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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

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Original poster

Best Xmas memory and worst Xmas memory...

55 replies

Primadonnagirl · 02/12/2014 18:03

Best...I loved Christmas and as a kid the best part was when all the family had arrived safely and I knew nothing could spoil the day..
Worst...Dad making Mum cry in front of everyone and she was gently sobbing as she passed the biscuits round..we all took one not knowing what to say.So ashamed of that even 20 years later

OP posts:

WaitingForMe · 02/12/2014 18:14

Best was 2010 - DH and DSS's took me to the station on Christmas Eve and DSS1 (aged five) asked me when his family would be together. Misunderstanding, DH said they were going to his Aunts house next (their mother was going to that party). No, he said, this family. We'd only lived together for 9 months and he'd done a project on families. I'd explained that I was the kind of family you choose; that Mummy and Daddy just were but it was up to him whether I was his family. He decided on Christmas Eve and said he would miss me. I've not spent one away from him since.

Worst was 2003. My dad had died in the October and it was just awful.

freshlysharpenedpencils · 02/12/2014 18:31

I suppose the best memory is being in my bed and taking ages to get to sleep, probably 10 or 11 years old , and just moving my foot ever so slightly and hearing the rustling of plastic and paper...and realising Santa had been (i knew it was my mum and dad i think) then leaping to turn on the light and seeing a stocking and a massive SACK at the bottom of my bed brimming with toys. i sat there for hours in silence opening up the presents. So excited - realise now it was so mum and dad could have an extra 2 hours in bed.

Worst Christmas really wasn't that bad - but my mum and dad had gone to Malaysia for it and even though I said I didn't care they called in the morning and I cried down the phone to them that they weren't there (i was 28!). Or - the Christmas I spent in Aus - anything where Im not with my parents. We fight like cat and dog - but cant bare to be away from them at Christmas.

freshlysharpenedpencils · 02/12/2014 18:32

waitingforme - I am crying my eyes out at that beautiful xmas story - how lovely x

callmekitten · 02/12/2014 18:34

Best: Christmas day and my Grandma's house with all the aunts and uncles and cousins. Kids in the kitchen and adults in the dining room for dinner and then gift opening and noise and activity.

And also, one Christmas when I got a very much wanted toy. We did not make Christmas lists like people do today, but somehow Santa knew exactly what I wanted.

Worst: I have two in this category as well. One year when I was about 12 years old, the whole family was down with the flu over the holidays and, although I was sick too, I was the healthiest of us all and had to make meals and care for my youngest brother and sister. No visitors and no visiting. I remember wandering around the house aimlessly.

The year my Dad passed away. He died in early Nov. so fairly close to the holiday. We soldiered on but nobody's heart was really in it.

IgnoreMeEveryOtherReindeerDoes · 02/12/2014 18:35

Best - having feck all presents but favourite relatives coming over and having best time laughing and playing

Worst - my Grandma bringing everyone's including siblings presents over and forgetting mine again! And my mum throwing her out the house.

youbethemummylion · 02/12/2014 18:36

Best was the one and only time I remember my parents being not just civil but actually friendly towards my Grandma, worst was when my friend died on Boxing Day and it was my job to ring our mutual friends to tell them. They all answered the phone all happy and full of Christmas cheer which made it even harder.

FortyFacedFuckers · 02/12/2014 18:40

Best 2005 I became a mum to a gorgeous little boy at 11.04am

Worst probably this year after 6 years of TTC I finally fell pregnant with dc 2 but I miscarried last week. I had been so excited to tell everyone at Christmas.

PesoPenguin · 02/12/2014 20:19

Best Christmas will be this year touch wood.

Worst was the first year me and Dh were together. He'd made no effort to buy anything for SS so I went out and bought them all and even paid for the lot. We were meant to ouch SS up at 3 but his mother changed the time at the last minute ( this turned out to be typical of every year...) so we'd rushed dinner to be ready then when we found out we weren't picking him up til later, dh decided to go on his Xbox ( not a present he already had it). When we finally got SS, DH handed me the camera, pointed to the corner of the room and said, "why don't you take some pictures while I sit with X?" I was so angry, I'd bought everything and he didn't give me a second though, just wanted the nice bits.

PingPongBat · 02/12/2014 20:25

Oh Forty - I'm so sorry .

My best memories are from my childhood Christmases - sitting in the living room after watching the Queen & opening presents, log fire burning, all of us stuffed full of Christmas lunch, feeling slightly dopey, our cats sitting our knees, dozing & watching Star Wars or The Sound of Music.

Worst - probably the Christmas we spent with the PILs a few years ago and DM & DF ended up being on their own for Christmas day. They said they didn't mind but I know DM was sad and I vowed it would never happen again.

Tykeisagirl · 02/12/2014 20:31

My best and worse were both spent in hospital.
The worst was being operated on for a missed miscarriage on Christmas Eve and not being discharged until the following afternoon.
My best was being in hospital after having had DD on the the 23rd. There were complications so I didn't get to go home until Boxing Day, but finally holding my own baby made it an unforgettable Christmas.

stargirl1701 · 02/12/2014 20:34

Best...the year I opened my gifts and I was so delighted with everything thing I got and then my Dad brought out a Sindy house. Wow!

