Do you have a special Christmas to remember.? How about posting it?

[solo1]

I've celebrated many Christmases and remember many of them.

I especially remember one back aways in 1936 or '37.  Our family was just starting to make gains on the Great Depression.  Dad had just bought a car, a 1927 Chrysler, we were heating the house with the coal burning furnace in the basement instead of the wood burning stove in the kitchen. It promised to be a great Christmas, and it was.  My folks, my four sisters, and I, were ready.

Christmas Eve, after church, was the time for the family to open presents.  I asked for, but didn't expect, an electric train. There was this big box under the Christmas tree with my name on it.  Dad gave it to me with a grin on his face. Nah, it couldn't be............but it was. An ELECTRIC TRAIN SET!

Dad couldn't afford the well known (expensive) Lionel brand but I didn't care.  It was a genuine Marx set, a Commodore Vanderbilt.  The locomotive was shrouded, no whistle, no smoke,no complicated pilot wheels,  and it didn't have the details of a Lionel but it ran around that oval track just as well.  To this day. I remember the overheated smell of the simple transformer as I ran the wheels off.  A simple toy for a simpler times, and simpler expectations.

The next day, I had to put it away as we were getting ready to eat our Christmas dinner on the dining room table and The 'Gift' was taking up the room there.  Dad and Mom's gift to me had to 'go out of service' temporarily.

All my sisters got gifts too, but theirs didn't interest me near as much as my first train set. I was rich!

One memory of many.  What's yours?

Wayne

[The Anvil]

***WARNING; this might be a little depressing and gruesome but since it was asked...***

Christmas day, getting the call that my uncle's fiancee' was in the hospital following a freak accident at my aunt's house. I had spent the day with my wife's family in Malden so I wasn't there for it but late Christmas day my family decided to go outside and play in the snow. Carla slipped and fell in the driveway wearing smooth sole shoes. She stood up and said "I hurt my eye" and then collapsed. She had a tear of blood in the corner of one eye but otherwise there was no sign of physical injury. She was rushed to the hospital by ambulance where they did a CT scan which indicated massive brain trauma at which point she was rushed into emergency surgery.

The doctors operated on her said that her brain had been completely cut in half somehow and while in there they retrieved a little rubber cap which one of the doctors recognized almost immediately. That's really how they were able to piece together what happened, that one piece of evidence. The doctors closed her up and said that there was nothing they could do. The next day she was taken off of life support and allowed to die peacefully. Her name was Carla Goncalves. She was 31 years old, one year older than I was.

No one really saw clearly what happened when she fell. As it turns out, one of the fiberglass plow stakes in my aunt's driveway circle entered here eye socket between the eyeball and bridge of her nose, rode the inside of her skull and bisected her brain.

I'll never forget the sight of her parents at her funeral. Immigrants from Portugal, she was their only child. That's a pain I hope to never endure. Every Christmas I think about it and every Christmas it makes me hug people tighter.

Also, at the time the Avril Lavigne song "I'm with you" was on the radio a lot. I listened to it one day and the words made me think of her.

I'm standing on a bridge
I'm waiting in the dark
I thought that you'd be here by now
There's nothing but the rain
No footsteps on the ground
I'm listening but there's no sound

Isn't anyone tryin' to find me?
Won't somebody come take me home
It's a damn cold night
Trying to figure out this life
Won't you take me by the hand
Take me somewhere new
I don't know who you are
But I... I'm with you
I'm with you

I'm looking for a place
I'm searching for a face
Is anybody here I know
'Cause nothing's going right
And everything's a mess
And no one likes to be alone

[solo1]

Thanks for posting Anvil. Yes, i have bad Christmases to remember too.  My youngest one in the hospital for pneumonia when he was three, me walking into the emergency room Christmas  week with unexplained hematuria. My wife suffering COPD on a family Christmas Eve.  I remember those too but the good memories outweigh the bad and I much rather talk about the good times

[Karen]

I was 6, and my brother was 7. I was big into Cowboys and Indians, and he was into Dick Tracy. Our parents had taken us shopping to get something for each other and given us each a couple of bucks to spend. I picked out a six-shooter cap gun for him, we went home and my mother helped us wrap our gifts (separately, of course). Christmas morning as we unwrapped our presents, I saw that he'd gotten me a g-man style cap gun. We looked at each other, and said simultaneously "Wanna trade?" We did, and that has been stuck in my mind ever since.

[solo1]

Karen, Did both of them use the roll caps or did one use the disc type?  I remember both.

[ptgb]

Mine is not one Christmas, but a run of about 10 years when the kids were from about 4 to 14. It just wasn't enough to wake them up to open presents on Christmas morning... we had to make it memorable; or in other words, scare the living crap out of them. Nope, no lightly stroking their hair and blowing kisses to rouse them from their slumber... I made it interesting. Mind you, this usually took place around 4:30 in the morning. Some of the "Christmas morning wake up highlights"...

- One year there was no snow here. After they went to bed (about 11:00 pm), I drove north until I got closer to Lake Erie, 50 miles until I found snow. Filled up two 5 gallon buckets of snow. Pelted them with snowballs in their beds.

- Cream pies to the face.

- Hooked up a police siren to a car battery in the hallway... that was loud inside the house at 4:30.

- Buckets of cold water.

- By far the best.... two 1 gallon tin cans filled with about 100 firecrackers each. Tied the wicks together and screened over the cans as to not start a fire. Had to warn the neighbors about that one so they wouldn't call the police. That one set the smoke alarms off and our ears rang until New Years.

 

Now that they are grown, I told each that I will be needing a key to their homes so we can make memories for the grand kids as well. For some reason, when I mention this, the kids start twitching and holding their ears, rocking back and forth.  

