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FirstLight

(14,309 posts)
1. Hmmmm... I was the youngest, and used to be the one
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 08:22 PM
Dec 5

to wake everyone up!

I literally would go downstairs with my flashllight to see if "stuff" was there...then run upstairs to my sister's room with the flashlight in her eyes screaming "Santa came!"... and would do the same to my poor parents....


I miss that innocence and joy ...

BOSSHOG

(40,277 posts)
2. All our Christmases have been Happy But one
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 08:29 PM
Dec 5

20 years ago we were living in South Louisiana, just my Wife and I. We were having a nice peaceful time together, always enjoying each others Company. Then the phone rang. It was my brother in law in Kansas. I answered. He told me my wife’s father died suddenly about an hour ago. I did my best to fake my side of the call, my brother in law helped out. A few minutes later I told my wife. Christmas remains very special for my wife’s family for many reasons. My FIL landed on Omaha Beach at the age of 19. Always My Hero.. Not trying to be a downer, just sharing a memorable Christmas. It’s the first one I thought of when I read your subject.

Merry Christmas to All.

Eugene

(62,775 posts)
3. My brother and I got Mighty Tonka trucks for Christmas when I was 4 years old.
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 09:00 PM
Dec 5

Those trucks were passed on to younger family members over the next 25 years.

Response to debm55 (Original post)

sinkingfeeling

(53,257 posts)
5. We always got up around 10:30 PM on Christmas Eve and attended a
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 09:18 PM
Dec 5

real candlelight service in our small country church at midnight. We then went back home and returned to bed.
I always disliked dolls and one year Santa put about 6 stuffed teddies up in the limbs of our Christmas tree. I still have 3 of those well loved teddies 70+ years later.

Bristlecone

(10,523 posts)
6. Xmas with my grandparents, cousins, aunts and Uncles, and family friends
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 09:55 PM
Dec 5

Sweets, Chex mix, nuts in the shell on the coffee table that you cracked with a nutcracker, slide shows, playing Tripoli for pennie’s.

We have immediate family over now sometimes, but nothing like when I was little. I wish my kids as could have experienced what I did. Everyone was gone by the time I had kids.

FirstLight

(14,309 posts)
7. When I was 6, our relatives from Mississippi
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 10:05 PM
Dec 5

Visited us in Ca, Bay Area. 1976
Someone tried to steal our Buick Riviera (1965 model... beautiful) and they got stuck on our driveway...
My mom's Aunt Effie Was yelling to my dad "Shoot him, Bill ...shoot him!" 😆
The guy got out of the car and ran off in the rain. To this day, it's a great family story that we will still laughed about until my parents passed

TlalocW

(15,632 posts)
8. I lived on the edge of a small farming community
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 10:08 PM
Dec 5

With wheat fields past my backyard. We lived on about 3/4ths of an acre. It was late Christmas afternoon, and the sun hadn't set yet but was blocked by houses across the street, and we had fresh snow so outdoors was kind of that winter blueish look. My brother and I were at an activity table that was in between two easy chairs in front of the picture window playing games. Our front yard was pretty big. Two horses from next door had gotten loose and galloped diagonally across the yard, kicking up snow. It was kind of a beautiful sight. I don't recall my brother's reaction, but I just stared out the window for a while. Then we got on our coats to go get the horses while mom called the neighbors.

Another one
My brother and I were also paperboys with our own routes meaning we got up at 3 every morning and delivered papers. We normally got done by 4. It had snowed, but the roads were clear, and we had winter coveralls/snowsuits that were pretty toasty so we delivered on our mo-peds on Christmas Eve like we normally did. Most people turn off their lights - indoors and outdoors when going to bed except for Christmas Eve so everyone had their lights on. My route was the shortest (but had the most people) so I finished pretty quickly so I decided to drive around the rest of the town and look at all the lights. World was very still except for the putting of Old Yeller (we named our mo-peds).

Yet another one.
Christmas Eve when I was a kid and still believed in Santa. We were coming back from somewhere. Night had fallen so we needed to get home pretty fast so we could go to sleep because we saw Santa entering the home of someone to the delight of the people inside. Most likely a neighbor of the home owner doing it to surprise their kids as a holiday gesture.

madamesilverspurs

(16,081 posts)
9. Christmas Eve, a light supper followed by a nap.
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 10:58 PM
Dec 5

Then we'd go to midnight service, enjoying the drive to and from because of all the Christmas lights on the snow. We'd bundle into our jammies and go to bed listening for sleigh bells. In the morning we'd open our stocking gifts, then sit down to a breakfast of hot cocoa and Danish aebleskives. Ymmmmmmm..........


.

wintemark

(33 posts)
10. The first time I bought my parents a "real" present
Thu Dec 5, 2024, 11:28 PM
Dec 5

Not counting all the times I went shopping with my mom or dad for the other one, or all the presents I bought them from the elementary school's Santa Shoppe they did for the kids. The first time it was my money and my idea on my own. I was so excited for it because it was the first time I got something for my parents that was a thought out and meaningful gift. The person at the checkout even helped me out by putting an extra paper bag over it so they couldn't see what it was, I was still too young to drive myself.

It was a 12 count set of Coke-a-Cola glasses.

At the time a lot our glasses were actually repurposed plastic containers, does anyone remember the early 80's cartoon Foofur? Well for a while the grocery store was selling something, I think it was butter, in plastic cups, actual cup shaped containers, that had characters from Foofur on the cups. By this time the cups were so faded you couldn't make out what was supposed to be on it but between that and a set of plastic camping cups that was about all we had to drink out of. So when I got that set of glasses for them I really thought I was getting them something nice that they were really going to like. for 11 or 12 year old me, that was a big deal

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