[Stringer]

To me Christmas is the favorite holiday of the year. Each year I decorate inside and outside to the max. I love giving gifts to my family and friends and donate to families in need (more than I do during the year).

It makes me happy, however it seems that those memories of past Christmases are very prevalent in my mind (maybe because I am getting a little older). I remember those special hours of anticipation on Christmas eve lying awake waiting, waiting, waiting for the morning.

I remember those that were covered in snow, clean, quiet, cold and sparkling. The Christmas tree with every branch covered with some little trinket and under with all those little people, train, ponds and animals. I remember all my relatives coming to visit with so many "Merry Christmas" greetings and additional PRESENTS!

Although each Christmas is special I still reminiscence about those I had as a child and I am very happy that I do.

How about you? Do those past Christmases warm your heart or per chance you have other memories?

Let's hear them...

Stringer

[Wondergirl]

Decorating our tree is a major occasion. Over the years, we have accumulated ornaments from the years of newlywed poverty and from students I taught and from our own kids who made special ones in school and from the storage boxes of deceased relatives. As you can imagine, each ornament has a story to tell. Finding a special place for these on each year's Christmas tree is one of the blessings of a long marriage.

Our older son sets up the boom box with Christmas CDs that will play while we work, while my husband sets up the tree so it stands straight and tall in a corner of our living room. It may take an hour or more to get the velvety tree skirt lying just so without wrinkles, the lights strung evenly around the tree, the silvery garlands draped perfectly, and each ornament hanging just right. Finally, the tree is decorated in an amazing way, and after my husband turns on the tree lights, we step back to gaze in rapture and pat ourselves on the back for a job well done.

In early December of 1994, we added a new cat to the household. Thomas Jefferson had grown up at the local cat shelter, was now six months old, and had chosen me to be his new "mom." Lithe and athletic, fawn-colored and beautiful, he was probably part Abyssinian. He was also a mouthy little beast. All the while we were decorating the tree, he wandered around under it, generally got underfoot, and made non-stop "comments" about our decorating efforts. Our other cat, Rasputin, sat calmly out of the way on his heating pad on the loveseat and, with wide eyes, watched all the action like he was at a monster truck event.

Once the tree had been decorated to our satisfaction, we congratulated each other and headed off to the kitchen for a well-deserved snack. It wasn't long before we heard a crash and lots of tinkles. Apparently, we should have listened to Thomas Jefferson's "complaints" and perhaps should have included him more fully in the festivities. He had stood up on his hind legs, leaned his entire skinny body against the fully-loaded tree, and pushed it over into the middle of the room.

That's why our Christmas tree stand is now anchored to a 3'x3' piece of plywood.

[Stringer]

I love it, funny too!

Those memories and the family closeness are special.

I always seem to be trying to create new memories that match or exceed the wonderful past ones.

[Alty]

I have so many wonderful memories of Christmas's past, I could write a book about them all.

One Christmas stands out more than others.

We always had a real tree. Every year my dad and I would pick the coldest day in December to go out and choose the family Christmas tree. Mom would come along but she usually stayed in the car, with the heater on, shaking her head at my dad and me.

Dad could never pay full price for a tree, he had to haggle, it was his thing. We'd find the tree and then I would stand in the freezing cold outdoor lot, holding the tree, sap running down my hand, while dad haggled with the guy over price.

By the time we got home I'd be frozen solid. Dad and I would take the tree into the basement, cut off the base, put it in a pail of water and let it thaw for a few days before we decorated it.

One year dad decided not to go out and buy a tree. We had a few spruce trees in the yard, they were overcrowded, so my dad decided he'd cut one of them down, and that would be our Christmas tree.

Well the poor thing hadn't grown very well. It was squished between two other trees and because of that the entire middle was bald. Not one branch for at least 3 feet in the middle.

We put it up and my mom just sat there staring at this pathetic tree wondering where we were going to put all the ornaments and how we were going to hide this bald spot.

The top 2 feet were lush, the bottom 2 feet were as well, the middle 3 feet, nothing.

So we got creative. We grabbed garland and wrapped it around the stem. We decorated every branch that the tree had. When we were done we stood back to admire our work, and broke out laughing.

It was the most pathetic tree we'd ever seen. Charlie brown did better than we did.

That year we had all the family to our house for Christmas. My dad proudly showed off the tree he'd cut down himself. To this day my relatives still comment on our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The following year it was back to the tree lot on the coldest day of the year with $30 and a dream. Ah tradition. :)

[Alty]

Another Christmas tree story is the first tree R and I got as a married couple.

We were living in the city at that time and there was a really nice gift shop not far from our house. They had a Christmas tree lot.

It was very cold that year, so we really didn't have a choice but to go out in -35 weather to get our tree. We didn't do a lot of browsing, we found a tree with a nice shape, paid $50 and took it home.

After it thawed out (it was frozen solid) we realized that the tree was on it's last leg, and going south very quickly.

We put it up, and while decorating it 100's of pine needles would fall down with every decoration we placed on the tree. It was doomed, and it was brown!

We couldn't afford to get a new one, and frankly, you couldn't have paid us to go back out to the tree lot in the freezing temperatures, so we had to find a way to make this tree work.

Rod had a brilliant idea. Spray paint! Forest green! The paint would make it green, and it would act as an adhesive so that the pine needles would stop falling off.

It was a great plan in theory. Reality had different plans.

