Memories of Christmas Traditions

For record keeping purposes I thought I should give a few and hopefully my memory won't fail me and I will remember the details that count.

Christmas is the one holiday that BOTH my parents get into. My mom has sort of collected Santa's ( all of them pretty different.) over the years. and I think she has over 50 ( I might even be under estimating.) My dad had gotten her Crystal Nativity scene which is beautiful.( and I don't care for a lot of the nativity scene stuff.) Needless to say . . our Front room turns into a whole new magical room . And was always my favorite to be in come Christmas. ( It didn't have any question about the Christmas spirit.. for sure.) Now when we were younger.. we didn't have all the Santa's' and crystal stuff. But we still decked the place, (decorations everywhere.)

My dad would get so excited for Christmas..( I don't know if it was for us or he really does love the holiday.) If you know my father.. he doesn't get all gun ho on really anything. But he was always so fun around Christmas. He always played Christmas tunes on the piano and I would sing along. A memory I always will cherish.


When I was younger.. Traditions went something like this..

Tree decorating eve. ALL six kids would load whatever awful station wagon we had.. go pick out a tree ( before we got an artif. tree.) Sing the Christmas tunes there and back.( how big of pain that had to be.)

Dad would set the tree. Put the lights on. and the garland( we had to sit on our thumbs we were soo excited!) And then my mom and all the kids would hang up all the ornaments.( six excited children grabbing ornaments and putting them wherever.. eek.. she was so patient.) After My dad would play and we would all sing Christmas songs. Maybe have some eggnog.

For a couple of Christmas's when we were young . .Santa came to our house ( as well as Mrs. Clause and there cute little elf.) we would sit on his lap and get a bag of treats. That was always so cool.


We all bought for each other and the parents. ( none of this drawing names thing.) They would takes us in two or three's and we would pick a small present out. ( does anyone remember KINGS store.) All of those went under the tree. ( we couldn't stand not sitting there and looking at them.. finding ours. etc etc.) We were warned multiple times to get from under the tree.

We had a huge countdown Felt calendar tree. every day you snapped on a ornament.

Of course we did the night of handing out Neighborhood gifts. and your doorbell never stopped ringing.( I kind of miss doing that here.)

Come Christmas Eve. The house would be buzzing. My mom would make all sorts of treats and set them out. ( This we were never stopped as to what we could have or how much!!) We would open our P.J's and put them on. And watch the Christmas Carol and then sing songs at the piano. And off to bed we went. ( Cookies for Santa of course! And carrots for the reindeer.)

My dad would all taunt about weather Santa Coming or not etc,etc,. ( all this was done with a glint in his eye... such torture!) Of course the threat of a lump a coal was mentioned once or twice.

I didn't want to stay up all night... I just wanted the night to get over with! But of course it was next to impossible to sleep. Come Christmas morning. we were FORBIDDEN to go upstairs for anything..So we stayed downstairs and tried hard to focus on cartoons. ( I remember being so excited I had knots in my tummy.)


Well, it always felt that they would NEVER Wake up.. And NEVER come and get us!!

But eventually my dad would come downstairs.. sometimes with a pair of socks in hand.. he would take his time putting them on.. ( we all tried not to go crazy and be super good so we could just get up those darn stairs!) He would sit there for a little bit.(just to torture us!) and then FINALLY line us up.. sometimes youngest to oldest.. or oldest to youngest.. He would take his time here rearranging us...all the time taunting us about Santa .weather he came or not..

My mom would wait at the top always grinning. As we got there.. Dad would point to which pile was ours and we would run and go thru our new treasure.( Santa didn't wrap our presents he left us piles.) And our stocking which has an orange in it every year. After our fill there.. Dad usually if not always played Santa and delved out presents from under the tree one by one. ( of course Santa did add to the pile of presents ) Even that was torture hoping his" TO...." was for you.. And yes he teased and tricked us here too.



Traditional Breakfast was biscuits-cheese & ham biscuit's. And the rest of the day was enjoying out loot.



Oh another way we knew it was the Christmas season was when we heard the sewing machine going NON stop till wee hours in the morning. And us "picking" the backing off the shirts my mom appliqued( she made them for a fair and sold em.. I think that's how they came up with extra money for Christmas.) Never ending pile of SHIRTS! to sew and pick.. ( my mom always had her Diet Coke and M&M's by here when she did this.) That was how we knew it was getting close to Christmas.

Of course ALL the kids were excited. But I tell ya. Clint was the worst of the worst when it came to the holiday season.. He was just so excited and couldn't hardly contain himself! Always so Hyper.
I don't remember everything I had ever gotten.. But I always remember how the house felt and how much fun we had getting ready for Christmas. I don't think I had ever had a "disappointing"Christmas.

Good Job MOM and Dad. you made miracles every year for us kids. Thanks for such fun memories.



I know they are more.. But I wanted to general points of our tradition. I will have to do my favorite Christmas memory soon.