Childhood Christmas Niceties You Miss

[StClone]

PeCoPie is one I miss. It's peanut brittle with nice big wavy stripes of coconut mixed in the nuts. Hmmmmmmm.

I could eat it until I passed out.

[Not_Giving_Up]

1. Homemade fudge!

Nobody makes it like my grandparents did!

[MissMillie]

3. I make it every year

peanut butter fudge. In fact, I give it out as gifts to a lot of people.

[Left Is Write]

29. I make fudge every year too.

Milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, mint chocolate...some with nuts, some without.

I've been using the same recipe for twenty years, the same recipe my mother's been using for 45+ years. This year I found a recipe for butter pecan fudge, and I might try that too.

[Beaverhausen]

35. Peanut Butter fudge here too! My grandmother...oh now I'm crying

I miss her. She was the best.

I can make that fudge though...just not as good as her.

[bif]

2. Christmas is one of the few times I wear a nice tie!

[MissMillie]

4. Midnight Mass

Now, with preparing Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas day dinner, I have no energy to stay up for Midnight Mass.

[StClone]

5. I stayed up until Midnight

But, I never made it to midnight mass though my family did. I hadn't thought of that before.

[Book Lover]

9. Same thing here

Though I don't go anymore because I lost my faith... but my mom and I were very active at St. Nick's. I loved singing for Midnight Mass, and Easter Vigil also (which I now realize I loved mostly because it was so obviously a vestigal pagan ceremony).

[tigereye]

18. I miss Midnight Mass

used to sing in the choir. It was very beautiful.

[bettyellen]

42. kumbaya, my lord, kum bay yaaaaaaaaa!

[demnan]

6. 2 things

The night before Christmas we would all get a gift of new pajamas. For some reason I always liked waking up Christmas Morning in brand-new pajamas.

The little things in my stocking, like Life Savers candy books.

Isn't always the little things? Who has time for stocking gifts anymore?

[tigereye]

19. I still put little gifts in my son's stocking

little cars and candy and lately DVDs and video stuff.

[cmd]

26. Christmas catalogs

Sears and Penneys had wonderful editions that arrived in the fall. By the time the holidays rolled around they were well worn as my brothers, sisters and I dreamed. I also miss mom's nut rolls. She was a pastry magician.

[Beaverhausen]

44. Oh my god- our family did that too

I still want new jammies on Christmas eve!

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

7. JFK or LBJ in the White House

:shrug:

[Bunny]

8. When I was a kid, my Dad's union (steelworkers) would give out a

treat bag to the members' kids. Those were the best things ever! They each had a big orange, huge apple, popcorn ball, and small boxes of mallow cups and peanut butter cups. We loved them! It was always a great day when Dad brought the treats home from work!

[StClone]

14. I have a similar memory

The last day before a typically two-week Christmas break my Catholic school would throw a party and Santa would visit. He handed a lunch bag out with treats consisting of an apple, peanuts, Christmas candy and canes. Poignant fragrance of apples and peanuts still gets me reminiscing.

[Hans Delbrook]

39. What!

We didn't get anything at all. What a rip; the only thing I got as a Steelworker's kid was a Dad who occasionally had to work on Christmas day!

[AlCzervik]

10. Stores being closed on Sundays and holidays

now everyday is just another retail oppurtunity.

[scarlet_owl]

11. St. Nicholas Day.

We would leave our shoes on the stove overnight, and in the morning there would be oranges and candy inside of them. I also miss having a stocking.

[skygazer]

12. My mother

My mother made Christmas. All the good things and the traditions I loved I associate with her. She had boxes of decorations that had been in the family forever and there was a ritual to putting them out. It was always a treat to watch her set up the old creche and the winter scene with the little houses and the mirror for an ice skating rink, all surrounded by puffy cotton "snow".

When she died, my father almost immediately remarried, tossed out all the old holiday decorations (I was just a kid so I didn't know enough to try to save them), bought a fake tree and Christmas ceased to be.

