Memories of Christmas Past

Well, this came along after a Christmas in January. It was wider spread than covered here, but this is one story of one region in the TV station's coverage area.


I remember my apartment building being surrounded by drifts 5 feet and more deep with an adjacent main road being almost that deep in snow. You could hear them dumping snow into the nearby river for days. There was no place to pile it as they dug out the roads.

Shorter overview:

 
Llynn said:
Gary O started this thread last year. Lots of room for additional stories and memories this Christmas.
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Gotta give this another bump before the season is over

I know you guys have Christmas stories

.....and I'm tired of reposting mine
 

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We always went to my grandparent's house Christmas eve and spent the night. My best memories are when my brother, cousin and self were young, between the ages of 4 and 7. My grandparents house was big and old, having been the nicest house in town at one point many years before. It had no heat other than gas stoves inserted into hearths that used to be functioning fireplaces. It had only one bathroom which I can remember my father and uncle building after WWII. (It made my grandfather mad when they burned the outhouse.)

My grandparents lived downstairs but when we were all there we kids were bundled into bed together in one of the upstairs bedrooms. The stove in the fireplace hearth would be lit as we crawled into bed and those sheets were icy but we were weighted down by Grannie's quilts and snuggled together. We would stay awake as long as possible listening for Santa, but always fell asleep before he came.

We weren't allowed to come downstairs on Christmas morning until the adults were up so we would sneak to the top of the stairs and listen to see if we could hear anyone up. We had to eat breakfast before we could see what Santa brought. When the door to the "parlor" was finally opened the tree and gifts were a sight to see.
 
This is a happy thread, so it's time to bring it down.

My memory is as a kid. I had saved up money and bought my mother a record (Vinyl LP) for her gift. I don't remember what it was, and why I chose it. But I do remember her opening it, looking it over, and then giving it back to me saying, "why would I want this?"

Yeah. To this day I don't celebrate Christmas.
 
We kids all slept upstairs in the three bedrooms up there. Christmas morning, we couldn't come farther than the bottom of the stairs until Mom had started the coffee and put the cinnamon buns in the oven.

We'd huddle at the bottom of the steep stairs, peering into the kitchen in an agony of anticipation. It would take FOREVER for the adults to get their coffee, turn up the furnace, light the fireplace and turn on the lights on the tree.

FINALLY!!!!
 
About 20 years ago I was in a business club that met weekly for lunch and business referrals. One Christmastime a lady member brought up the idea of volunteers to go Christmas Caroling. Ten or fifteen of us thought it was a great idea, so the lady told everyone to meet up at her house at a given night, then we'd all go in a few cars to neighborhoods to start caroling. I made up a bunch of lyric sheets for major Christmas songs and carols.

That night I showed up at the lady's house, where we all anticipated a big gang for a choir. Well, only one other lady showed up, along with her daughter! What a bunch of stinkers who didn't show!

Nevertheless, the four of us got into a car and drove to a typical neighborhood where the houses were not too close tpgetjer. We felt a little silly with just the four of us, but we were determined to proceed.

Well, we jumped right in and started to sing. To our amazement, folks would hear us, and most would come out of their front doors to stand there and listen to us. All of them yelled thanks, or applauded. We'd do about four songs, then move on to a few houses down the line. We lasted about 90 minutes to 2 hours, then packed it in.

But I can't tell you how wonderful it made us feel to sing for folks and have them so touched by it. I don't imagine that they'd ever heard carolers before. That used to be a common practice when I was a kid, but one doesn't hear much of that these days.
 
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