Describe your favorite Christmas with your family!
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Well, it is not a Christmas memory it is more an aftermath of a Christmas present. When I was 5 or 6, it was a time where Hercules was extremely popular and they had these light up toy sword and my brother got one who is 4 or 5. One day, he hit me on the head and lost all of my hearing. My mom went panic mode for a month. My brother thought my head needed to switch back on and hit my head again. My hearing came back instantly. Here I am, telling you my most funniest memory that tends to get a lot of laugh these days. My mom always look at me with a evil glare as I use this story to put people in to ease. I just shook it off and enjoy laughing at the fact my head was a bop it.
That reminds me of Ruby Sue from the Christmas Vacation movie. She falls in a well and her eyes go crossed, she gets kicked by a mule and they go back to normal." https://youtu.be/Of-EG0Wc84w
Christmas 2006 - That's when we got two Labrador-Rottweiler puppies as family present. Was really fun to play with them and they where so cute.
Sadly one died in 2019 and his brother 6 months ago, but still the best christmas ever
So when I was young, my parents had a cat. When I was a toddler he became very vicious towards me and generally jealous. My parents gave him to my grandmother but he was bullying her other two cats and was not a great fit. After a year, he got adopted by a family she was friends with. They had two kids and lived down the road from her. When she'd go over I'd sometimes go to see him (I loved him, he didn't like me lol).
So a few years had gone by and they invited my grandmother over for tea Christmas eve as they had a gift for her. I came by as well because I wanted to see the cat. When we got there they were looking for him, had no idea where he had gone as they left him outside to help one of the kids inside. Suddenly the mum screamed and we all ran over-- he was an indoor cat but enjoyed playing in the snow. They thought he may have run off but he must have gotten his collar caught in a christmas light wire and struggled, wrapping him up even more. He was strangled, dead caught in the lights against the house. Was certainly memorable for all the wrong reasons.
CW - this story is kinda gross
In my early twenties, in the late aughts, I lived in a massive house with about 20 other college aged folx. We were all pretty close, found family sort of situation. Half went home for the holidays, so there were about ten of us left for the season mostly girls. There was this guy who lived down the street who used to hang out with us all the time. He was nice, super chill, good company, and he wasn't going to visit family for the holidays so we invited him to spend time with us when he wanted company, very informally. Anyway, one day, he was hanging out, went into the bathroom, then just sort of left without a word. At first we didn't think much of it, but then I tried to go to my room and the smell hit.
It was bad.
When I checked the bathroom, there was veritable MOUNTAIN of poo, like, it looked like ten people's worth of poo, in the toilet, along with about as much toilet paper. It was...rank. most the bedrooms were on that side of the house and smelled terrible. We moved some mattresses into the living room and evacuated the bedrooms. We workshopped how to fix the problem without tools like shovels or wet vacs or anything like that. The best we came up with was a bucket and some rubber gloves. We did some detective work to figure out who was "The Pooper" and narrowed it down to the guy down the street. No one wanted to do it, and we could get agoldnof him, but he never stayed away long, so we sealed off that part of the house, slumber partied together in the living room and waited.
We waited three days.
So it's Christmas Eve, and homie walks in like nothing is wrong, and my roomie Janine gets up and hands him the bucket and the gloves, she tells him to deal with his mess.
I backed her up, and everyone else did too. "We know it was you, Shaun."
Then he finally admits it, says he'd been sick, and we were like, that's sucks, but all the more reason for him to handle it. Get it flushed somehow.
"How am I supposed to get it out?" He complained after seeing the three days old pile of poo and rotting TP. "And it wouldn't flush before, how do you expect me to flush it now?"
Roomie Zoe replies, "Nugget by nugget, Shaun. Nugget. By. Nugget."
He did it, and was henceforth and there-ever-after referred to as "The Pooper".
My mom decided that we were going to surprise my Grandparent's for Christmas one year, since she had all of at the time. Christmas Eve we start the car-ride down there, which was about 4 hours, and my grandparents lived in the middle of nowhere. Mom was struggling to find which roads to take, one of my brothers was helping navigate and both were just getting more frustrated. I got the front seat due to getting car sick all the time, and I looked out of the window, pointed to a road coming up, and said 'Turn Here'. Mom slowed to turn and my brother told her I didn't know anything. Mom countered back that they were already lost what would it hurt. She turned on the road. I proceeded to lead them straight to my grandparents house without missing a turn. Mom couldn't figure out how I did it until I just shrugged and said it was down the road from a camp ground that had signs posted with arrows.
