Christmas Keepsakes and Memories

 We finally got our Nativity up today. I love it.

I'm still in the process of decorating and trimming our tree. I don't put up nearly as much as I used to. 

My tree is a tall skinny one, which I find hard to decorate. The limbs don't stick out far enough. I've got a variety of ornaments - lots of them home made and all sizes.

Here are three things that are important to me. The old Santa hat belonged to my mom. She always wore it on Christmas. Now I wear it. The ceramic angel belonged to my mother in law and the white crocheted snowflake was made by my cousin, Vera.

This Christmas card is very special. I found it in my dad's things after he died. Grandma and Grandpa sent it to him and my mom in 1947, the first Christmas my mom and dad was married. I love it. I display it every Christmas.

These are just a few of my Christmas keepsakes. 

One of my special memories is Charley proposing to me and giving me a ring on Christmas Eve in 1977.

Do you have any special keepsakes or memories of Christmas?

 

Christmas Memories and Wishes

Christmas is almost here and our mind drifts back to memories of past Christmases.

We are sad at first, but we should remember them with happiness and joy. We cannot step back, even though we sometimes wish that we could. So let us try and remember with a smile while we make more memories.

I remember Grandma's cedar tree that she put in her living room for a Christmas tree and Aunt Gracie's big Christmas tree covered with icicles, put on with perfection. I don't think there was a limb on her tree left uncovered and I remember her large waxed pine cone. I had never seen a pine cone that large before and it amazed me. And we always went in the woods and cut down our tree. We never had one of those aluminum trees, thank goodness. I remember stringing popcorn and putting it on the tree.

We always had hard Christmas candy and those chocolate balls. Mom put them in her milk glass candy container. . . and the nuts! We always had a big bag of mixed nuts that was put in a bowl for us to crack and eat during the holidays.

I remember the church Christmas plays I was in. One program I remember from when I was in grade school was when the upper grades sang Twas the Night Before Christmas while other children acted it out on stage. And I remember all the Christmas programs my kids were in when they were in grade school. I am lucky to have many pictures and movies of most of them.

I remember crafting with Mom. We made Santa from Readers Digest books.

I don't remember when I stopped believing in Santa, but I always remember when I was older we opened our presents on Christmas Eve night. After I married and had children, we started opening the presents on Christmas morning.

I remember when my oldest son was three years old, we found out he needed glasses. It was during the Christmas season and when he came home and saw the lights on the Christmas tree, it startled him and his eyes got real big. Before, I guess the lights were all a blur.

Mom used to wear a Santa hat on Christmas. I have her hat now and display it during December. . .and try and remember her with happy memories, but a tear always wells up in my eyes.

I do not know why some memories stay with me and others don't. I led a normal and uneventful life, so I think the memories that stayed with me are the simple memories of the things that we always did and the fact that we did them every year made the memories stick in my mind. We never did anything or received anything spectacular, so I don't have those kind of memories. . . only the memories of the simple things.

But they were special! They were special or I would not remember with such fondness.

I wish you and your family a simple, yet special Christmas this year.
Make memories for you and your family to remember in the years to come.

Comment and tell us about some of your memories. I'd love to hear them.

God Bless you all and Merry Christmas!

Posted by Janet F. Smart on Writing in the Blackberry Patch.

Christmas Memories and Traditions

I sadly have no pictures of me at Christmas when I was a child.
I don't understand this, because my mom loved to take pictures.
But, for some unknown reason, we have none taken at Christmas time.

My earliest memories are of Christmas at school.

I remember sitting quietly on my knees at my school desk holding my useful gift of a pair of gloves while the other children excitedly played with their toys they received.

I remember singing in the choir in the Christmas program. We sang The Night Before Christmas while children on stage acted the story out. I can still see it vividly in my mind.

In the fifth grade I received a doll that walked. I remember taking it to school and demonstrating her to the class.

I remember the mixed nuts we would get every year at Christmas time. They were placed in a large bowl and we would crack them and eat them. The english walnuts were my favorite.

And the candy I remember the most were the chocolate balls. Mom displayed them in her white milk glass candy dish with a lid on it. I think everyone had one of these candy dishes.





We went up into the woods and cut down our tree.

And the icicles on the trees! A tree wasn't decorated if it wasn't covered from top to bottom with icicles. I remember my Aunt Gracie's Christmas trees. The icicles hung so perfectly on her tree, as if each icicle was placed on exactly one by one. In my child's eyes, her tree was so beautiful. And she had this large pine cone that she stood upright, it was the largest pine cone I had ever seen.

We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve at our house when I was a child. We now open them on Christmas morning.

After I married and had children, Mom and Dad would come out on Christmas morning with the presents and watch as the children opened them. Mom loved her grandchildren and she loved Christmas. She would wear an old Santa hat on her head. It was kind of tattered, the jingle bells on the side were pinned on and the ball on the end was made of clumped up tissue paper.

Mom wearing her Santa hat, with my youngest son David, who is now 20.

I still have her Santa hat. It is displayed on top of my entertainment system.

And I remember being an angel in the church play and reciting these lines:

Luke chapter 2 verses 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14

And the angel said unto them, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying. "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Hold onto your memories and traditions and tell your children and grandchildren of the baby Jesus's birth.