I'm not sure of the year....sometime in late 40s or early 50s. My Dad was told he'd have to work Christmas Day, so my parents came up with a way to have Christmas the night before. Shortly before bedtime, we heard jingle bells outside. Mom got all 'nervous' and said Santa has come early. She herded us all into her bedroom and warned us not to come out. She and Dad then 'delivered' all our gifts under the tree. Santa said a few ho, ho, hos.....then we heard the jingle bells outside again. Even though I was old enough to mostly figure out what was going on, it was still a sort of 'magical' Christmas.

Shirley

Our DS was two. I'd just finished setting up and lighting the tree when he woke from his afternoon nap. He was still half asleep until he saw the tree. "Oh, oh, oh," he exclaimed, his eyes big with delight. "THANK you for CHRISTMAS!"

I was was in the 11th grade and had been admiring a white formal in the window of the only dress shop in town. I would go in and and look at it, I even tried it on once. It was $50 way to much money for a dress that long ago, and it was my size. I needed a white gown for the annual junior-senior banquet. On Christmas my dad ask me to make him a ham sandwich..I wasn't happy about doing it early in the afternoon but I did. When I brought it to him, my dad was holding a big white box tied with a huge red bow. I didn't have a clue as to what it was. When I opened it there was the white formal, you can imagine how happy I was. My dad got lots of hugs and kisses.

The year that the Cabbage doll craze was going on. People standing in line fighting for the darn things.

DD was going to be the only kid on the block without one. I don't do lines. I planned to get her and DS one after Xmas when the stupidity was over.

Well DH was driving home from work on Xmas eve and heard that a mattress company was having a drawing for a CP Doll so he stopped and filled out a raffle ticket. Of course he won.

Now we had a dilemma. One doll and two kids. DD came in to ask what was going on. Then her eyes got wide. A Cabbage Patch Doll! Was DS getting one too?

We explained that we only had the one. Without missing a beat she said we should give it to her brother. "I have lots of friends since this neighborhood is all girls. Keith doesn't have a friend of his own. This is a boy doll and he can be his friend", she said.

So we wrapped him up and wrote from Santa a note explaining that Santa had found Bo Jacee at the bottom of his sleigh just as he thought he was done for the night. He saw on his list that a boy named Keith lived on ------ and didn't have any friends of his own on the block. Bo Jacee needed a friend too so Santa decided it was a perfect match.

That was the Xmas I saw what my DD was made of and I knew my "off the wall" parenting style was absolutely right.

DD went on to have a huge collection of Cabbage Patch Kids that following year. They practically rained down on her. LOL

For those that don't remember that weird social phenomena I've posted a link.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Cabbage Patch Craze

My favorite memory was the last Christmas I lived at home. My mother was a bit of a neat freak, so we always had an artificial tree, because real trees were "messy". She also did not like to put the tree up until the weekend before Christmas, because she liked her house in order.

I was bound and determined to have a real tree for my last Christmas at home. On a Tuesday before Christmas, my boyfriend and I skipped school, so he could take me to the tree lot in his pickup truck. We picked out an eight footer, went by the drug store and bought a stand and he helped me set it up in the living room. We had it completely decorated and lit by the time my parents arrived home from work. My parents were less than impressed, but grandparents, who came a few days later, kept remarking how wonderful the tree looked and smelled.

I got grounded for a month for skipping school. Best grounding ever.

Christmas eve in Cozumel, 11pm, sitting in a dock side restaurant eating octopus on the seafood platter with DH. Watching the stars, listening to the ocean....being "warm"!

I'm freezing!!!!! lol

The year DH and I drove to the Christmas tree lot, picked out a tree for our apartment and stood in line with it. I was wearing a dress, shoes without socks or stockings, and a thin cotton coat. It got windy and started to rain. I was shivering. DH took off his jacket and put it around me. We both were soaked but that was my best memory. We had been married either 6 months, 18 or 30. I am sure it was one of those three years.

Sweet stories!

We weren't real big on Christmas, but I do remember one year being very pleased when I woke up and discovered that my mother had placed a new doll on my bed for me to find in the morning, and she had done the same thing for my sister.

The next year, she did it again with teddy bears.

It wasn't the dolls/teddy bears that pleased me, it was the realization that she planned it and snuck into our room at night to do it, obviously wanting to surprise us. I thought it was so sweet of her. She wasn't into such things normally, so it was twice as nice. :)

Hubs and I were married in 1954. That first Christmas was pretty lean, as we were living on $285 a month.There wasn't any money for a tree or trimmings, but a neighbor had cut some branches off their tree and I asked if I could have them. I stapled them on the wall in a tree shape and hung aluminum foil balls on it. From all the years from then to now, that is the only 'tree' I remember.

I remember the year I woke up after going to bed on Christmas Eve and my mom let me help 'be' Santa Claus and lay out Santa's gifts to my sisters and myself. I think we each got a doll that year. I also remember getting a knit top with narrow brown and white horizontal stripes. Isn't it odd, the bits and pieces we remember from the past? I think I was about 10.

Oranges! The best oranges I have ever eaten. My favorite memories of Christmas always centers around going to my best childhood friend's house and eating oranges. It was a tradition at her house to get oranges in in their stockings. There were plenty of other gifts, but for some reason with her and her 2 siblings the oranges were very special. Joan's Mom always had a couple of those extra sweet juicy oranges for me too. To this day, when I think of Christmas I think of the love and warmth I felt sitting around the table, orange juice running through my hands, and the family that treated me as their own.

These are all wonderful stories. Thanks for posting your happy memories. :)

Isn't it interesting to see what sticks in memory, many years down the road?

Wonderful stories! More,more!