[The Anvil]

Karen, Did both of them use the roll caps or did one use the disc type?  I remember both.

Heck I'm only 39 and I remember roll-caps! We used to take them and run a rock along the length of them to set them off strip-style. I miss those things.

Solo, I consider myself fortunate enough to have learned a lesson that Christmas without having to bear the brunt of the pain.

[wlgrice]

It wont be this one, on another thread everyone was talking about harley laying folks off, well Its not just harley, I was told the same, next weeks my last where I am now working. This is the worst time of year to lay someone off, my boss is shutting the bussiness down just because he will go on social security when he turns 62, two months away. He could have waited untill then at least. Its a Small bussines only laying three people off, but what a bad time. Its so hard to get a job in the winter. Oh and he will continue working some for cash. Killing us though.

[Stanley Steamer]

I can think of two Christmas mornings that stand out.......both when I was in elementary school......

One year, my younger Brother(by 2 yrs) and my two older Sisters jumped up and ran to the tree and started ripping the paper off our presents......problem was, it was like 3am and our parents made us go back to bed for a few more hours......

The time I remember the best though........my Brother and I had two presents that were the exact same size.....when no one was looking on Christmas Eve, I very carefully unwrapped the two presents.....they were 18 wheelers.....my Brother's name was on the package with a long nosed Big Rig with logs in it.....and my name was on a flat-nosed rig with a typical box trailer......I wanted the logging truck....so I carefully taped the packaging back up and swapped the name tags on them!!........


I never told Chris about that until years later....... ........if my Mother knew what I had done, she never said anything that day......

[..]

It wont be this one, on another thread everyone was talking about harley laying folks off, well Its not just harley, I was told the same, next weeks my last where I am now working. This is the worst time of year to lay someone off, my boss is shutting the bussiness down just because he will go on social security when he turns 62, two months away. He could have waited untill then at least. Its a Small bussines only laying three people off, but what a bad time. Its so hard to get a job in the winter. Oh and he will continue working some for cash. Killing us though.

If he's willing to do that why can't you simply take the customers and keep on doing whatever it is you do? As one door closes...............................................

[old2soon]

I'm guessing here on the time frame but i'm thinking i wuz 10 or 11 something like that. Like you Wayne i was wanting a train. Dad was a real stickler for realism. Soooo no lionel or marx. My brother(da prez) and i got one to share. You got it-an American Flyer!! If memory serves it was a 4-8-4 with smoke and a whistle and a light. Freight cars and a lighted caboose. Dad had to set it up(thinkin we weren't to be trusted with tough mechanical decisions) and i'm recollecting we did not get to play with it til long about March or April or some such nonsense. Merry Christmas Wayne and i hope yer happy with this pile of cobwebs next to my puter!! RIDE SAFE.

[Karen]

Wayne, they were rolls, only kind available then.

[R J]

Mine is not a Christmas one, it is a Thanksgiving one.

I was stationed in San Francisco, CA at the time.   I'd put in for Christmas leave and it was denied.    Not enough people would be on the base for my outfit.

Since I was Junior in the seniority if ya want to call it that, I kind of expected to be turned down.

On Tuesday morning of Thanksgiving week, I was called into the Captains office and told I had, 10 days leave starting now if I wanted it.   I said I'll take it.

My family in Iowa all knew I couldn't get Thanksgiving or Christmas leave, so no one really expected me home.    This was in 1951, I'd been back from Korea for about 4 months.

I pulled out of  San Francisco in my 39 Plymouth Coupe and headed East.   NO freeways back then all 2 lane and many many towns to have to go through.   I knew I could never make it home if I took the Southern route, which would have been Route 66.

So instead I took off for Salt Lake and that way on old highway 6 and Highway 30.
In Salt Lake I run into a snow storm, they had about 6" as I went through there.  I pretty much had the pedal to the metal at all times.   Unbeknown to me a cop tried to catch me as I was leaving Salt Lake.   I went over Rabbit Ears pass with borrowed chains, gave them back to the lender on the other side.   A family business was to rent chains on both sides and retrieve them on the opposite side.

When I got tired I would stop for an hour or so for a nap.  Wake up and take off again.   Got to Omaha and got pulled over for a stop sign violation, failed to stop, Didn't see the sign as it was fairly well hide by a tree.  My Greens and Blues were hanging on a hook in between the seat and back of the cab.   Officer asked me what my hurry was, told him I was trying to make Panora, IA for Turkey dinner.    He said there is an APB out for you from Salt Lake City.   He saw the uniforms and stepped back, said I never stopped you if you are asked, take it easy the rest of the way home.

I pulled up at my Grandma's apartment, walked up the stairs quietly, and as I went to knock on the door I heard grandma saying Grace.    When  she got to the part where she said God Bless Russell wherever he may be, I pushed the door open and holler 'Surprise'.     Grandma about had a heart attack, my mom wanted to kick my butt for doing it but gave me a hug instead.    Up until grandma taking her last breath, if something was said about Thanksgiving, they got to hear this story.    RIP Grandma, I loved your cooking.

[RainMaker]

Another RJ story gets me all watered up.  Nice story and thank you again for your service.

[bigguy]

Been married about 6 months. First Christmas at my house. Last one with my dad.


That was a GREAT Christmas.

[musclehead]

mine is a positive memory, we've all lost so many folks over the years.....

1968 my brother woke me up and then we woke up the folks, it was the year of the 'creepy crawlers'.  I remember mom making coffee looking like she was still asleep. I remember looking at the window every couple of hours wondering when it was going to get light out. Christmas morning is timeless for kids, but thinking about it now I bet we got the folks up between midnight and 1:00AM.