[SmokingJacket]

23. You made me cry.

:cry:

[Book Lover]

33. Thank you for reminding me

I used to insist that we not put the Baby Jesus in the creche until we came back from midnight Mass. He wasn't born yet, right? Thankfully the old decorations are still in the family and won't be going anywhere.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. defintely the stocking

just tangerines, oranges, apples, nuts and Hersey kisses, but it was just the tradition of it all.

Also church on Christmas Eve..candlelight, which I still attend every year.


Big family dinners. Everybody is too spread out now, or has passed on.
At least my sister and two of our cousins live close to one another and still have the cousins party every year.

[mac56]

15. At church we used to get big bags filled with peanuts and penny candy.

Probably cost them three cents apiece to put together, but I loved that every year.

[Seabiscuit]

16. Firelogs with colored flames

They made them better back then.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

17. Toystoystoystoystoystoystoystoystoystoystoystoystoys (nt)

[tigereye]

20. those color light wheels

that was a big deal at my house in the 60s. Before everyone went crazy with decorations.

[Lavender Brown]

21. The big color light bulbs on the tree

We have teeny tiny white ones now.

[LizW]

22. Old Christmas ornaments

We had lots of the original ornaments my mom and dad had collected since they married in 1950. My favorites were those Shiny Brite ones with the indented florets, and a purple one that was shaped like a bunch of grapes. Mom also had a box of tiny hand painted china bells that we weren't allowed to touch. :)

Remember the big Christmas tree lights that all went out when one bulb burned out?

[Left Is Write]

24. Innocence.

The feeling of genuine happiness lying under the tree and looking up into the magical world of lights and ornaments. I taught my children how to do that; I still enjoy lying under the tree, but it was never so magical as when I was a small child.

The feeling of agonizing anticipation on Christmas Eve, and the excitement when the door opened, letting in cold, snowy air as my grandparents and my aunt and uncle came in, loaded down with pretty packages and brushing snow off their coats.

The smell of ham and meatballs and twice baked potatoes in the oven. I still cook our traditional Christmas Eve meal, but it ALWAYS smells better when my mother is making it.

Grandma's molasses cookies and krum kake. No one made it like her.

The sensation of complete wonder going downstairs on Christmas morning to see those lumpy, bumpy socks carefully laid out on the fireplace hearth. My heart always skipped a beat to see that Santa really had come.

Root beer in frosty glass bottles.

My immediate family all under the same roof at the same time.

[Lizzie Borden]

25. my parents.

[tainted_chimp]

28. Me too Lizzie..

Miss them each and everyday :cry:

[u4ic]

32. Christmas is really the time

when I miss my mum. It's so difficult when you've lost loved ones at that time, isn't it?

[mikita]

27. Christmas decorations in the storefronts in NYC

My dad would always take us in to see all the magical windows on 5th Avenue, and the skaters in Rocky Center, and then we'd get hot chocolate in Horn 'n Hardarts (can't remember how to spell it but it was such fun). Makes me sad to think of the Innocent Age.

[u4ic]

30. The magic

of it all...you know, the anticipation of Santa Claus...all the stories that seemed so real (not only the birth of Christ, but all those Xmas tv shows)...the 'gentle' hustle and bustle both in the stores and around the house...the downtown Toronto Eaton's window with all the toys displayed (like in A Christmas Story, which I believe WAS that window as it was shot in TO).

[Left Is Write]

31. I remember how exciting it was

when a beloved Christmas special would come on TV. You only got to see it once a year! While on the one hand, I'm glad they have DVDs of my favorite childhood specials, on the other hand, I think it was nicer when they were only available once a year. That's what made them special. We got to have hot cocoa and popcorn while watching Christmas shows. I remember being thrilled to watch Rudolph, Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town, and the Charlie Brown Christmas show (always sponsored by Dolly Madison).

