Favourite Christmas Memories

[glentherednosedbattleostrich]

I was talking to DDad earlier about how excited DD is about Christmas coming and we started talking about Christmas when I was a child and our favourite Christmas Memories.

Mine is the year I got my rally apple with a white basket on the front. DBro got a bmx and we had to drag them upstairs and up onto mum and dads bed so they could see

My dad said he still had bruising at new year from the bikes being dumped on him!

He did also remind me of the year lunch was cancelled because we convinced my little brother to ride his trike down the stairs into a glass door and they had to go to a & e but we gloss over that one!

My favourite memories are of the excitement of all the Christmas activities at school, opening the stockings early in the morning, staying at relatives' houses, snow one year when we were at my grandma's house and going to see Father Christmas at the local garden centre when I was little.

Oh, and going to Midnight Mass. I loved the smell and the songs.

I remember one year when I was about 6 there was a Sindy doll dress that I really wanted. It was quite expensive for what it was back in the day and my mum made it fairly clear there was no point me putting it on my list.

Christmas morning at about 4.30am my cousin and I went downstairs to get stuck in to our presents and my auntie had bought it for me. I had a (non-branded) 'Walkman' from my parents and a stocking but I can still remember how excited I was when I opened that dress (and in fact I still have it at 40yo!)

Another time I found a gadget in a joke shop - a little flat balloon that you placed under a tablecloth/plate of the person you wanted to trick. It had a fine soft rubber tube that went to where the prankster was sitting and had a bulb on the end that you pressed to make the balloon inflate, causing the plate on top to wobble for no apparent reason.

I set it up under my Uncle's plate for Christmas dinner - Mum and I had such a hard time keeping straight faces while we watched his reaction to the his plate dancing every time he tried to eat something !

oooh, having such a laugh about Dear Uncle and his wobbly plate, ... Australia here, and we used to be able to put the old coins, shillings, into the Christmas pud while cooking. I can still remember Dad pretending to choke on a coin he found in the pud. Can't imagine doing it today, even if we were allowed (todays coins are not safe apparently)

I can always conjure up the feeling of the weight of the stocking on my feet on Christmas morning, and knowing that father Christmas had been!

Remember getting a Rocking Horse when I was about 4 and nearly bursting with excitement, I could hardly get up on it - it was so high!

Remember also my dad's last Christmas Day - we knew it was the last one and had a lovely day with champagne and roaring coal fire.... sad but also one of the best.

Probably about 1960 when I was 4. Sneaked downstairs and saw my Dad in the kitchen. He had newspaper on the floor and was rubbing the rust off a bike frame. He had bought two brand new wheels. It was about 11pm on Christmas Eve. I remember looking at him working so hard....stirring the little tin of red paint. He still had his work overalls on and he looked tired. We never had a lot of money when I was a little kid but I didn't realise because my parents hid it from us very well. A few hours later I heard Dad coming up the stairs.

When I woke up a few hours later we all went downstairs to open our gifts....there was (and I dont know how it dried in time lol) the most beautiful red shiny bike...with a new bell and a little basket on the back.

I thought I was the luckiest kid in the world.

Sadly my precious Dad died last year and Mum had to go into a nursing home because she has dementia. I will never forget that Christmas and thinking how lucky I was......will raise a glass to Dad on Christmas day (while visiting my Mum) and say thanks for the amazing memories. xx

shabbs's post just made me go all teary. What a lovely memory.

shabs & ange

Plate lifter

We're off to the in laws on Christmas day - I feel a nostalgic re-run coming on...