Q: What is your first holiday/Christmas memory and what was your favorite thing about childhood holiday/Christmas celebrations?
A: My first holiday memory comes from when I was probably 4 or 5. I remember there being a TON of presents under the tree, as well as the menorah. We had a tree, and I remember opening packages with ornaments and hanging them on the lower branches. My favorite present that year, the one I most remember was a giant Barbie head. It was just the head and she came with make up and all sorts of hair stuff so you could make her all pretty. (Later, I took scissors to that Barbie head -- oops!)
My favorite part of the holidays as a kid was getting to see my cousins. I did not see them very often, especially from my Dad's side of the family, so it was always an adventure to open all the Hanukkah gifts from my aunts and uncles and then sit and compare with the other kids. Add to that that we always took a family picture -- all of us in one shot, and Aunt Wini's potato latkes were the BEST! We would then celebrate with my Mom's side of the family. Those memories are few and far between, but I remember enjoying the fact that everyone came to our house. We played in the family room while the adults all hung out in the formal living room. It was just a happy time for me as a kid, and I think to this day it still is.
The holidays are the only time of year that I can give to others and get no real argument. I enjoy giving of myself and sharing gifts with my friends and family -- but often I get the stink eye. This is the time of year that I get to have fun, shop and do nice things for other people, with no one really having any reason to give me grief. Yay!
To sum it up, I guess my favorite part of the holidays as a kid was the general camaraderie it invited, and the same holds true for today.
5 comments:
First childhood Christmas memory is listening to Christmas records on my grandparents record player. I must have been five because my grandma was there and she passed when I was six.
Favorite thing about childhood Christmas? That excitement each year when my brother and I would get up at dawn and eagerly run downstairs to see what Santa left us, but not being able to touch anything until my parents got up at a more reasonable hour, say 6. So we would lean in as far as we could to peer at every label on every present under the tree and whisper excitedly to each other, wondering what was under the wrapping. Then when my parents got up they would decree who played Santa and passed out the presents.
My earliest Christmas memory I remember waking up to find toys all over the living room... in retrospect my parents must have been up half the night assembling things for Santa. I remember specifically there was my first bicycle and this Barbie beach van, and how much it looked like the Mystery Machine!
I wonder if Barbie's beau Ken ever got lucky in the back of that 70's van.. heh
But I digress... I remember the night before making rice crispy treats with Mom like I did every year, and leaving them out for Santa with a glass of milk. I loved doing that every single year, long after the mystery of Santa was solved!
My earliest Christmas memory is my cousin putting me to bed on Christmas Eve and taking the last link out of my Advent/Christmas chain. Another good early Christmas memory was getting a mention in my uncle's Christmas Homily after we had seen The Empire Strikes Back.
My favorite things about childhood Christmas was essentially having 4 different opportunities to open gifts. First, was our immediate family before the big Christmas Eve celebration with my Dad's family. Then was Christmas Eve with my Dad's family. Christmas morning was Santa, then my Uncle's Christmas Mass and finally Christmas with my Mom's family. It was two straight days of family, but it was always good to see them and as my sister and I were the youngest of all the cousins, we always cleaned up, gift wise.
The first memory would have to be acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve. We did it every year.
I love the holiday traditions we had. Every Christmas Eve we would go to my Grandpa & Grandma's house with all the cousins. First we would have Christmas dinner and act out the nativity with naration from the bible from my grandpa and Christmas carols that correlate to the story. After we would drive around and look at Christmas lights. I will always charish those memories. Then Christmas morning we had the gift from Santa on the couch say 6AM (if we woke up earlier we had to wait). Then we could wake our mom up at 9AM. We would each take a turn opening presents around the Christmas tree with Christmas music in the background. Then for breakfast we had the little boxes of cold cereal (a big treat since money was tight). Yeah for sugar cereal once a year. =) After we would go to my grandparents to see them and wish them Merry Christmas. Then we would come home and my mom, sister, and myself would escape to our rooms to go read the book we got for Christmas. We just had some wonderful memories.
For some reason, I can only remember a set of Lincoln Logs and a few books (Count Of Monte Cristo and Tom Sawyer.) Kinda sad that I can only remember those things and not the events around it. Hmmm.
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