Janette

I remember a Christmas when I was about 12. We had guests so I had to sleep on the sofa in the living room. We had received paint-by-number sets and had been playing with them. My painting, with red paint on it, was sitting on the dining room table as the paint was still wet. During the night our cat got on the table, walked through my painting, then got down and up on the sofa, curling up on my chest. When my mother got up she looked at me sleeping on the sofa with red all over my neck and thought we'd had burglars who'd cut my throat. I never got another paint-by-number set.

fosseldaughter

Here in Texas, even when it was cold (relatively for those of you up north), my grandfather would add benches to his work sled and hook it to the back of his tractor and give anyone who wanted to a ride to the river. (Now this sled was designed to slide over grass, not snow, since we live on the Gulf Coast.) There were usually ten or twelve of us, with cousins, and other extended family. During the rest of the year, the sled was used to haul tools, barbed wire etc around the homeplace. This year my husband hooked up his cart to the back of his lawn mower and gave my grandchildren a ride. They loved it and so did I. His kind act brought back many wonderful child hood memories.

ann clare

My fondest memory was the year I got a sewing kit. Beautiful colored threads, thimble, fabric etc....all except a scissors.
My dad had a beautiful small one, ideal for my set. Little did I know that he had removed the scissors from my set. He let me borrow my own scissors under supervision. Happy memories.

mjdutro

When I was 4 years old WW2 was just ending. I was born on Pearl Harbor day. I had never tasted an orange or a Hershey bar. Neighbor Santa came with a huge sack on Christmas eve and gave me one of each. I remember licking the wrapper after the chocolate was eaten to see if it tasted as good as it smelled.

Ramona Byrd

I was raised on a hard scrabble farm during the depression. But I didn't know we were poor because everyone was in the same boat. Don't remember much about decorating, but on Christmas I was declared big enough to make the snow ice cream all by myself. I had to choose a big bowl and spoon, go out and dig in a clean high place and fill the bowl tightly with pure new snow. Then I could put in a cup of cream from our cow, sugar and vanilla. Then mix like crazy and then run and get the bowls that were chilling on the outside steps and fill them quickly and serve them.
That ice cream tasted like nectar!! And I'd made it all by myself! As for presents, at about age 10 I wanted desperately to get a 22 so I could go hunting with my aunt, but all I got was a stupid doll, while my boy cousin got the 22. Don't know what happened to that doll, never wanted to look at it again.

EskapetheNorm

I remember being thrilled to get a bicycle about 7 or 8. It was too big so I had seen pictures of myself concentrating so hard because falling meant pain! It was a used bike, but my folks had to be really careful with money. Unfortunately, the bike didn't last very long as it was stolen from in front of our garage sometime the next summer. I didn't get another bike until after I was married!

Moonglow

My parents were European so we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. They were poor so we didn't get a lot of presents but my father had a knack making it 'magical'. My sister and I would be playing and we would hear the jingle of bells so we would run to our parents and Dad (bells were hidden) would tell us that Santa had just been. We would either get a new dress or a pair of shoes and maybe a toy but that was all. This was in the 1950s so times were different to now but they are nice memories.

susanlh

I remember 6 years ago when my mother was diagnosed with cancer just before Thanksgiving. My sister and I felt that this would be the last Christmas for us to enjoy Mom and celebrate with her and Dad. We got all of our siblings (total of 8) to agree to come to Fl for a family Christmas. This was not an easy to accompish since we lived in 5 different states at the time. We all got together on Dec. 26 for the first time in over 30 yrs. For 2 days, my family laughed, cried, cheered and played. My Mom and Dad were so joyful that we totally forgot why were we together. The house was filled with more love than I can ever recall. As each sibling was leaving, Mom's smile seemed to get brighter. She was so happy with this totally surprise Christmas present. I sit here with tears in my eyes just recalling these 2 days. Such a joyful remembrance. Mom did pass away that following Jan. but her love that day brought my siblings much closer. Susan in FL

sumcoop

One is when my aunt, whose house we were visiting that year overnight on Christmas eve, told me there was no Santa Claus...it was my Mom and Dad...because I was worried he wouldn't find me....I was heart broken...I was probably about 8...I was so disappointed, but when we returned home late Christmas day...Santa had left me a bike! I still believed after that for a few more years!

penski

going to bed at night after leaving cookies and milk for santa and getting up the next morning thinking santa had eaten the cookies and left so many nice presents i remember trying to figure out how he got in the house and no one heard or saw him !!