favourite childhood christmas memory?

[AmyH]

Cara's post about the baking exchange has really got me thinking about christmas when I was a child and I thought I would start this thread to spead the joy of Christmas!

I am Irish and lived in a little village back home and about a month before Christmas all of our parents would get together and pool some money. they would buy little presents for everybody and they would get one of the dads to dress up as santa Clause.

Two weeks before Christmas "santa" would come to all of our houses and would let us know that he was watching us and that if we were good we would get what we asked for on Christmas eve night. He would give us the little present, which was usually a book or plastic jewelry. If the toy we wanted was sold out or our parents could not get it, he would tell us he had none left and ask what else we might like instead!

I just remember the feeling of sitting in my new pyjamas with my sisters, by the fire and looking out the window waiting for him to arrive, and seeing him go next door first so getting really excited.

It is something that still happens in the village and something I am sad that my children have not experienced.

Anybody else wish to share some childhood memories???

 

[carang]

my mum was TERRIBLE at hiding the presents before she'd had time to wrap them... i mean, under her bed!!! there MUST have been a better place than THAT!

anyway, one christmas when i was about 7 or 8, there was a new doll out, "Colourful Candy" was her name (i kid you not!). the cool thing about this doll was that she came with a silver metallic bodysuit and three pairs of trousers/skirts. (one pair looked like 'genie' pants!) the REALLY cool thing about her was that she also came with hair dye... you could dye her hair to match her trousers. oh, i wanted her so much, i could taste it!

i was soooooo excited when i found her under my mum's bed... the only problem? i had to wait almost 2 MONTHS to be able to play with her and not give away that i knew she was there!

my favourite memory though was that after church on christmas eve, we used to have a huge seafood dinner. now, i'm from the prairies in canada and the nearest ocean is a 3 hour flight away! so, you can imagine we didn't get a lot of seafood, and lobster was a once a year treat! as i got older and my parents split, my mum couldn't afford the seafood anymore, so we switched to take-away chinese food. it was a treat as well, as my now, single mum had to watch every penny. so, my brother and i really appreciated the take-away.