What’s your best, happiest or nicest Christmas memory?

[OrigamiPenguinArmy]

I’ll admit this is an unashamed attempt to start a warm and fuzzy thread because I feel we need more warm and fuzzy right now.

Mine would be firstly actually seeing Father Christmas flying through the sky on his sleigh. I’d have been around six, I was coming out of the church carol service on Christmas Eve into a cold and frosty evening. My grandfather pointed up into the clear sky and said he thought he’d just seen Father Christmas. I looked up and I swear to this day I saw the silhouette of the sleigh pass high overhead. It was pure magic.

My second would be many years later. I had a difficult birth with DD and ended up staying in hospital over Christmas. On Christmas Day there was hardly anyone on the ward, they brought Christmas dinner to the day room but only DH and I were in their and we sat in the quiet and ate this bog standard catering meal, which somehow tasted like the best Christmas dinner ever, with our tiny little, much longed for newborn daughter in her crib beside us.

I’m loving the love for Otto.
(I’m the poster who posted about him)

We had the lantern lights. Pifco London Lights they were called. Beautiful soft colours, I adored them but they were so temperamental, every year when it was time to put the decorations up we had to lay them all out and figure out which bulbs had gone and why they weren't working - there was always the assumption that they wouldn't be working and once they were finally on the tree they would need bulbs changing regularly over the few weeks they were used. It was so worth it though, they were so beautiful.

They go for many many pounds on ebay these days.

This is the exact set we had (photos pinched from ebay).

We all love these old magical lights, why on earth can't they be re made, no child is going to get as wistful about an led stark white are they!!

Wonderful thread.

I'm sure I've posted about this before. I grew up in Ireland and had a big extended family - my mum was one of six, so loads of cousins. One auntie, my mum's sister, lived in England and every year send a massive box of presents for the whole family. It was delivered to us and we distributed them or people came to us to pick them up (and drop off presents too). I loved all my aunties and uncles and cousins so the arrival of the box was incredibly exciting as it signalled the start of a flurry of visiting and seeing lots of people I loved, eating the posh biscuits and mince pies, exchanging presents which then started to pile up under the tree getting more and more exciting... It was just lovely. All triggered by the delivery of a huge cardboard box.

I remember one year when I was 8, a few nights before Christmas my mum came into my room and woke me up. One of the aunties and a couple of her daughters had turned up with a present for me to wear over Christmas and it was so exciting I had to be woken up to try it on immediately. It was a red coat trimmed with white fur, with a matching hat and a white furry muff that hung around your neck on a ribbon. I thought it was the most beautiful and glamorous thing I had ever seen let alone owned, I always remember how happy I was. Wish I'd kept it for my own daughter.

Going to the old people's home singing carols. Watching the happiness on their faces, it was absolutely magical.

I know I have said all this at least twice on similar threads, so apologies.
When I was tiny in the late 1940s, mum and dad each had a business to run and Ivy came into our lives as a mother's help, or, as it was known in those days, a maid.
One year she had been busily knitting a complete doll's outfit, coat, dress, bonnet etc. She told me it was for another little girl who had a doll just like mine. I was completely taken in by this.
On Christmas morning I opened a parcel and there was the outfit! Such a surprise and such delight.
Dear Ivy was 90 on 31 October , and because of Covid19 we could not celebrate with her. She posted me a piece of her birthday cake. Last week we had our Christmas phone chat. I am always 'her little girl' even though I am 76 myself and she has three daughters of her own.
My favourite Christmas recollection.

That’s wonderful @TrickyD

Mine is from my childhood, probably around aged seven. My father was a vet and senior lecturer at the RVC in London. One Christmas morning, quite early we all got in the car and drove to the campus at Potter’s Bar. There my sister and I were both given a lamb and wrapped up in blankets held them very tightly in the back seat and we drove back to church. As part of the service we walked up the aisle with our lambs (by then fast asleep) and all the children were invited up to the front and my father gave a little talk about sheep and lambs and shepherds. After the service the children were allowed to come and stroke the lambs.
My other memory of that time, and I can picture her as clearly as if it was yesterday, was my mother sitting in the front pew watching us with a massive pile of terry towelling nappies beside her in case one of the lambs had a wee on the church floor.

@OrigamiPenguinArmy
I have a memory of seeing Father Christmas and his sleigh in the sky too!
Mine is simply lying under the tree and looking up at the lights as a small child. And seeing presents under the tree on xmas eve.

I went to stay in Scotland with my relatives when I was 13. My Aunty made such a fuss of Christmas, presents, big feast. I'd never had a Christmas like it, we had very little money. It was magical - they lived in a small town and there were lights everywhere, gorgeous wee shops and snow on the ground. Everyone was so jolly.

I try really hard with my kids but I'm never sure if I've recreated that kind of magic.

@TrickyD

I know I have said all this at least twice on similar threads, so apologies. When I was tiny in the late 1940s, mum and dad each had a business to run and Ivy came into our lives as a mother's help, or, as it was known in those days, a maid. One year she had been busily knitting a complete doll's outfit, coat, dress, bonnet etc. She told me it was for another little girl who had a doll just like mine. I was completely taken in by this. On Christmas morning I opened a parcel and there was the outfit! Such a surprise and such delight. Dear Ivy was 90 on 31 October , and because of Covid19 we could not celebrate with her. She posted me a piece of her birthday cake. Last week we had our Christmas phone chat. I am always 'her little girl' even though I am 76 myself and she has three daughters of her own. My favourite Christmas recollection.

Absolutely love this, what a beautiful memory.