With every blast of the spray paint can the needles flew to the ground. By the time we were done there were hardly any needles left and the stem was a very unnatural forest green color.

The next year we went with my dad. There are some things you just have to leave to the pros. ;)

[Stringer]

Can you beat that? Nope, not me...

I always used a live tree until two years ago. I found a 12 foot black artificial tree that looks very real (except that it is black). It rotates and has a ton of small white lights through out. It actually looks terrific the contrast of the black tree, the shimmering white lights, the white garland, bells, memorable trinkets along with my exhausting efforts for under the tree look great (I think).

[Enigma1999]

Okay, I have one... It's not your typical warming x-mas story, but it is comical in it's own way.


First off, my parents were very young when they had my Brother and myself, so they had the minds of children themselves. I had to have been 5 and my Brother was 6. It was a typical Christmas eve night at my house after returning from my Grandparents house. My parents were preparing us for bedtime. I had asked if I could sleep on my Brothers bunk bed. Us two so anxious, we couldn't go to sleep. My Mother came in the bedroom a few times to tell us that if we wanted Santa to come that we HAD to go to sleep. Yeah, well, we didn't listen. So she came in again and sat on the bed with me and started to explain that we really needed to go to sleep. Then my Father came in the room and after a few minutes of all four of us together, my Father asked if we heard a noise. Joey (my Brother) and I were so excited. So we went out to the family room to see what we had heard... And there it was, COAL in all of our stockings. Even our dogs had coal in their stockings. LOL Joey and I started to cry...

My Father said in his deep Chicago/Italian accent, "Hey, wait, I hear something outside. I'll be back." He went outside, and a few minutes later he came back in the house and said, "Look, I set Santa straight, I told him, you guys were going to sleep, and that he would return if you guys listened." Needless to say, we ran right to our beds and went to sleep.

The next morning, we got up and ran to the family room, *sigh* Thank God... He came and delivered.

Years after when my Parents had broken it to me that there were no Santa, I asked why the coal. They said, we just wanted you to listen for crying out loud.

Now we joke about it every year. As Joey and I tell them that we were traumatized. Haha

[Stringer]

THAT was a great memory. Did you repeat it with your children?

[Enigma1999]

THAT was a great memory. did you repeat it with your children?

They are 2 and 4. I think that would be a little cruel. However, when they are older, if they don't listen to Mommy, then perhaps I will just have to do it.;):D

[Alty]

I love it Enigma. Sadly I can't use it on Jared anymore. He figured out last year that there's no Santa. I was heartbroken. Sydney still believes though, and so far Jared has been a wonderful big brother and keeps the dream alive.

Our traditions long ago were very different than they are now. When my parents were alive Christmas was a time of family, walks in the snow, eggnog by the tree, German Christmas music playing in the background. Grand dinners, and lots of presents.

Now we have our own traditions. Usually R has to work on Christmas eve so the kids and I spend the day making cookies, playing games, waiting for him to get home. When he gets home he showers (he has a dirty job) and then we eat dinner. We open our presents on Christmas eve, only one gift from Santa on Christmas morning. The kids are allowed to open one gift after dinner, then we grab the dogs (weather permitting) and go for a nice long walk. Some years we've gone to the legislature grounds, they have a beautiful light display, ice skating, you name it.

When we get home we watch a Christmas movie. After the movie we sit around the tree, open our gifts, and then play with the kids. After the kids are in bed R and I watch White Christmas together, have a little drink and then head off to bed.

Christmas day is either at our house (with my Aunt and Uncle, my two cousins, and their kids) or at my Aunts and Uncles house, same people.

On Boxing day we have Christmas dinner with R's family, either at our house or his cousins.

By the end of Boxing day I'm exhausted, the kids are wired on sugar and don't know which toy to play with first, and I sit back watching, thinking "Another Christmas come and gone".

We don't have a lot of money to spend, Christmas is always tight, like every other day of the year, but we're together and in the end that's the greatest gift of all.

Ya, sappy moment. I had to throw it in there. ;)

[Alty]

Stringer, we have a fake tree now too. We got it when the year after Jared was born. It was too much work to get a real one when Jared was toddling around grabbing everything in site. Since then we've stuck with the fake tree, but boy do I miss the smell of a real tree in the house.

I wish I could talk R into a real one but he hates the mess and he hates putting it up. It's usually a two hour ordeal to get it standing just right. ;)

I bought the pine air freshners one year hoping to mimic the smell of a real tree. It wasn't even close.

Maybe next year I can talk him into it. This year we're setting up early. Way earlier than we ever have before. Our tradition when I was a child was to set up the tree 3 days before Christmas, a far cry from when my parents were kids. The tree would be set up on Christmas eve back then.

We widdled it away throughout the years and usually put up the tree around 2 weeks before, but this year we're doing it tonight. It's not even December and it feels a bit wrong, but R wants to enjoy the decorations for a while longer. He loves seeing the house all gussied up in Christmas finery. :)

[Stringer]

That's great Alty, have a lot of fun and remember, no arguments putting it up now.

There are cans of spray pine scents that might work.

[Alty]

No worries about arguing. I always walk away when R puts it up. It's better that way. ;)

[Enigma1999]

Alty, I like how you and your Family spend Christmas. After all, it's about Family. Just having everybody close together and watching Christmas movies. This is the first year where my oldest (4) will be writing out his list to Santa. He is really starting to understand it now. I had such a blast when I was a child with Christmas. I only want my children to have that same kind of fun that I did.