Christmas memories

My sister and I had the great good fortune of being raised by two parents who grew up in the height of the Great Depression. Mom came from a family of seven children, my dad came from a family with eight. Putting a roof over their heads and food on the table was the big concerns – not buying toys for Christmas.

My dad told me that his most exciting Christmas as a child was when he got four pieces of candy and a whole orange just for himself – he didn’t have to share with his brothers. Mom said when she was twelve her older sister got bought her a pair of roller skates, they were used but still worked fine! She would get tears in her eyes when she talked about it.

 

Gratefully there was plenty of love in those families to go around, and everyone was poor then so they ended up with only good memories. But they both also dreamed of extravagant Christmases. Their goal, as my sister and I came along, was to give us the Christmas of their dreams – and they did it!  

 

When I was growing up the ‘living room’ was for grown-ups’ only – with the exception of Christmas time. And Christmas mornings were so special. The living room could be completely closed off. There was the hall door, and one in the little den when we sat as a family and watched TV in the evening. I have no doubt that we got our parents up and a completely unreasonable hour and once we finally got Daddy out of bed, it was his job to go in and see if Santa had come. You see, as we were told, if Santa had come, Daddy would turn on the lights, if he hadn’t then we would all go back to bed. What was really happening, we learned as we got older, was that Daddy was getting his 8mm camera, with its huge flood lights, ready to film us coming in.

The light flooding the room made it as bright and sparkly as Disneyland. Stocking on the mantel overflowed, wrapped packages stacked to great heights sat under and behind the tree, and the amazing gifts from Santa sat unwrapped and dazzling in front of the tree. The two depression era children smiled and watched, as they saw their dreams fulfilled.

 

The Christmases with my children when they were little were also wonderful – they still are, even if they seldom happen on Christmas day anymore. But few things match the magic of childhood memories. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, what are some of your childhood memories? I’d love to read them if you have a blog, or you’re welcome to leave them in the comments if you’d like.