[Book Lover]

34. But now we can watch them unedited

I remember when we bought "Santa Claus is Coming to Town." There's a song Katrina (name?) sings about having to be your own person that I just did not remember; it had been edited out as the years went on. Besides, just because the videos are in the house doesn't mean you have to watch them more than once a year anyway!

[Left Is Write]

36. I know, and I try not to.

But my kids love them very much, and it's hard to enforce a "once a year" viewing. I try to avoid more than one viewing myself, though.

[Book Lover]

37. I may have the same issue

once my child gets to be older. Being grownup, it's easier to forget where the tapes are stashed :-)

[brook]

38. Thanks a lot!

I'm teary-eyed with a lump in my throat from reading this!

Amazing how similar things are missed...innocence covers a lot of it - but I also miss the tangerines and apples in my stocking, Midnight Mass, snow fall, dinner for 24 family members and the odd 'drop in' friend or two,the mittens and scarves that Grandma made, the music, Roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, Plum Pudding with hard sauce....Grandpa's Scot burr, Grandma telling secrets in Gaelic so we kids wouldn't know where the treats were hidden. Uncle Jack calling on the phone every year, pretending to be Santa and asking for my 'list'.

They're dead and gone. And I shall always miss them. Now that I am old, I try to keep many of these traditions alive for my daughter, the grandkids (who don't seem to care about tradition - but maybe they will someday) - and for my 2 yo great-grandaughter. I am knitting for her and making her a Christmas stocking because I want her to have something of me when I'm not here anymore so she'll remember how much I loved her - just as I remember being so loved as a child that I'm in tears again.

Happy Holiday Season to all. Cherish your memories. They're priceless.

[Hans Delbrook]

40. That new doll smell!

Even better than new car smell.

Also that moment when you wake up and realize - it finally came. Christmas was finally here and you rush out to the tree. Nothing like moment happens in adulthood - pure joy. (I was hoping for a feeling like that on Nov. 2nd - 'nuff said.)

[bettyellen]

41. corsages my dad used to bring home from work!

[Lydia Leftcoast]

43. Lighting the Advent candles for the last time on Christmas Eve

before dinner.

Going to the early Christmas Eve service, coming home to sing Christmas carols and drink egg nog, and then getting to open our presents. (We followed the German custom of opening presents on Christmas Eve.)

Getting little toys and candy in our stockings on Christmas morning.

Going to downtown Minneapolis the day after Thanksgiving to see Dayton's decorated windows and the fantastically decorated eighth floor with a "train ride" for kids, and getting our pictures taken with Santa Claus before having lunch (hamburger steak, mashed potatoes, and apple pie) at the Forum Cafeteria, an amazing art deco palace of bland food.

[Blue State Blues]

45. Magic

I miss the magic. The excitement of the season. The anticipation of looking at catalogs and imagining the joy of new toys. The smells of baking. The season that seemed to last forever and ever ...

As an adult I tend to dread the holidays -- the shopping, the cranky crowds, trying to send cards out before Jan 1st for a change, putting up decorations, the chore of attending the obligatory holiday parties, and seeing the added pounds show up on the bathroom scale.

What I miss is that innocent joy with the whole season. When I was innocent enough to think that a deck of playing cards would be a good gift for my dad when he took me shopping and let me pick out his gift while he waited outside the store after helping me pick out a nice gift for my mom (I remember standing in the aisle deciding between the cards and a bag of Spanish peanuts because that was all I could afford with my allowance). And seeing him smile and pretend that he loved my gift when he opened it Christmas morning. When I loved every minute of the holidays and was torn between wanting Christmas to come right away and wanting it all to just last forever.

Now that I think about it, maybe putting up the decorations isn't such a chore after all. :)

[Left Is Write]

46. I'll bet your dad wasn't pretending.

I'll bet he really DID love those gifts you carefully picked out for him and paid for with your own allowance.

[Valerie5555]

47. The Christmas gift review features Cat and Dog Fancy magazine would do in

usually their November issues when I was a teenager and during my early college days for they did that from at least 1983 up to at least 2000.