Christmas memories

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Mom was a big baker (it was basically her hobby). Started with fruitcake early in November, then batches of cookies for the UCW cookie exchange and family. Closer to the holidays, there were squares and such for when we were hosting or to take if someone else was hosting.

When I was little, we had the tree in the living room, hung stockings on the bookshelf that divided the house entrance from that room. Presents went under the tree. When we got up Christmas morning, there were toys out and the stockings were stuffed. Santa had been!!

Later, Dad got this neat fake fireplace (cardboard with a light inside and a fan-type thing to make it flicker) so we would set that up in the basement rec room and the focus shifted to that room for the rest of the time I was around and for a while after.

Dinner was sometimes hosted by us, sometimes by my aunt (Dad's sister who just passed away this year) at their apartment in Toronto. Grandparents (Dad's parents, Mom's both died young) came and when she was still healthy, Grandma brought goodies and sometimes knitted presents for the kids. After she passed away, Grandad often came early and stayed for a couple days so he wouldn't have to risk bad weather on Christmas Day. Dinner was the usual, turkey, mashed potatoes, cooked veggies of some kind, a couple salads (including the jellied one that @JayneWonders mentioned). Dessert varied but often my uncle provided something (he was a pastry chef for a club in Toronto) plus the various goodies Mom had cooked up. The dish we called butterscotch dessert (aka "sex in a pan") was sometimes made as well, sometimes by Mom, sometimes by my uncle. My glucometer shudders nowadays when I think back to how much sugar was at that table.

About the uncle I mentioned. After their mother died, he was still fairly young so lived with us and was part of our Christmas Day activities. He moved out when he got married. We used to get together with his family (besides him and his wife, there was his wife's daughter who he adopted) and his sister-in-law's family on Christmas Eve after church. He had joined our church when he got married and was the treasurer so was fairly active.

It kind of ended when Mom died ('94). By that point, we had all basically moved out (I got married the year before) or did soon after so it became just a Christmas dinner and gift exchange. Eventually the gift exchange died off, too.
 
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It definitely changes as years go by. In this time of retirement with grown children and one grandkid, there is less pressure but less excitement as well. It's kind of a trade-off.

We gradually phased out gift giving and I'm happy it's gone.

I have done a LOT of decluttering over the last few years. Astonishing to see how many of the donation boxes were filled with items that came into my life as gifts.
 
In my youth, there was a year that I became adept at opening parcels that were under the tree. I would carefully open the tape, being cautious with the paper, figure out the gift, then retape.

I also figured out that Santa's gifts were hidden in the linen closet, and in mom & dad's bedroom closet.

That year, I snooped and found a record player! What! I was likely between 11 & 13 and this was clearly for me. (the next siblings were 8years younger, and 6 years older than me). I was thrilled. Over the moon in fact.

On Christmas morning, when that record player was there waiting for me, I already knew of course. I could not duplicate the joy & excitement that I had when I first found it.

My mom thought I didn't like it. It was a Longines Symphonette. Mom got it for some really low price if she committed to buying an album every month for a year, or some such thing.

I never ever snooped after that. The realization that my mom's joy was reduced by my snooping was just too much.

Here's an image of the record player.
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Naughty! No Santa for you Jayne!

I remember getting a peek into something when the paper was ripped from being jostled in the mail, and getting scolded. I picked them up and squished them and shook them and sometimes it was obvious - like a book or a puzzle.

A friend’s two little brothers ruined their family’s Christmas one year by getting up at the crack of dawn and opening everybody’s gifts - tags astray - so they weren’t entirely sure all of what was for who or from whom and it had to be sorted out. Their mom was so upset.
 
My mom would sometimes get presents from my parents to me, and from Santa to me mixed up so I’d get early Santa gifts under the tree. Or relatives would write “From Santa”. I remember wondering why Santa gifts had arrived early and why do they almost all have the same writing as my mom’s except for the ones that came in the same wrapping paper as the ones sent from my aunts and uncles to my parents. Hmm. I don’t remember exactly when I figured out the Santa deception but the first year my parents split up I had to pretend to believe it for self-preservation anyway.
 
Kimmio Laughterlove said:
My mom would sometimes get presents from my parents to me, and from Santa to me mixed up so I’d get early Santa gifts under the tree. Or relatives would write “From Santa”. I remember wondering why Santa gifts had arrived early and why do they almost all have the same writing as my mom’s except for the ones that came in the same wrapping paper as the ones sent from my aunts and uncles to my parents. Hmm. I don’t remember exactly when I figured out the Santa deception but the first year my parents split up I had to pretend to believe it for self-preservation anyway.
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I pretended Santa was real because I thought the presents would stop if they knew that I knew.
 
