Santa’s Face with the beard knit of mohair. We had to wait until just before we went to bed on Christmas Eve to hang them on the mantle. It was quite a little ceremony, oldest ot yongest. Then we put out the milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. If we woke before our parents, which we always did, we were allowed to get our stocking and take it back to bed with us.
I still cherish my stocking, Christmas would not be right without it. I hav eknit a stocking for my kids, 4, and my grandkids, 9. all unique. I hope they feel the same way I do about theirs.
November 29, 2008 at 3:06 pm
One of my favorite memories went through many Christmases.Every year at school we had to exchange gifts and I went to an expensive private school even though my family were poor.My grandfather got us a huge cut in the tuition.
Every year when it came time to trade gifts with some other little girl my grandfather would give us Lifesavers candy that came in a little book to give to the girl we were trading with and we knew that this was an aweful gift.My sister would try to fake sick just so she would not have to give the lifesavers and see some girls face go sour when she received it.
One year after the many years of being embarrassed by our poverty I was headed to school with that Lifesaver candy in hand when my grandmother stopped me at the door.She handed me a little teddy bear that came with perfume and she gave one of the same to my sister.
She gave us these to give the the girls whose names we had drawn and my Grandmother took the lifesavers from us and said that she would put them in our stockings for Christmas.
That was the best year and the last year I went to that school.
November 29, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Favorite Christmas memory – that’s easy 🙂
My husband and I were married on Christmas Day on the beach on the island of St. John in the US Virgin Islands.
We were awakened that morning in our eco-cottage to the sound of a bagpipe player playing Amazing Grace just a little ways down the road! We couldn’t have scripted it any better and we believed right then and there that our marriage would be blessed. That was 12 years ago and we’re still as happy as we were that morning.
Kathy
November 30, 2008 at 9:11 am
My fondest memory was Christmas 2002. It was when my husband was very sick in the hospital and was in the hospital for Christmas. My children, then 11 and 8, decided to bring a Christmas tree up to the hospital to decorate in their dads hospital room. So we shopped on the way up to the hospital that day and we decorated a small 2 ft. tree in his room. They brought their gifts they made him in school and put them under the tree.
At the same time, my family was trying to make Christmas still for the two of them. They both still believed in Santa Claus. My 11 year sat in the hospital 3 days before Christmas and said wrote a letter and told me to be sure to get it to Santa. He wrote that he did not want Santa to come this year until his dad was out of the hospital. It was always his dad who loved to sit and play with all the new gifts with them that Santa left. So that year, Santa did not come on Christmas morning.
My husband was finally released from the hospital on my sons birthday, December 29th. My husband was shocked when I told him the story. He cried. So before we surprised the boys and picked them up from the sitter, we went home and we took whatever we had bought them already and put it under the Christmas tree. We then went to pick them up and they were shocked to see their dad their. They hugged him and they both cried that daddy was finally home after over a month. My 11 year old then said, Santa just gave me the best birthday and Christmas gift in one. He helped daddy get better.
This year, my boys are now 17 and 14 and for the first time in all their lives they have been told that there will be no Christmas. I was diagnosed with Stage 2B Breast Cancer on September 19th and since have had a bilateral mastectomy and am presently undergoing intense Chemotherapy. My husband is permanently disabled and now I am unable to work and waiting to see if Social Security will approve me. We are having financial problems. I wanted to make this the best Christmas ever for my boys since my older one will be leaving to go off to College at the end of this school year.
Both my boys have told me that the best Christmas gift they could ever ask for is for God to give their mom the strength to fight the cancer and to get through her Chemo and Radiation and future surgery she must have. They have made me very proud of them. They are all grown up and instead of waking up to 20 to 25 gifts each under the tree this year, they say all they need is to wake up to see Mom alive and to take a picture under the tree with them. It breaks my heart that I can not give them this year, and at the same time, I say I HAVE THE BEST TWO SONS any mom could ever ask for!
God Bless all this year during the holidays and the only gift I ask Santa for is a cure for Breast Cancer!