Ever since I turned the calendar pages over to December I’ve been a touch nostalgic. Not for November, which flew by so swiftly, but for Christmases past. In years of yore the Christmas season started much earlier, being entwined with work parties and kids’ concerts and shopping and decorating and baking. It truly was a festive season, a month of events and preparations and lists.
On most days I enjoy the pared-down version of Christmas, the no-gift arrangement made with most of the family, and the abbreviated Christmas card list. That doesn’t stop me looking back, nostalgically, at my favourite bits of Christmases past...and to look forward to the possibility that these may become part of Christmases future if we happen, one day, to be blessed with grandkids.
1. The Santa photo. This was an annual event, the visit to Grace Bros, yet very little photographic evidence remains. Perhaps because ALL the boys were never on the same page in terms of Santa-love. I did find this one though!
2. The Christmas party. Okay, there was always more than one, but my favourite was at the local country hall. All the local farm families came with a plate and a gift for each child, which had to be furtively placed under the tree for Santa to distribute. There was always a game of cricket, always the best cakes, always a perfect catch-up with neighbours.
3. Christmas lights. Nothing announces the start of the festive season more loudly than the “turning on of the lights.” Several streets are renowned for going all out with their decorations – I hope this is still so! – and we always took the boys to check them out. The households giving out bags of lollies were, obviously, their favourites.
4. Christmas Mass. I’m not Catholic but I married one and every Christmas I joined the family for this special service to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas. Plus I loved singing my fave carols, tunelessly but always with a ton of joy.
5. Christmas lunch. Always at my parents’, always a baked dinner with turkey and ham and at least six vegetables no matter how hot the summer day, always followed by home-made pudding, with secreted sixpences, and custard. I do miss, more than anything, seeing all my family on Christmas day.
5. Christmas lunch. Always at my parents’, always a baked dinner with turkey and ham and at least six vegetables no matter how hot the summer day, always followed by home-made pudding, with secreted sixpences, and custard. I do miss, more than anything, seeing all my family on Christmas day.
Those are a few of my favourite things.
What is your favourite memory of Christmases past?
What a lovely list of memories, Bron! I have fond memories of my dad driving us around on Christmas Eve to look at all of the Christmas trees in the neighbourhood's windows, as well as the other assorted decorations. And what Christmas would be complete without making sure there was a bucket of water for the reindeer and fruitcake for Santa. ;-)
ReplyDeleteFunny (but true) story. My hubby does not like fruitcake. No, scratch that. He really loathes fruitcake -- anything heavy with dried fruit actually -- so I had to eat Santa's cake at our place. Such a hardship for all those years. :-)
DeleteHi Bronwyn
ReplyDeleteYou know mine are very similar to your memories family fun and another is of my Dad handing out the presents from under the tree when my kids were young they thought Poppy was the best Santa Claus :) and as for those yummy Christmas puddings with sixpences in them oh those were the days
Merry Christmas
Have Fun
Helen
My Mum, who always made the pudding right up until the last few years, had to surrepticially recover all the sixpences once decimal currency came in. She did that for many, many years to keep up that tradition. It is one of my fondest memories. And she made a superb pudding and egg custard. One of my sisters has now taken over the task but I'm not sure she's doing it this year as she's on a healthy eating kick. Hope that doesn't mean we only get fruit salad for dessert?
DeleteAww, that's a nostalgic post, Bronwyn. Lots of similar memories for me too. Now we have two grandkids and it's the same all over only different.
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to that stage, Sue, should we be so blessed. Nothing beats the joy of sharing Christmas with family, and the little ones are just an extra dose of joy.
DeleteLove sharing the Christmas memories. I'm pretty sure there's a similar santa photo in my mum's house from when my sister and I were little kids.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Christmas memory is always of Christmas Eve when we'd wait for my mum to get home from work. No one was allowed to touch the snacks and so we'd sit on the couch and stare at the door, waiting for her to come home. Something about the anticipation has stuck in my mind :)
Much of the specialness of Christmas is about anticipation, isn't it? You are so right, Stefanie, and I still love the buildup and the preparations almost as much as the day(s) of celebration.
DeleteHey, Bron! I love that photo of your boys. Thanks for sharing your Christmas memories. My favourite, from my childhood, was waking on Christmas morning before anyone else and dragging my bedspread and pillow up the hallway to the sitting room and the Christmas tree, where I'd lie on the floor and stare at the gifts that had magically arrived overnight and wonder which ones were for me. One year I decided the neatly stacked piles of gifts weren't right so I muddled everything up so it would look like the pictures you'd see in magazines and books. When Mum got up she was beside herself. She never used to tag them so my muddling made it a mission for her to figure out who was supposed to get what parcel that year! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt is a cute photo, right? I should have captioned it Mr Shy, Mr Special and Mr Serious...which pretty much still sums them up!
DeleteLOL at your memory. I can imagine your mum's horror at trying to identify the muddled gifts. That is so funnY!
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ReplyDeleteGreat family pics, Bron! Love :-)
ReplyDeleteI remember sleepingh out by the Christmas tree with my brothers one Christmas Eve because we wanted to catch Santa in the act... we never did but he came anyway! :-)
One of my fav Chrismas memories though is a martial one. Ice skating on a frozen lake in Switzerland Christmas morning during our trip through Europe. Horses pullings sleighs going back and forth, the bells ringing across the ice. So magical!
That's the thing about Santa, he is sooooo sneaky. I'm sure we all attempted the all-nighter at one time or another and all swear that we never nodded off, not once, and yet the gifts magically appeared at some point in the night.
DeleteOh, you did a white Christmas in Europe! And you skated!! I am so envious. That is like a dream-fantasy for me, in which I am sailing gracefully across the ice, not falling EVER, even when I do spins. *happy sigh*
errr...that should read marital...not martial....
ReplyDeleteDoh!
LOL.
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