I used to LOVE doing the dishes Christmas Day when the kids were done opening their presents....no dishwasher, just me and sister power.....BUT we loved singing when we washed dishes. Two of our favourite songs, no matter what year it was were, # 1 " Poetry In Motion" and "Stop In The Name of Love". "Step by Step" by the Crests was another one we loved......anybody remember those?
We could really rock those songs and strangely dishes really took a long time to do but it didn't feel like it.
 
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Mendalla said:
I know the first two. Not sure about the last one. Would have to hear it.
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I just added Step by Step is by the Crests.....it's on you tube, perfect rhythm for swinging our young hips while doing dishes....oh heck I may still do it this Christmas with my sister or daughter.
 
I think my middle brother and I kind of knew instinctively by the end of elementary school but played along since brother #3 was 6 years younger than middle brother so was just starting school when we hit middle school (senior public they called it in Waterloo Region) grades.
 
Claire reasoned herself out of belief during a car ride. Right in front of both of us. Just started commenting on how all the mall Santas were different and how there were so many children in the world there was no way to visit them all in one night. We just sat there, slack-jawed. She announced Santa wasn't real, and that was that.

We begged her not to tell her classmates in grade 1, so she didn't. Our mistake was not instructing her to not tell her classmates in grade 2.
 
chansen said:
Claire reasoned herself out of belief during a car ride. Right in front of both of us. Just started commenting on how all the mall Santas were different and how there were so many children in the world there was no way to visit them all in one night. We just sat there, slack-jawed. She announced Santa wasn't real, and that was that.

We begged her not to tell her classmates in grade 1, so she didn't. Our mistake was not instructing her to not tell her classmates in grade 2.
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Reason ... what a hated process for those that prefer to hang onto old ideas that were planted in their heads.

Can one believe how strongly we cling to these beliefs without reason ... just because of a powerful will to "not mentally process"?

Regardless such blind BS persists! Any cynicism about it is passively attached ... thus violent assertations ... ass ærts? What's an ært as compared to bummers working on control functions that have wandered? Avarice, or Avatar ... far fetched materialism ... bright trees of wisdom ... dreamers?

One has to get out of the bad state we're in somehow ... slithery shadows! Brain essence hurts ... but don't tell about how thinking is a pain ... take ease!

It is nothing like the sales forces I encountered today ... trying to sell me a bag of useless goods ... but we are conditioned to not be cynical! It serves the purpose of privateers ... wessels of the nacht ... gnocchi ... just noodling!
 
It's not quite Christmas memories, but, last night I was at a local restaurant that i used to hang out at in my mid 20s. It had a wonderful wrap around bar, and was a social place to hang out, and play backgammon until the wee hours. It brought back memories of gathering for work team dinners, and of course, New Year's Eve as well.

The bartender "B" was a high school friend and we would hang out until close. He was dating, and eventually married a waitress "N" who also became a friend. Many a night would be spent listening to jazz music, hanging out together. Another fellow "L" would also hang out, who, as it turned out, was in love with "N". It all ended rather messily, but, for a few years, we had a lot of fun.

The memory that flew into my mind last night, was a New Years Eve. B was bartending, and L, N & I went to the bar. We decided to enact George Thorogood's One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer. When one of us finished, we all had to down and order another round. ooooh, what a night.
 
chansen said:
Claire reasoned herself out of belief during a car ride. Right in front of both of us. Just started commenting on how all the mall Santas were different and how there were so many children in the world there was no way to visit them all in one night. We just sat there, slack-jawed. She announced Santa wasn't real, and that was that.
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If there's ever any doubt, there's some solid evidence of her parentage. :giggle:
chansen said:
We begged her not to tell her classmates in grade 1, so she didn't. Our mistake was not instructing her to not tell her classmates in grade 2.
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Ah, so she's a literalist. :LOL:
 
Mendalla said:
Ah, so she's a literalist. :LOL:
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It was more that someone pissed her off, so her response was along the lines of, "Oh yeah? Well Santa isn't real!"

That's not exactly distancing myself from my daughter, is it?
 
chansen said:
It was more that someone pissed her off, so her response was along the lines of, "Oh yeah? Well Santa isn't real!"

That's not exactly distancing myself from my daughter, is it?
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Santa is the only one distancing ... just to avoid reality! He sees in the dark and thus knows what to avoid ... it all started in the Sami district of Scandinavia ... many implications!

Did you know that's ante Clause is an old expression for a "healthy word"? Is that forward of me in a world where people routinely cuss one another for imperfections? I get that often though I attempt to conform to the hard lines ... but its complicated!
 
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