We get out of the car and Mom goes to the door, knocking on it. We waited. Frowning she knocked again a little harder. Nothing. She stared at the door trying to figure out what was going on as she pounded on it again. Nada. This was before cellphones youngin's, we're talking early 90's ish. It was a surprise so she had never asked about what Christmas plans they had.
This started the hunt for an unlocked door, which resulted in nothing because while they lived in the middle of nowhere they were both from a major metropolis prior to moving. So all the doors were locked when they weren't home, or when they went to bed, or when they were home sometimes. By some miracle Mom found the one window in the entire house that was unlocked.
So yeah, we broke into my grandparents house.
On Christmas eve.
As a surprise.
They were surprised when they got home later that day, I think we got there around like 9 or 10 in the morning. I don't remember what they had been doing that day but the last thing they expected was a car in the driveway, kids running to greet them, and my mom in the kitchen working on stuff for dinner that night and the Christmas meal the next day.
Ever since the break in happened Grandpa made wooden bars that sat on the window tracks that went between the frame and his windows because if we could break in who else would think to do it too. They were painted to match the frame so they might not have looked like much unless you were trying to break in. They were pretty effective.
**The windows in question were massive picture windows so it was easy for us to get in once mom popped out the screen. Hence Grandpa's extra safety precaution. You can take the man out of the city but you'll never take the city out of the man!
when I was 8 there was a massive slide at a really popular playground a few blocks from my house. I didn't like the slide because so many people would go on at once. We don't celebrate Christmas and needed something to do so we went there and we were the only people there. It was really fun going on the equipment without the hoards of people. Also we were about to drive to Sydney for a holiday so that was also exiting. (Im in Melbourne)
I don't know about "favorite" but definitely most memorable of all childhood Christmas memories. I'm the oldest of 4 kids & I was 9yo, so my bro was 7 & twin sisters were 5. My parents divorced when I was 5 (in the 70's) & we weren't allowed to see/speak to my Dad "because he didn't pay child support". My Mother is bi-polar & the divorce didn't help matters. Anyway she announced approx 2nd week of Dec "Christmas is canceled, I'm not doing it this yr". Not the 1st time she "canceled" a holiday & wouldn't be the last. But my sisters were crying & that broke my heart! It took me a few days to figure something out (I was only 9). We lived in a small town but our house was built on "the hill" w/alot of others. I figured out I had almost $5 in my piggy bank. So I headed down to "the flats" where they were selling beautiful trees at a stand. I remember telling the guy I wanted a very nice tree. He asked what kind & how much did I want to spend? At 9yo $5 was a lot of money (in the 70's), so I somewhat proudly said $5. I don't to this day know that man's name but he was fabulous! I didn't get a Blue Spruce or anything but we went over to some pine trees & he chose a few he said were "in my price range". I picked one & was told it was on sale for $3. I was extremely thrilled as left extra $ for the drug store. I drug that tree up the hill & my bro/me set it up in the living room so all of us could decorate. My Mother was angry, as she said Christmas was canceled (her anger was either a beating w/the belt or she would lock herself in her room). She chose to lock herself in her room, only coming out to get food/drinks or use the bathroom. We were quite used to that as well. We decorated that Charlie Brown looking tree (BTW I thought it was the best tree ever) & even made popcorn strings for it. I went to the Drug store (penny candy) with the rest of my $ for my siblings stockings. My Mother was "kind" enough to tell me there was no Santa when I 7yo. Our relatives dropped their gifts & one Aunt & Uncle brought us a ham. My Mother wouldn't come out of her room on Christmas Day, and don't have pics of that yr because no cell phones. But we actually enjoyed our Christmas, even tho it was different. "Santa" had came, we had gifts, a slightly odd dinner of ham & Ramen noodles (I wasn't a real good cook at 9 lol) & most importantly my brother, my sisters & I had each other! Thinking back maybe it was my favorite as a kid. 🤷♀️🎄✌️
Christmas Eve 2016. That's the day my grandmother stopped my mom's ab*se towards me (9) and my sister (3). I was forced to see her again this Christmas Eve after having cut contact for 3 months.
