Daily Prompt: Memories of Holidays Past
by Krista on December 16, 2013
What is your very favorite holiday? Recount the specific memory or memories that have made that holiday special to you.
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Halloween is my all-time favorite holiday, but I will stick with the season and talk about Christmas. I’m sure when I was much younger, Christmas was my favorite holiday. I remember very little about my own childhood Christmas’. My mother has lots of pictures from my childhood Christmas’ and I have looked through them many times. I know I loved dolls, still do. Every Christmas picture I have looked at, I was holding a doll. My favorite picture, was probably 1970 or 1971. My brother and I, standing in front of our Christmas tree; me holding a walking doll by the hand and my little brother showing off his riding fire truck. I will try to get that picture from my mother so I can copy and post it.
Anyway, my walking doll looked something like this:
And my little brother’s fire truck looked something like this:
What I do remember most from my childhood Christmas’ was that we would get up and see what Santa left for us, maybe get a couple of minutes to play, then it was time to get clothes on and head out on that two hour drive to my grandparents. We were never allowed to bring our new toys with us.
There were thirteen cousins on my Dad’s side of the family, plus one or two great-grandchildren, at that time. I always felt sorry for them because they were all poor and didn’t receive much for Christmas; what they did get they were not thankful for, it would be destroyed by lunch time. Although I couldn’t quite get my head wrapped around the fact that if you were poor, Santa didn’t leave much, but I quickly learned why we weren’t allowed to take our new toys.
Those were the days. My little brother was killed on December 3, 1972. After that, Christmas wasn’t much fun anymore.
My oldest daughter was born in 1977 and Christmas became fun again. It was my turn to play Santa, and play I did. I had as much fun as my children did on Christmas. Well, actually the whole month of December. As they grew older and started school, we played ‘A Gift A Day’ as we waited for the night that Santa would come. I would purchase little things I knew would delight them; a change purse, new hair bows, new Christmas ornaments, chap stick, a pair of socks, Christmas jewelry they could wear to school, etc…
When my daughters no longer believed in Santa, Christmas became mundane again.
Then came the grandchildren! Oh boy! As grandparents, we enjoy Christmas through their eyes, and don’t have to do all the work.
My oldest granddaughter was born in the early part of 2003. The second oldest granddaughter was born in the early part of 2005, and so forth until my latest grandchild was born just this year. My two oldest granddaughter’s are past the point where I can purchase something for them and they are going to love it; now I have to ask them what they want and 9 times out of 10, they say money. No fun, but luckily I have grandchildren young enough to make it fun again.
For me, Christmas is all about family; being together, being healthy, and watching the magic, that is Christmas, come alive in the children’s eyes.
Merry Christmas to all!
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