Story Weekend: Favorite Christmas (or Chanukah or Kwanzaa…) Memory

http://www.dreamstime.com/-image27198415Such a busy time of year, but it might be worth it to respond to this Story Weekend post, because Sunday night I’ll use the random number generator to select a winner from all blog comments made over the last two months. The winner will receive a $100 gift certificate for the bookstore–online or bricks and mortar–of her/his choice. So share your favorite Christmas memory with us. I’d love to hear it!

If  you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve been contributing. As always, there are a few “rules”:

▪   The story must be true

▪   Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge.

 

22 Comments

  1. Jason Steinmetz on December 22, 2012 at 6:38 am

    My favorite memory is the Christmas I spent at Disney with my sister’s family and my parents.

  2. Debbie Pawlowski on December 22, 2012 at 10:40 am

    Our family always celebrated on Christmas morning, rather than having the present opening on Christmas eve. But on Christmas Eve we would go to church and then come home and my sister and myself, would get to open two presents each, one would always be new pajamas so that when we woke up on Christmas morning we be picture ready in our new jammies! Merry Christmas!!!

    • Sarah Piercey on December 22, 2012 at 10:54 am

      I was 8 and my dad had been working out-or-province for 4 months prior to Christmas. He was supposed to return on the 21st, but was delayed due to snowstorms. We thought he wasn’t going to make it home until the 26th. 10pm Christmas Eve he called to say we better go to bed because he saw had just seen Santa flying over our town.. then he walked through the door!

      This is my first Story Weekend!

      • Diane Chamberlain on December 22, 2012 at 11:01 pm

        Sarah, welcome to Story Weekend…and you just put tears in my eyes!

    • Heather Cathrall on December 22, 2012 at 9:03 pm

      What a cute idea! I love the new pajamas Christmas Eve tradition!

  3. elfette on December 22, 2012 at 11:12 am

    we made a trip to disney world and the snow followed us. those people don’t know how to drive in the white stuff, it was funny and sad at the same time; they had no common sense.

  4. Laura Thornton on December 22, 2012 at 11:23 am

    Wnen i was 8 and my sister(I’d wanted her till I got her) was a baby both my parents had the flu. I knew I was not to dare go in the living room on Christmas morning until dad opened the door. I woke up at dawn and HAD to go to the bathroom-BAD. The living room door was open and peeking wouldn’t . NOTHING was there!!! I went back to bed and cried myself to sleep. LaterI was awakened with, “Come see what Santa brought you!”
    “I didn’t get NOTHING!”I cried. Years later I found out my crying had woken up my medicated parents and ‘Santa’ had to make a mad dash as soon as I quit crying!

  5. Katie on December 22, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    The Christmas that tops the list is the one when I was 14 years old. It was the first holiday since my parents divorced, and I decided to go with my Dad to visit my grandparents aunts uncles and cousins who were also going home for the holidays. My Gramma had a stoke when I was 11 and was in and out of the hospital after that. The afternoon we arrived, I ran into the house to use the washroom, and passed by my grandparents bedroom to be surprised to see Gramma sitting in her bed grinning at me! I rushed to give her a hug and tell her I didn’t know she would be home. Next, I was about to rush out to tell my dad when my aunt told me to let him be surprised like I The look of happiness on his face and Grammas was priceless. The next gew days were full of visits with family and some I hasn’t seen before or since. Every Christmas makes me a little sad, because I’ve lost both grandparents since then and know that best Christmas of my life can never happen again. That year was all about family, togetherness, and love. As I get older and have been working retail, the season has become so commercialized and more about money and profits, but its nice to have something like that year to look back on. Weird
    Sorry, wayyy over the hundred word mark!

    • Katie on December 22, 2012 at 12:36 pm

      I don’t why the word Wierd appears at the end!

      • Diane Chamberlain on December 22, 2012 at 11:04 pm

        Beautiful story, Katie. I bet you typed something unrelated and auto ciorrect turned it into weird. We’ll pretend it says ‘wonderful!’

  6. Pam Flynn on December 22, 2012 at 12:34 pm

    My most favorite memory is when my daughter & son in law gave me a picture frame with the sonogram of my new, 1st granddaughter Lucy in it. My dad, who is 94, was there to receive his too. Finally a grandma & great grandpa…Yeah!

  7. Joann on December 22, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    Growing up, Christmas was a huge celebration in our house. From fourth grade my best friend was Jewish and I would tell her about our traditions. I could see she wanted to know more. I asked my parents if she could come to our house to see the tree while we opened presents. I never thought about how she would feel watching me open gifts. But I needn’t have worried. My parents had thought about it and “Santa” has brought gifts for my friend as well. What a happy memory.

    • Diane Chamberlain on December 22, 2012 at 11:05 pm

      Jo, we had good parents, didn’t we?

  8. Tammy on December 22, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    For years I tried to find the perfect toy that my son would enjoy – he wasn’t like other boys – he has Autism – and there wasn’t one toy I had introduced to him that he would even look at, let alone allow in his space – he preferred to jump, and twist his body into contortions….Christmas was always hard – I wanted to please him so much – wanted him to experience Christmas the way most other children did – the year I finally gave up all those insane wishes and conformities and found acceptance instead….what a beautiful holiday it was – the year we wrapped up a stick for him….the year I rolled out my first yoga mat and when left unattended, when he thought he was out of our view, he got on it and did a down-dog, a plough pose, and a gate pose….and on boxing day, we bought him his OWN yoga mat !