Christmas Eve 2020 my husband and I found out I was pregnant with our daughter. I had been dreaming about babies for a week (which I never did) and then he commented that it would be so nice to have a child finally to enjoy the holidays with. So I took a random test I had stashed and was extremely shocked (but happy) that it was positive. We weren’t trying or not trying really. I have infertility so after SO many negative tests over years we were both in complete shock. The next day, Christmas Day, we told our families while they were all together. There were quite a few happy tears. Not sure any can top that one. The jolliest.
My most memorable Christmas is not a happy memory. It was the Christmas of 2012. My mom was a semi-invalid at this time after having had lupus for many years. She got up frequently, but spent most of the day in a hospital bed we had set up for her
On this Christmas, my mother stayed in bed all day. I checked on her a few times, and she was sleeping. Around 6pm, I was very concerned. I woke her up, and she was very disoriented. She was slurring her words, and her face did not look right. She said she was having trouble seeing. I became very alarmed and called for an ambulance, telling the 911 dispatcher I thought my mom had a stroke. Four paramedics showed up to evaluate her. The main paramedic walked over to me and said he could see no signs of her having had a stroke. I was flabbergasted. All he had done was take her vitals, and ask her if she knew what day and year it was. These were questions she had asked me just prior to their arrival, so of course she got it right. I explained to them that was the only reason she answered him correctly. I told them I wanted them to take her to the hospital for a more thorough evaluation. The paramedic went to my mom and said " Mrs. Northcutt, do you want to go to the hospital?" to which my mom said no. He said, oddly triumphantly, "See, she's refusing medical assistance. We can't take her when she's refusing medical assistance." I told him that she had not refused anything, she had merely answered his question honestly, that she didn't want to go to the hospital, because who WANTS to go the the hospital? He insisted that she refused, and gave her a form to sign saying she refused medical assistance. He told her where to sign. She kept asking where? Where did she need to sign? And told him she couldn't see where on the paper he was indicating. I told him that was not normal, her slurring her words was not normal, that nothing about the way she was acting was normal, to no avail. It seemed to me he had made up his mind they weren't taking her and nothing was going to change his mind. I don't know if it was because it was Christmas and he didn't feel like working or what. He finally got some semblance of a signature from her, and they left. The next day, she slept late again. Around 1:00 I went to wake her up, and I could not wake her up. I called for an ambulance again. It was a different paramedic crew. After a quick evaluation where her blood pressure was something like 83/49, they turned to me, and rather angrily asked me WHY I HAD WAITED SO LONG TO CALL FOR AN AMBULANCE. Honest to God it's a good thing I was speechless at the outrageousness of this accusation, or I would have gone off on them, when it was really the crew from the night before I was so angry at. Once she was at the hospital, I was informed that she had a one stroke the day before, and then overnight she had had two more strokes.
This will probably forever be my most memorable Christmas. There is nothing that could happen that would be so good it could overshadow this Christmas memory and I pray nothing ever happens so bad that it could take the place of this day on Christmases in the future as my most memorable Christmas.
Ok now that lazy, pathetic first ambulance crew who didn’t want to get your mum to hospital, deliberately, are on my hit list. They shall be painfully eliminated with alien lasers.
When i was 10 my family decided to go to our house in the mountains for Christmas (we don’t live in a snowy place). Unfortunately, as soon as we got there my mom started feeling sick. It turned out she had Covid. So she was social distancing while me, my dad and my younger brother were alone and trying to have fun. There was a big snowstorm and apparently it was the biggest in 80 years or something. The power kept going in and out for hours at a time and we were all huddling around a big power box and a solitary lamp to give us light. Since the oven didn’t work, we had to shovel off the porch to get to the grill to make Christmas dinner. It ended up burning, getting snowed on, and stone cold. We had to eat Christmas breakfast with my mom on facetime. Finally, one day when it wasn’t going to snow it seemed like everyone was trying to leave at the same time. All the roads were closed, and we drove for 4 hours on a highway just to find out that it was closed, and we had to go back. We ended up stopping at a rundown hotel somewhere that is actually really close to where we started. We all got Covid and it took us another 6 hours to get home, even though normally it would take 3-4 hours.
Well, it is not a Christmas memory it is more an aftermath of a Christmas present. When I was 5 or 6, it was a time where Hercules was extremely popular and they had these light up toy sword and my brother got one who is 4 or 5. One day, he hit me on the head and lost all of my hearing. My mom went panic mode for a month. My brother thought my head needed to switch back on and hit my head again. My hearing came back instantly. Here I am, telling you my most funniest memory that tends to get a lot of laugh these days. My mom always look at me with a evil glare as I use this story to put people in to ease. I just shook it off and enjoy laughing at the fact my head was a bop it.
The first Christmas after my divorce. My son was 4 years old. I couldn't afford a big dinner, a tree or gifts. We went to the food bank and they let my son choose a treat. We went to the clothing bank and he got a free winter coat and two toys. When we arrived home we found that someone had left a beautiful noble fir tree on our doorstep! After a couple of days someone left a huge box of food on our doorstep with a frozen turkey and everything we needed for a feast! It was a beautiful outpouring of love and generosity that we have never forgotten. My son is 33 now!
I was 11 years old and we lived in a 3bedroom trailer. (For context, from r. to l. it was master bedroom, living room, kitchen/dining room, sister's room, bath & my room. The hallway ran alongside the bath & my sister's room. Also, we had a wood stove for heat )
Christmas Eve before my parents went to bed, Dad stoked up the wood stove with slow burning wood so it would stay warm overnight. Well, at some point after midnight, the fire flared up and it got so hot the walls in my room were warm! Full length pajamas & heavy blankets and we're opening windows in Upstate NY! We refer to it jokingly as the Christmas Dad tried to turn us into Christmas dinner.
My best Christmas was when I was five. This was the 70s so obvi: cellphones, facetiming, seatbelts, parents who spoke about feelings, knew/worried about your whereabouts...hadn't yet been invented. My dad was a police officer who investigated murders at the time and drew the short straw for being on call for the weeks leading up to Christmas. This meant, if someone died under untoward circumstances leading up to the big day he would be gone for weeks with only sporadic phone calls. Remember when long distance was wildly expensive and an event? My mom and dad barely talked for weeks, could have been due to being on call but really with them-it could have been anything.
We almost made it but early christmas day, a guy in Elliot Lake had to get his wife and iron for Christmas and she had to open it early, thus Dad had to leave. 12 hour drive there, secured the scene, took the pictures (no dedicated photographers at the time so often our family slides took a macabre turn due to mix-ups), took the initial interviews, had a long chat with the disappointed gift recipient and then got back into his unheated cruiser and drove home in time for us to open our stockings and then drive back.
My parents weren't brilliant parents but that morning we felt a lot of love.
And...a couple of syntax errors that I can't figure out how to edit. *He was called out on Christmas eve day.
In 1998, my mother decided that none of us kids (OK, we were in our 30's and 40's) were to EVER AGAIN exchange Christmas presents because "it was stupid that we bought each other a 20 dollar gift, what a waste". Her addition was that we were now "ONLY to buy her presents". I used to love gifting. I would keep track of what people said they wanted during the year, check if they got one of whatever, then purchase it and gift it. I LOVED it when they would open it and they got that "how did you know?" I THINK she hated that I was attentive and since she wasn't, she punished me by taking away another thing that made me happy. To leave you with what she thought of me, on her deathbed she said "I know why I treated you badly all your life, because you didn't have a sister" so---narcissist admission, but how am I at fault for her reproduction prowess (all brother siblings)??? So happy holidays...for someone!!!
In 1998, my mother decided that none of us kids (OK, we were in our 30's and 40's) were to EVER AGAIN exchange Christmas presents because "it was stupid that we bought each other a 20 dollar gift, what a waste". Her addition was that we were now "ONLY to buy her presents". I used to love gifting. I would keep track of what people said they wanted during the year, check if they got one of whatever, then purchase it and gift it. I LOVED it when they would open it and they got that "how did you know?" I THINK she hated that I was attentive and since she wasn't, she punished me by taking away another thing that made me happy. To leave you with what she thought of me, on her deathbed she said "I know why I treated you badly all your life, because you didn't have a sister" so---narcissist admission, but how am I at fault for her reproduction prowess (all brother siblings)??? So happy holidays...for someone!!!
