With Christmas approaching, I thought it would be fun to share some of my childhood memories of Christmas and invite you to do the same.
I realize that not everyone celebrates Christmas, so please feel free to share your holiday season memories also. I would love to hear them.
My earliest memory of Christmas was when I was very young. Each year, my family would pack everything in the car and drive an hour to my Grandmother’s tiny bungalow house in Flint, Michigan. One Christmas, I was trying unsuccessfully to sleep in one of my Grandmother’s two bedrooms.
I was lying near a window, looking out at the night sky. In the distance, I saw a light moving across the sky and wondered if it was Santa Claus on his way. That innocent belief is something we lose quickly as children. But for some reason, I never forgot that moment.
As my brother and I got older, we graduated to sleeping in the upstairs room. My Grandfather was a carpenter, and he had finished off the attic using cedar boards. It smelled great! But he didn’t install heat. So my mother would put an electric blanket (and a couple of additional blankets) on the bed and turn it on before my brother and I went to bed.
This was Michigan in the heart of winter. It was cold up there! We would open the door, run up the stairs as fast as we could and jump under the blankets. It was warm under the blankets, but it was cold getting there!
I am not sure why, but when we stayed at my Grandmother’s house for Christmas, my parents didn’t wrap my brother’s or my presents. They put my presents, unwrapped, on one chair, and my brother’s on another chair. The adults wrapped their presents.
Christmas 1964, at my Grandma Clifton’s house. Starlin family photo.
We had to stay in bed on Christmas morning until my Mom said we could come down. That was torture! When she gave us permission to come down, we ran just as fast down the stairs to get a look at our chair full of toys and games. It was the best day of the year for a kid!
After the presents had been played with and lunch was eaten, we would drive across town to my other Grandmother’s house to see my Dad’s side of the family. All of the kids (my cousins) would gather around my Grandmother and sit on the floor. Then my Grandmother would read the Christmas story from the Bible. This yearly tradition was a reminder that Christmas is about more than a chair full of toys.
One Christmas Eve, while my brother and I were lying in bed (in the attic) trying to get to sleep, we kept hearing strange noises coming from downstairs. Years later, my mother told me the noise was my (future) uncles playing with our toys. 🤣
Those are some of my early Christmas memories. What are yours?
I have a number of difficult memories from this period, so it's harder for me to look at the holiday with joy. I did have some great Christmases as a child, though, including one where I got an Atari game console and we spent the day after Xmas at DisneyWorld (back when that was an unpopular time to visit!). But because of all the memories, I tend to put as little emphasis on Xmas as possible and instead celebrate Festivus, as nothing bad with negative associations has ever happened to me on Dec. 23. :)
Loved this, Mark.
My parents made my brother and me wait in our rooms, too! They had to brew their coffee (and mentally prepare, I’m guessing).
Merry Christmas to you and yours. And thank you for the fun read.
I have a number of difficult memories from this period, so it's harder for me to look at the holiday with joy. I did have some great Christmases as a child, though, including one where I got an Atari game console and we spent the day after Xmas at DisneyWorld (back when that was an unpopular time to visit!). But because of all the memories, I tend to put as little emphasis on Xmas as possible and instead celebrate Festivus, as nothing bad with negative associations has ever happened to me on Dec. 23. :)
What sweet memories!
Love this! Thanks for sharing Mark :-)