Favourite Christmas Memories?

[hohono25]

Not sure if there is a thread for this. Merry Christmas Everyone by Shakin Stevens just came on my Spotify and it actually made me feel a bit emotional. I have a new baby and am thinking of Christmases gone by, those who are no longer with us to celebrate and how I'd of loved them to see my little one on his first Christmas!

Please feel free to share your favourite memories to bring a smile to others.

Mine is the year we got locked out! My dad's car had been rear-ended a couple of days before and written off so he had a courtesy car - didn't think to put house keys on that set. Our door had a traditional lock so couldn't have left it unlocked anyway.

We went to visit my granda in his care home and when we got back, couldn't get in. My mum and granny werethen having a fit about preparing the dinner 😂 meanwhile the neighbours were over with a clothes hanger trying the latch through the letterbox. Needless to say it didn't work and the window beside to backdoor had to be smashed and my brother climbed in and all was saved.

My grandparents, my mum and the neighbours are no longer with us so it's a little fond one to look back on and smile.

As a child, hooking out that pre-decimal three penny bit from the toe of my stocking.
(outing my age here!)

As a parent, one year (I think the kids were 6&7,) I organised an indoor Christmas present hunt, complete with clues & they really loved it, and were so excited running all over the house laughing. I remember that the final clue was in our broken tumble drier, and watching my children’s shining eyes when they opened their presents.
Priceless everlasting memories, but not dramatic as yours!

It is the little memories that are the best, before social media and everyone just living in the moment! I have no doubt your kids look back on that fondly too!

As a kid I remember my Dad worked nights and my Brother and I had to wait for him to finish work and come home on Xmas morning before my Mum would let us go downstairs to see if Santa had been. We would sit at the top of the stairs waiting to see Dad walk past the hall window and then we would bolt downstairs to meet him, before going into the lounge with Mum and Dad to see what we had. 😍We would go to my Grandparents for Christmas dinner each year where my Aunties/Uncles and Cousins were all there and Christmas Day was so much fun. Such treasured memories as Grandparents, parents and aunties and uncles are all gone now. But I look back on those old Christmasses with such fondness at how happy we all were.

As a parent it was the Christmas when we owned a large Guest House and for the first time had a massive lounge with an open fireplace and wooden floors and we were closed for business so we had it to ourselves. We had a massive real tree and invited all the family to us as we had the room to entertain and put everyone up. My DD's were 4 and 7 so both believed in Santa and it was magical. For the first time we had a fireplace to hang the stockings on and the kind of decorated room you see in movies 🎄We played games, and laughed and it was the year that my DH was under the Christmas tree retrieving a gift and it tipped over and fell on him. Cue everyone erupting into laughter. It is the Christmas my now adult children ALWAYS talk about. It was what you could call a perfect Christmas. 😊

DS1 first Christmas, just over a month old DFiL offer to change his nappy so I could have my food while it was hot. As soon as hectemoved the front of his nappy said baby decided to have a wee and it went right in DFiLs face. DH completed the job. DFiL never offered to change a nappy again.

As a child, I remember coming downstairs on Christmas Eve when my parents were still up and they hadn't put the presents out. I went "Where's the presents?" and my Mum sent me back up to bed.

My parents have a fairy that they have put on the tree every year since they were married, 46 years ago and one year my brother snapped the wing off the fairy when it was time to take the decorations down but my Mum managed to tape it back together. They had forgotten all about it until the following year when we were going shopping and planned to put the tree up when we got home and I piped up "But we need a new fairy as DB pulled the wings off!" and they wondered what I was on about. It has definitely stood the test of time and 2 generations of kids growing up!

My Grandad always dressed up as Santa for the kids in the social club he was a founder member of, and when I was 10 my Grandad broke his leg but still did Santa. He told all the kids that Rudolph kicked him!

As a parent, the funniest thing I recall was when my parents had just got a puppy and it was attacking my youngest daughter's feet (she was 6 at the time) and she wouldn't play with the puppy or let him near her toys in case he chewed them!

Once I hit my teens it became a thing that me and my long suffering dad would go buy the tree. I was always into decorating, making ornaments for the tree and making the advent calendar every year with little windows and even making a paper maché crèche (my artistic abilities peaked at 12). So eventually it was just me and my dad going out for the tree. Poor man I would drag him to several places and then inevitably back to where we started. Then he put it up and I’d spend hours decorating it. This annual outing is such a special memory that was just between us.
My parents moved to the States when we were young so there was always guests who had no family close by. So a diverse group. And we ate around 5pm with some games after (Pictionary being a particular hit one year). It really was a magical time.
I became a widow when my kids were small so half of our Christmases have just been the three of us (we go visit my sisters in the US every other year, with a gap due to the pandemic). I feel the lack of not having ten or 12 people around the table, but my children don’t seem to.

I remember the (only) year it snowed at Christmas, I was about 6/7 and I remember running to the living room to see if Santa had been but my attention immediately being taken away from how white it was, the presents were forgotten and I begged my parents to go play in the snow, we took the dog. We lived on an estate and literally every kid was out playing in the snow rather than opening presents. It’s the one wish I have for my kids is to experience snow at Christmas. It makes it all that picture perfect.

Every year my Dad carve the turkey with his Kenwood electric carving knife.

My nan would tipsy every year on snowballs, the only time she'd ever drink and my sister and I were allowed a small bottle of Babycham between us with a cocktail cherry, we thought it was the height of sophistication.

I remember as a small kid, one Christmas eve I woke up to find my mum and dad stuffing my Christmas sack full of presents. They told me to go back to sleep because Father Christmas had got stuck down the chimney and they were helping him out.

Every year we'd make our dog a Christmas tinsel collar and make him wear it all day.

I really miss my childhood, Christmas was my favourite time of the year.