Favorite Childhood Memories

[ChristmasCheerleader]

Last year on O.C. there was a topic where everyone shared one of their most favorite childhood memories and I thought maybe we could revive it here.

My favorite memory is the one I shared on O.C.

When I was about 7 years old my parents held a Christmas party for our relatives in our newly finished basement on Christmas Eve. All the family came, aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, etc.. We had drawn names at Thanksgiving and all the gifts were under the tree. We heard the doorbell ring upstairs so my great aunt went up to answer it. When she came back down, Santa Claus was with her! We were so excited. He mingled around abit, talked with all us kids, then handed out the gifts and left saying ho, ho, ho that he would be back when we were asleep in bed and deliver our gifts.

My great aunt and uncle all ways spent the night with us on Christmas Eve. The next morning while fixing breakfast my mother said to my aunt "That was a great idea getting that Santa to come to our party". My bewildered aunt looked at my mom and said "I didn't get him, I thought you did". After calling everyone that was there, no one admitted to getting Santa to come to our party. That was forty years ago, and to this day, we all wonder who was that Santa who came to our party. Maybe, just maybe, it was the "real one".

Do any of you have any memories to share?

 

[HouseElf]

What a lovely memory, thanks for sharing it with us! :skate:

 

[snowlvr]

What a fun memory!

I have lots of good memories about Christmas, but one of my favorite is about the year my DS and I spent a quiet holiday at home..I was a single mom then, and it was my turn to work on Christmas Eve (I was working in a hospital lab at the time)..son was at home, he was 16, and he decided to make supper..he cooked everything I had planned on cooking, set the table, made PLACECARDS for both of us--bent orange index cards with our names and a little poinsettia flower drawn on each, which of course I still have! When I got home he proudly served it all, cleaned up, and we got done just in time to catch the first showing of 24 hours of "A Christmas Story"..we watched it over and over until I finally had to go to bed...we spent the next day at home alone just relaxing...It was really a great holiday after a very hectic Dec..

Thanks for the question! :bigsnow:

 

[Lana]

Those are both such GREAT memories!!!!

 

[Pam Spaur]

I have a few. The first Christmas I REALLY have a memory of was when I was 7. My sis and I were foster kids, and this was the first Christmas we had with this family. I got "twin" babies to cuddle, because I also got a bride doll. She was so beautiful. I am 61, and I still have her. When my daughter turned seven, I gave her the doll for Christmas, and had bought a trunk and made a trousseau. Unfortunately, my DD didn't take care of her, so I took her back. Mean old mom, huh?

The other fave memories are the Christmas of '68. My twins were five weeks old (to the day). Two very extra special blessings!! My mom and brother came from South Carolina, and my sis came to where we lived in Northern Indiana.

My youngest son was born three weeks after Christmas and was almost a year old for his first. It was special.

One more, ok? THIS one was really special. Christmas 2001: for the first time in 50 years, my mother, my father, my sister, and I all celebrated Christmas together. It was such a special Christmas. Five weeks later my sister died. But what precious memories I will always have.

Thank you for letting me share these.

:bigsnow:

 

[Ms_Speedy_Elf]

I remember waking up my brother (who is 4 year's younger than myself) and telling him that Santa had came . It wasn't even day light yet,so we tried to be quiet not to wake up our parent's .However we would eventually let out a squeal of joy that we couldn't contain and out would come mom & dad . So we finished opening present's ,eat breakfast and bathe to get ready to go to grandmas house to open more presents.

We had a tree that looked like this and even had the color wheel that is shown along with the tree.
http://www.kshs.org/cool2/cooltree.htm

 

[ChristmasCheerleader]

Ms Speedy Elf! We had a tree just like that too, except ours had all green balls on it and also had the color wheel! One year I gues the light bulb got to hot and the plastic color cover started melting! Last year for the aluminum tree

 

[SparkleNana]

I love reading these posts! :grouphug:

 

[zchristy]

I have SO many, but my favorites are of my own kids. The year my kids were 5&1, my DD's Kindergarten teacher gave them a bag of oats and sparkles with a poem to sprinkle on the lawn Christmas Eve. She was so excited, and after she and Grandpa did the sprinkling (and I got it on film) she was convinced she needed to go to bed IMMEDIATELY because he was now on the way!

Well, I kid you not....not 3 minutes later, a guy in a Santa suit went by on the back of a semi trailer yelling HO HO HO and waving. I have NEVER seen her face ever contort like that before or since..she looked like she was going to faint and gasped "He's HERE!". We all waved at him out the window and were all stunned.

DD still doesn't want to give up on ol' Santa, and I think that's why. One of us remembers every year on Christmas Eve the look on Kylie's face. I have lived in this neighborhood for 10 years and I still don't know WHO that person was - -nothing like that has happened before or after that!

 

[momtomaddie]

I have a lot of favorite memories. But one that comes to mind right now. My step-father plays Santa every year for the church. He also plays for a group that hosts for families who probably won't be able to afford much of a Christmas. I always played as an elf. (I really just drove him to places) But we would randomly stop at peoples houses, (we knew them of course) and surprise all the kids on Christmas Eve. I will always have those memories of how excited the kids were to see him. ackage:

 

[FrostyShimmer]

One Christmas when I had just turned 6 years old I wanted to go see Santa. My mother thought I was too old, but I insisted. My brother was forced to stand in line with me, which at the old age of 10 embarrassed him greatly. When I sat on Santa's lap Santa asked me if I'd been a good girl and I said, "yes." Then he said, "and how did you like the Barbie magic voyageur I brought you last year?" I was surprised even then, though I still believed. I had been told mall santas were just helpers. Only the one in the parade in Toronto was the real one.

I have never been able to figure out how he knew. My brother waited down in the court of the mall and never spoke to Santa. This was a big mall too with a huge lineup.

We didn't really know anyone in the area so it couldn't have been a friend of my parents. I asked my parents years later if they could think of any possible way he could have known, and the only thing they could come up with was that maybe he just guessed at a popular toy. Still, that would have been risky if I hadn't had one.

Forever baffled, I will always wonder just who was wearing that Santa costume that day at the mall, or whether it was a costume at all.

:bigsnow:

 

[christmascreations]

how wonderful to read all these REAL SANTA experiences. arty:

 

[ChristmasCheerleader]

ZChristy and Frosty Shimmer- Ya'll got to see the real Santa too! I can't believe someone thought 6 was too old!!! I was like 12, when my parents told me the truth and I didn't believe them!!!

I still don't!

 

[alisonmcg]

Talking of real Santa experiences something happened one Christmas Eve that I still can't explain! I was about six years old and in bed,but as it was Christmas Eve, I couldn't sleep. I used to have a little light up Santa and it was beside my pillow. I remember lying looking up at the window when the room was filled with the sounds of bells! But it wasn't the tinny sound of a bell that you sometimes get in tree decorations this was more lighter,musical. The sound seem to actually fade in and fade out. I remember thinking"Santa's here" and squeezing my eyes shut in case I would miss out on any presents. The next morning I told my Mum who said I was dreaming but I KNEW I was awake! To this day I've asked her if she made the noise and she insists it wasn't her. I'm 34 years old now with an eight year old daughter of my own so she knowsI could handle it if she told me it was her. But she is adament that it wasn't her and I believe her. Certainly,at the time,we had nothing that would've made the same beautiful noise. So I'm filing this one away under*Magical*. :sleigh: