Do you have some good memories of a past Christmas or two? Boy I sure do!

I remember the Santa Claus Christmases we had as a child. My parents were not what I would call religious.

I cherish the Christmases my family celebrates now....the birth of the Christ child, our Savior

I don't get stressed on buying gifts or shopping .....I used to.

I love the Christmas music....cheesy tunes like Alvin and the Chipmunks and Peanuts....as well as our old time favorites with Johnny Mathis and Bing Crosby.

I love buying gifts for family or making GREAT ONES, as I did last year for my daughter...and I love the idea of buying from the World Vision catalogue this year instead of buying for each other.

I have had some pretty cool Christmases ....There are two that come to mind right now..

#1 ~ The one where my daughter, about 4 at the time, told me "I will tell Mary and baby Jesus to come on in", when she was supposed to say "there is no room in the inn" for the Sunday school play.

#2 ~ A used typewriter "Santa" brought when I was in 8th grade...awesome for doing homework!

those are just 2 of my great memories...have you got some?

My mother always managed to get a nice tree up. I also remember a couple of Christmas's that I received more gifts than the entire neighborhood should have received. It was very inconsistent at my house though. There was a couple of Christmas's that I received almost nothing. We didn't ever have Christmas music, never caroled, never went to services, prayed, or did any baking together. Like you, I am not really about the gifts but more about the season--making the house look festive, going to holiday concerts, caroling, baking, etc.

I went to Catholic school, so we'd always put on these wonderful Christmas pagents. I remember being part of the choir, lol. But I think my fave memory of those pagents was when I was in the 2nd grade. And our song to sing was "Silent Night" That is just one of my fave Christmas songs!! I loved that.

Another one of my fave memories was getting up on Christmas morning, and opening presents that Santa had left, lol. My dog would be playing in the wrapping paper. The cat would be chewing on the tree. My mom would be drinking coffee and watching me, lol. Then afterwards, we'd get ready and go to my grandparents house to have lunch.

I miss being little, lol.


OHHH!! I still love the first Christmas I spent with my hubby. Well, he was just my fiance at the time, but he came home on leave. And we celebrated it at each other's houses. It was so much fun. We even went to Zoo Lights, and Glendale Glitters together.

I always loved Zoo Lights & Glendale Glitters.

My favorite xmas was when i was 6.. Santa brought me a Krazy Kar... It was awesome, and even tho im 44 i still remember the fun i used to have on that thing.. if they made one today, that would hold my weight, i would be on it all the time lol... it was a yellow circle and you used your arms to spin in circles, go straight, all sorts of things... it was awesome!

All of my christmases have been great but one, so im gonna share my 'poor me' xmas as well lol

when i was 7 Santa brought me and my sister each Hippity Hops... we walked in xmas am and looked at the tree and my heart fell... We each had our own side of the tree for 'our' presents.. anyhow, my hippity hop was deflated and had a pretty big leak.. i thought santa hated me lol.. i figured he was magic and the elves made 'perfect' toys, so he must not like me to leave me a broken one lol..

I remember the Swedish Smorgasbord dinners my Mom would put on every Christmas Eve. Gosh they were special. I remember dressing up in my new Christmas dress on Christmas Eve and feeling grown up because I got to wear white stockings with my patent leather Mary Janes. Johnny Mathis and Bing Crosby on the stereo. The awful flocked trees my Mom used to like. Her fancy blown glass Scandinavian ornaments, which are now mine The one year my Dad asked for me to leave Santa a beer. Waking up Christmas morning to a amazing toy store in the family room. I was an only child and spoiled terribly every Christmas

And of course.. baking the Christmas cookies. I bake the same ones my Mom did. Why did hers always taste better.. still do?

Julekaka. In a word, that is Christmas to me. My Mom would make 4 loaves each year and we always looked forward to that on Christmas morning. I've even adapted the recipe for my bread machine so I can make it myself (but the loaves aren't as pretty as hers).

When my sister was first married we'd get together with her husband's entire family and our entire family all day for Christmas. Everyone met at one house for brunch and gift giving. There had to have been 20 of us and we'd open the presents one at a time until we were all done. It sometimes took hours because everyone had to comment before moving to the next present. In the evening we'd all meet up again at a different house for a huge Christmas dinner--and of course most of us were dressed in our new Christmas clothes.

My mom was always wonderful with making the house beautiful and setting up wonderful meals and a great Christmas. I remember going out to the tree one Christmas morning, and there was a letter for us from Santa (next to the empty milk glass and the cookie crumbs). And they always got us what we wanted, no matter the money issues. I was a very lucky kid.

It's funny, but this was my best Christmas in recent memory: My niece's family was living with me (niece, husband and three little boys). I had Christmas Eve off. I cleaned the house. Had a few decorations up. Christmas music on. Spent the afternoon making sugar cookies. After the kiddies went to bed, we finished wrapping and putting out the presents for the kiddies. Then got up in the morning so we could see their reaction to the big overnight change. Magical. Opened presents leisurely, with only three kids, one only a toddler. So fun to enjoy their sheer joy. (Usually Christmas is a mad house at my sister's house with a dozen kids going nuts unwrapping, headache noise level. Chaos. Not magical.) Lovely breakfast of fancy eggs. ... Then over to sister's house

I think this Christmas I will try to do this by myself. Not the presents part, obviously (the kiddies don't live here anymore). But everything else. And substitute some early morning quiet alone time with Christmas scripture instead of the presents. Maybe some candles. ... Then over to sister's house!

When I was a kid we did our gift giving on Christmas Eve. Well, my sister was probably about 5 and I was 8, and every time we brought up Christmas, my parents told us we had too many toys already, and Santa was just going to bring us footlockers to put our toys in. We were at that age where we weren't sure whether to believe them or not.

Anyway, Christmas Eve arrives, we have dinner, and then my sister and I are sent to our room so Santa can do his thing. We were called out to the living room, and sure enough there are two footlockers under the tree and nothing else. My sister hauled off and kicked that metal footlocker so hard she left a dent! My dad opened up the footlockers to show us they were filled with our gifts before any more damage was done!

Sitting outside the house with the cicadas buzzing in the background, drinking sprite and having a barbie.

Mmmm good times

Christmas was always a big deal for my family. We didn't have much extended family it was always me, my parents, aunt and uncle, and grandparents and that was it- then a cousin and little brother came along later.
We would get together on Christmas Eve and have dinner and open one special gift each - then go home, do our individual family Christmas mornings and stockings - then get together again for lunch and presents.
Even when money was tight- there was always a ton of presents! My favorite memories are of my grandma reading special stories that she found out of magazines or books - she used to read a lot out of "The Good Old Days" magazines that she got.
other favorite things- we'd all pile into my grandpas van and take a drive around town looking at the decorated houses and ooh and aaah over them. decorating the tree and getting picked up to put the star on the top. watching some favorite holiday cartoons. excitedly getting up several times in the middle of the night to see if santa had come. and my grandma always forgetting what she had got us and being just as surprised as us when we opened our presents- or sometimes jumping up and grabbing it out of our hands to give to the right person cause she labeled it wrong.