  9. kelly on December 22, 2012 at 7:45 pm

    Every Christmas growing up seemed special however one stands out. I worked in a receiving home for kids in transition – aged 4 up to age 12. That Christmas my family and I (I was 16) got to take one of the boys on holidays with us. Shane was about 7 and everything was very special for him. He had never seen so many people who hugged him, such a lot of food, and trees. he never took the grin off his face. Christmas was at my grandparent’s house 500 miles from home and everyone had presents for him. To this day I look at a Christmas tree through Shane’s eyes and smile. One small thing that meant so much to a person. Shane was adopted the next summer and I miss him to this day. He was adopted to a great family so that makes everything good.

  10. Heather Cathrall on December 22, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    I always loved decorating the tree with my mom and younger brother. She’d put in a Christmas Cassette tape in the Kitchen under-cabinet radio and we’d stand in a circle around the tree passing lights or garland around and singing to the music. We all had awful singing voices, but it was great fun! Every year we’d get a new ornament for Christmas, so after the lights were up we’d go through our ornaments and decorate the tree. It was never evenly decorated or matching, but each ornament had a story and it was full of love.

  11. Diane Chamberlain on December 22, 2012 at 11:08 pm

    I’m so moved by all these stories! Thank you for sharing.

  12. Barb Braun on December 23, 2012 at 7:32 am

    My favorite Christmas was the one when my sisters and I got new bicycles from Santa. My younger sister decided she was big enough to get on the bigger bike meant for me. She hopped on the bike that was parked right next to the tree and promptly fell into the tree. The lights went out, the ornaments broke and the needles fell off the tree. After we all dug my sister out of the tree, Dad dragged the tree mess outside and we all laughed, cleaned up the mess and continued on with our celebrations!

  13. JoAnne McCrone-Ephraim on December 23, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories dates back to my 8th year when my little sister was 3, although as I was sharing that memory last Christmas also came to mind!

    Sadly, my immediate family has been unable to celebrate Christmas together for many years, due to the miles apart our son and daughter live from one another. Before my husband and I leave Jersey for SC we traditionally have a pre-Christmas celebration with our son and daughter in-law, decorating their tree and all the usual festivities except we never open gifts, for Joseph and Susan call on Christmas morning and open their gifts while we open ours. Departing is always bitter-sweet, leaving one child to join another for Christmas, but our only grandson is 8 and those chilldhood years go by so fast..

    Actually, Christmas Eve in SC was a little different last year! After the children’s mass we usually spend Christmas Eve at Nan’s (Seth’s paternal grandmother), however the venue changed to my daughter’s home so Seth could spend Christmas Eve at home, which seemed reasonable. At one point in the evening our son in-law walked outside so Seth went to the door to see what his father was doing when I heard him exclaim with such a joyful expression as he went out onto the front porch, “Uncle Joe, you made it!” While I was trying to recall who Uncle Joe was on Michael’s side of the family I went to the door to take a peek and was totally surprised to see our son and daughter in-law coming up the front walk. Nick and I shed many tears of joy that evening and the beautiful Christmas gift our children gave us last year brings joy to my heart and tears to my eyes whenever I think of it.

    Merry Christmas, everyone; may you have a blessed Christmas with your loved ones!

    • Diane Chamberlain on December 23, 2012 at 12:28 pm

      Awww… Beautiful.

  14. Cindy Mathes on December 24, 2012 at 10:19 pm

    I am a little late with the Weekend part. I don’t know how I missed it. There are many Christmas’s that stand out. However, there was this one year that we were struggling. Our home is an open door for anyone that needs a place to stay. I cannot remember a time where Mike and I have lived alone. Right now we have his brother Charles, his Niece Misty and her infant son living here. Also a friends son. This is a normal arrangement at our home. Most of the time, these folks will not even have a job. This particular Christmas was the same. The only thing, I was working and Mike was not. He was trying to get his SSDI. I had the only income. One morning before Christmas, my two of my coworkers handed me an envelope with what I think was 40.00 inside. I was so overwhelmed I didn’t know how to thank them. I layed the card on my desk and we worked all day long. I was never at my desk as I had a line to run. By the end of the day there was 200.00 in that card. The rest of my coworkers had pitched in and gave me a gift. They couldn’t know how much that meant to me. I have always loved to give…but this year I was on the other end of the giving experience. I will never forget those “Friends” that made sure I had money to buy my kids and grandkids gifts.

  15. Steph Walford on December 30, 2012 at 3:15 pm

    Christmas 1988, when we brought home the tiny bundle of baby from the neonatal ITU. Katie was 2 months old by then, and had to reach 5lbs before we could have her home. That Christmas morning I lifted her out of her crib, kissed her warm downy head, and went back to join my husband in bed. Katie looked on with puzzled amusement as we opened her presents. At the Christmas Day service there was a very long queue of people wanting their first glimpse of our miracle child. We have a photo of her wearing a ‘My First Christmas’ bib that reached her toes!
    She has grown into a fine young lady, a social worker with a genuine heart for her patients. And I am one proud Mama!

Leave a Comment