Your most favorite Christmas memory in life

[smilie]

Need a little cheer today.... What is your most favorite Christmas memory of all time??

 

[JaxDad]

My father was a USAF pilot. One Christmas Eve his squadron was deployed on very short notice. The families of his crew all went house-to-house to say goodbye to the dads and wish each other Merry Christmas. Meanwhile the moms snuck out the Santa gifts. It was a fun early Christmas for the kids and a nice way to send off the dads.

 

[RogueX]

I found out I was pregnant with my daughter towards the end of 2005. I was dating my now husband at the time and we both knew his mom would be thrilled with news that she would be a grandmother in 2006.

At Christmas we presented her with a box and inside was a simple ornament that read "Nana's first Christmas 2006". It took her 20 minutes to realize what that meant, but when it finally hit her, she was beyond excited.

My daughter is her only grandchild even now.

 

[luvnwdwgal]

Just watching our son opening his gifts when he was little and now our 3 granddaughters.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

My wife's mom, our daughter, and I jammed out to some songs (all on guitar) one evening around the Christmas holidays. That was fantastic. She passed away from lung cancer in 2014; I wish we had done that more often.

 

[TippyThomas]

The first one after my adoption. I'd never experienced Christmas with all the love, stability, community and joy. Such an amazing time of the year.

 

[pookybean]

I was 13 and it was a HUGE christmas. There was never a lot of money so christmas was usually small (gift wise). That year I got a suede bomber jacket, hat (a la debbie gibson) AND a nintendo!

My mom said, there is something missing and sent me to get a bag out of her top drawer. When I came back and opened it there was a bottle of Electric Youth (by debbie gibson... lol) perfume and i LOST MY MIND. I still have no idea why I was so excited over that bottle of perfume with everything else I got, but i was.

Thinking back it was probably the cumulation of the morning and all the stuff I never even expected but its funny to think how I would say that was the most favorite gift I got that year.

 

[tvguy]

Christmas to me is best experienced though the eyes of a child. Christmas was great when I was a child, then became less exciting as I got older. Then when I had kids, it peaked again. Then it became less exciting as they got older. Now I have Grandchildren, and the oldest is only 3, but in a few years as she hits elementary school, the thrill of Christmas will return. Just a cycle of life I guess.
As for memories, Christmas 2000 stands out. My kids were 13 and 9. They knew we were going to Disneyland the next summer with my cousin and her family. But my wife and I wanted to go on a scouting trip to see the lay of the land with California Adventure about to open. The kids opened the tickets and said, "yeah, wow, we're going to Disneyland in 6 months". To which we said, "no, we're going TOMORROW".

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Going to my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve. My grandfather had a big box which he had covered in brick-printed paper to look like a chimney, and every year he filled it with little trinkets and toys. We kids were each allowed to reach into the box and pull something out. It was never anything expensive, but we were always so excited to see what we got. My Poppy was a great man. I miss him so much.

 

[Snowflakey]

For the past 30 years I'd say waking up Christmas morning and thinking of the families we adopted each year and how excited they must be with what we got them

 

[PollyannaMom]

The year my parents managed to surprise me with a cat. (This was NOT a spur of the moment pet, but a well-thought-out family decision. - I just thought it wasn't going to happen before summer.)

 

[Kitty 34]

In all my Christmases I really really can't single out a most special Christmas but I do love you starting this thread, Smilie. It's very heartwarming reading them. I need that this Christmas.....

 

[JLTraveling]

My parents had sold the house in FL and joined me in New Orleans just a few weeks earlier. We were all temporarily living in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, but there was a shared courtyard with plenty of room. We decided to host an "orphans Christmas," inviting several of my friends from the street community. Tarot readers, teenage runaways, homeless people, a total of 10 people who were down on their luck, ages 15 to 70. So with me and my parents, that made 13. We created a flow through with stations in the living room, the dining room that was serving as my bedroom, and the courtyard, expecting that people would spread out a bit. Nope, everyone wanted to stick together, so all 13 of us spent the entire day crammed into the teeny tiny living room. We did a white elephant gift exchange, and our guests were so excited to participate--every single person brought something. And several brought food, using kitchen space at friends' houses or wherever they could.

My "uncle," a 70 year old tarot reader who lived in a small room in a boarding house, told me later that he hadn't celebrated Christmas, or had a reason to, in over 60 years. With tears in his eyes, he said it was the best Christmas ever. Looking back, it truly was. Just magical.

 

[DisneyHardin]

The year my parents managed to surprise me with a cat. (This was NOT a spur of the moment pet, but a well-thought-out family decision. - I just thought it wasn't going to happen before summer.)

I got a cat for Christmas when I was in 4th grade. It was a HUGE surprise.

 

[HannaBelle]

I'm not crying, your crying!

 

[antmaril]

My late husband and I had been approved to adopt a baby from South Korea in early December, 1986. On December 23rd at 9:00 p.m. our social worker called to tell us we had a son! We were having a houseful of people the next day, Christmas Eve, and my husband wore a sweatshirt that said “Michael’s Dad”. Big Christmas surprise for all of our family!

 

[Forevermarypoppins]

Need a little cheer today.... What is your most favorite Christmas memory of all time??

You know I might give a differnet answer another time but today I first thought of this:
The family ( multi family and generational) would pile in 2 and 3 cars( VANS-remember those -1970's) and we would drive into downtown Chicago and walk the storefronts to see the displays and decorations.

 

[CGB]

DH and I always enjoyed the kids waking up on Christmas morning and running to tell us that Santa came. One year, when they were about 11 and 7, we woke up before them. We waited and waited... and finally around 8 or 8:30, we decided to "wake" them up. We were hitting the toys that make noise and anything else we could do to "accidentally" wake them. Finally, they threw back the covers and climbed out of bed.

They were fully dressed! "Wait! WHY do you have clothes on? Where are your pajamas?"

Our daughter woke our son about 4 or 5 am. They both got up, got dressed, and snuck downstairs and played with their new toys for awhile... and then put everything right back as it had been left and went back to bed!

They're both grown now and I can't wait for their payback someday.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

As a kid, the highlight of my year was helping my grandmother decorate that silver tinsel tree and putting that reindeer on top of the console TV. Oof I am old!

 

[JLTraveling]

You know I might give a differnet answer another time but today I first thought of this:
The family ( multi family and generational) would pile in 2 and 3 cars( VANS-remember those -1970's) and we would drive into downtown Chicago and walk the storefronts to see the displays and decorations.

Aww, this reminds me of another one of mine. Before the Candlelight Processional, Disney used to do The Glory and Pageantry of Christmas at Downtown Disney (then Lake Buena Vista). My whole multigenerational family would go early in the morning to get seats, then we'd spend the day taking turns holding everybody's seats while different people went in different combinations to shop or eat or whatever. Really good times with relatives I didn't get to see all that often.