Worst...the year my Dad put a heavy cube shaped parcel under the tree in mid December. My Mum picked ot up every day and told us it was the Waterford Crystal Vase she had wanted for 10 years. It was 5 gallon drum of washing up liquid my Dad had picked up at work (petrochemical draughtsman). She cried.

AddToBasket · 02/12/2014 20:38

Stargirl - please say she got her vase after all?

TheFairyCaravan · 02/12/2014 20:38

Forty I'm sorry xxx

Best- when I gave birth to DS2 on Christmas Eve, 3 weeks early, 18 years ago. It had been a hellish pregnancy. I had been in a wheelchair for much of it with severe SPD. DS1 and I had been confined to my room for many weeks and he had been a star. He was 2 and 10 days, and climbed up on to the bed in the hospital, wrapped his chubby little arms around my neck and said "Thank you, Mummy, for my X!" It made me sob.

Worst- My grandfather died unexpectedly at Christmas the year DS1 was born. He was due to meet DS1 the next day, he was his first Great-grandson. It really hurt, because he would have loved him. We still travelled to MILs, and despite the fact I had just had a ventouse delivery 10 days before and had a newborn and was breastfeeding, she gave SIL and BIL the double bed and DH and I had to sleep on the floor. It was a shit Christmas and she got all huffy because my mum had bought presents for DS1 and she hadn't!

magpiegin · 02/12/2014 20:39

Best for me was pretty much my whole childhood. Christmases were magical when we were young.

Worst was about 5 years ago, my sister and I had a huge drunken argument on Christmas Day and was so hungover when spending Boxing Day at my dads.

This year will be bittersweet as we lost my sister this year but it is my daughter's first Christmas.

DuelingFanjo · 02/12/2014 20:41

Worst is having DS in NICU after he was born three days before Christmas and in hindsight I wish so much that I had spent more time at the hospital but we went visiting people and then a lovely friend cooked us dinner. I wish I had stayed in hospital.

Best is when I was about 11 and we lived in a really cold old house with a massive fireplace which. Y dad filled with chopped wood and we had a roaring fire and snuck out to cut down a tree from the nearby forest. We were really really poor but it was a cosy Christmas.

DuelingFanjo · 02/12/2014 20:42

Forty, so sorry to hear about your loss.

WhatsGoingOnEh · 02/12/2014 20:44

Best: when Father Christmas had left a Sindy horse by the fireplace in the morning. I still remember being thrilled to bits. All my childhood Christmases were lovely. I used to feel such relief on Christmas Eve when Dad came home from work that we were all together safely.

Worst: a couple of years ago. Had split from ex-H and kids were with him for the first time, all Christmas. My bf was with his kids. My brother was ill with susoected swine flu (turned out to be man flu). My parents and I stayed in our respective homes and I saw nobody all day. I got drunk on a slice of my boozy Christmas cake, tripped over and gave myself a nosebleed.

StripedOss · 02/12/2014 21:25

too many bests to remember, probably the year my dad bought home a german christmas candle carousel thing.

worst will be this year, our first without dad.. he was in hospital last year, but at least we got to see him.. this year he's gone, mom and i are trying very hard to be jolly and christmassy for the grandkids, but there is a huge hole in my heart that my dad wont be sat by the christmas tree handing out the presents or being silly over the mince pies, cracking jokes at the table ever again...

stargirl1701 · 02/12/2014 22:24

Basket, she bought it herself for Hogmanay!

She tried to return the 'favour' the next year by getting my Dad a new set of aluminium stepladders to replace his rickety wooden ones. He was delighted...not quite what she was aiming for!

Every year after that until she died, he bought her beautiful jewellery. He learned his lesson!

candykane25 · 02/12/2014 22:40

I will be having my best and worst this year.
DD is 16mo so it's the first Christmas she's aware what is happening. She's an absolute delight and makes me laugh so much.

But I lost my dear dad in September and we are all so so sad. He was 66, a huge lover of Christmas and adored my DD. Last Christmas I sat with him while he had chemo and we hoped it would work. But it was not to be.

Cherrychocolate · 02/12/2014 22:53

Best memory would be the kids opening stockings on our bed, and the dog running upstairs to 'tell us' her stocking was full downstairs, she gets so excited!

Worst memory would be my Dad passing away on 17th Dec 2010. Carrying on for our boys, going through the motions, but frozen inside. His funeral was on 29th Dec.........6 days later our beautiful Daughter was born. I will always feel so sad that they didn't meet.

WhatsGoingOnEh · 03/12/2014 00:25

They did meet. In Heaven, before she was born. I really really believe they met.

ozymandiusking · 03/12/2014 00:40

Best memory, coming out of hospital on Christmas day with my baby boy,many years ago, it had snowed and the sky was a brilliant blue.

Worst memory, Christmas Eve, my mother walked passed my father, me and my sister on the street and ignoring us, she and my father had had a row.
We did all live together.

Pollywallywinkles · 03/12/2014 07:00

the worst christmas was when I had flu and spent most of the day in bed wishing I would die to end my misery.

Other than that they've all been good. One of the best had to be when my final present was a wedding ring.

freshlysharpenedpencils · 03/12/2014 09:15

Well I'm sitting here sobbing at all your stories. Makes me realise how lucky I am to have all my loved ones - and realise that one day it will be a sad Christmas. I'm going to savour this one because you never know what the next year will bring. Love to all of you x

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