Community Chat

[Lotus]

I'm just sitting here thinking about Christmases past.....when the kids were little and I thought I would share some of them with you.

My family would gather at my Cousin's house on Christmas Eve. She had the "biggest house"...a 100 year old colonial. You know the type..white with black shutters....multiple fireplaces. There was one in the dining room, one in the living room, one in one of the boy's rooms, and one in her bedroom. The house was beautifully decorated....candles in the windows, a BIG tree, poinsettias all over the place....and lots of good traditional food, drink and desserts.

My ex and I would pack the kids in the car (with PJ's to change into later on) with all the gifts....we would do a grab bag, because there were about 20 of us, and to curb costs we would each have one person to buy for. We would open gifts after dinner and it would always start with the oldest guest....who was my grandmother until she passed. The kids would practically jump out of their skin waiting for their turn!! (it was a good lesson in patience...lol). After the gifts were opened it was time for dessert! My cousin's family owns a bakery, so in addition to my home made apple pie, there was a ton of goodies from the bakery.

When it was all over, we would put the kids in their jammies and pack up the car with our loot to go home and wait for Santa. I had a bedtime tradition to read "T'was the Night Before Christmas" while the boys were tucked into bed. I would sit on a chair in the middle of the room and experience such joy watching their little faces etched with anticipation, as I read to them.

After they fell asleep I would sneak upstairs and gather all the gifts to put under the tree. For some reason it always looked like more when it was under the tree than after they were all opened. I would always take a picture of the tree with all the gifts...I still love looking at them.

Then I would make a cup of tea and call my cousin and we talk about the evening and our excitement about Christmas. We carried on that yearly call for many, many years.

Now all the kids are grown....some with families of their own, and/or living out of state. We have also lost a few family members too.

It seems that Christmas will never be the same......and I'm so grateful that I have all of those memories to keep in my heart.

Thanks for listening.

Please share your Holiday Musings.

[Lotus]

On 12/22/2014 Hildegarde Withers said:

Thanks for sharing that. Sounds like you had a wonderful time each Christmas. Just the other day, I was talking with a relative about what Christmas was like when we were young kids and our family and relatives were all together on Christmas Eve or on Christmas.

Can you give me a "sneak peek"?

[JustJazzmom]

I remember growing up in my small town and always at Christmastime, Santa came to visit our house with 2 presents addressed to us (brother and I). For years, I always wondered how Santa knew exactly what we wanted and how he made a personal visit to our front door.

It was years later that my Mom said that the neighborhood association did this every year-- one person to dress as Santa and one gift to each child had to be delivered with the name and address on the wrapping so 'Santa' could deliver the presents to the children.

Christmas was usually spent driving to Queens to have dinner at my Grandmother's house and then after dinner we had a 'grab bag' for the adults and there was always an additional gift there for each of us cousins from 'Santa'.

I remember how every year, one of my Uncles always got a 'gag gift' from someone and he had a knack for being the recipient of it every year-- pure coincidence since he chose from the grab bag. One year, he opened a present and when he went to open it-- confetti and a spring streamer popped out!! We all had a good laugh at that one!!

We never left my Grandmother's hungry and she always had a lot of food for us all. All of the parents always brought something for the dinner table be it an entree, side dish or delicious dessert.

Ah... memories....

[Lotus]

That sounds really nice Hildy....and it left you with warm memories....and that's what matters.

Jazz....we had the token gag gift Uncle too. There seems to be one in every family. It sounds like you have a lot of fond memories too!

Before my cousin had the Christmas Eve dinner....we used to do it at my Grandmother's house before it became too much for her.

The thing I remember about that is soaking the baccala (salted and dried codfish) and it stinking up the house when it was cooked.