Please...No mean,hard luck stories.We have all had bad things happen to us.

One of my early memorys as a child was my daddy and brother bringing in a Christmas tree;one that they had just went out in the field and cut down. We would make the decorations our selves. We used painted egg shells, foil to make bells, pop corn to make garlin, and we would allways make a star out of card board and cover it in foil for the top of the tree. When Christmas was over my daddy would just take the tree and all the decorations out and burn it.

Yes we were very very poor. I was to little to know it at the time how poor we were.

Christmas was very simple then....back in the 50's, when you lived in a two room house with no running water; out in the country.

I knew I was loved...by my daddy, brother and sister; thats all the mattered to me.

Merry Christmas everyone

Hiding under the tree and building a fort with all the presents - then taking one of the small presents and trying very carefully to peel back the tape without making any noise to peek at what was inside.

Waiting for the first star to come out before we could eat X-mas Eve supper.

Waiting and waiting and waiting for the dishes to be done so we could start opening presents.

Turning off all the lights except the X-mas tree ones.

I very vividly remember Christmas 1985. I don't know why.

I remember going out Christmas Eve with my parents to look at lights, having a big family dinner, then going to midnight mass. When we got home Santa had been. And by golly. I got those twin Cabbage patch kids I wanted so badly. Nothing else mattered but those dolls.

Good times.

Rollerskates and spirograph barbie dolls and new outfits and waking up at the crack of dawn, and the wonderful fun we had with our extended family.

My favorite Christmas memory was the year my dad decked out the house to look like something from the Night before Christams. Then when "Santa" came he set up a toy train around the Christmas tree and I actually caught him on video tape. It was really just my dad waving a Santa hat in front of the camera with a white glove on but I had "proof" he was real to show all of my friends. Mrs. Clause baked all kinds of goodies and there was a spread of stuff for us on the kitchen table. I had loads of presents and my family played board games all day long.

My extended family came down and I got to show my snotty little cousin all the "way better than yours" stuff I got. lol By far my favorite Christmas. I still get excited thinking about it.

My most prized Christmas memory was when I was six years olds. My dad was stationed in Thailand at the time and my mom and two sisters and I lived in California. I was daddies girl and it was very hard on me not having him home. Well, mom woke us up Christmas morning and said that Santa had something very waiting in the living room for us. sleeping on a pile of blankets by the tree with a big bow by his feet was my dad. I saw him and just starting crying I was sooo happy that he was there. I think he only got to stay for the week, but that was one Christmas I will never forget.

Still am daddies girl 32 years later.

What beautiful memories. Christmas was always a wonderful time for me as a child. It still is. Lots of family, nice gifts and awesome food. I love Christmas.

My most prized Christmas memory was when I was six years olds. My dad was stationed in Thailand at the time and my mom and two sisters and I lived in California. I was daddies girl and it was very hard on me not having him home. Well, mom woke us up Christmas morning and said that Santa had something very waiting in the living room for us. sleeping on a pile of blankets by the tree with a big bow by his feet was my dad. I saw him and just starting crying I was sooo happy that he was there. I think he only got to stay for the week, but that was one Christmas I will never forget.

Still am daddies girl 32 years later.

Now that brought tears to my eyes.

I have some really great Christmas memories as a child.

My mom would make a big pot of hot chocolate on Christmas Eve night. My sister, my mom, and me would drink it as we colored in our Christmas coloring books and watched a Charlie Brown Christmas.

One of my best memories is when I was about 8 years old. I live in South Georgia and it has only snowed once, where I live, since I was born. One year it was really, really cold on Christmas Eve night, so my dad placed sprinklers all over our front yard and let them run all night. When we woke up on Christmas Day, he took us outside and it was so beautiful. Our whole yard was covered in thick ice. I still have pictures of me and my sisters playing and sliding on the ice. It was the coolest Christmas ever.

This is a great thread. It reminds me how blessed I am to have such loving parents and sisters.

Some of my happiest childhood memories were going to my grandma's and seeing a lot of my family that I didn't get to see much during the year. I miss not doing that anymore.

I remember my sister waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning and getting my Barbie van.

Growing up, there was 3 girls, so christmas was always hectic. Our living room had a hallway coming off of it and with a door that could be closed..the bedrooms and bathrooms were down this hallway. Santa and later my parents would wrap each girls presents in different paper, to ease the confusion of kids ripping off paper..who has time to read labels? and a scrap of paper was saved and it had our name on it, and taped to the closed hallway door. We would get up early and stare at those 3 strips of paper.

I guess when I was 10 or so I was really big into horses and had likw 100 model horses. My father built me a stable and paddock to put them all in, but hid it. I had a small pile of gifts that year and the last box I opened had a note inside..it sent me on a scavenger hunt all around the house..by the time I got back to the tree, there was my stable and pasture..he even made Water troughs and saddle racks.

I guess the one thing every year that gets me is my moms decorating..she loves christmas. We have a tree in every room of our two story 5 bedroom 2.5 bath house. The formal living room actually has two trees..full sized. smallest trees are 2 feet tall and go in the bathrooms..every other room has a full sized tree..decorated to match that room. my lil brothers room is done in skateboarding..last year my mom went out and bought a whole bunch of finger skateboards and put ornament hooks on them. garland is hung from every window and ribbon around every pillar. windows get frosted and she even decorates the dog house. While I will never do this much myself, I have always felt that my mother was expressing her love for us in her decorations.

Happy Holidays

For some reason I remember Christmas '69. I remember getting a doll and my little brother got one of those mustang pedal cars. Our Christmas tree was one of the silver aluminum ones. Mom put red glass balls on it. It had a color wheel that shined light on it and made it change color. I thought that was so cool. This past summer I got on E-Bay and bought not one but two of those trees! That's what I have up in my livingroom and my sunroom. Brings back memories from my childhood.

Now this is a nice thread.

I come from a family of 7 - I don't really remember the gifts so much - other then a Barbie case that had real little hangers and shoes - I must have been about 7. But what I really remember is the whole family being together and playing games, oyster stew on Christmas eve and just the fun and silliness we all had. We weren't poor poor but with a big family we weren't over indulged so we each only got a couple of gifts but it really didn't matter.

Now one of my favorite memories of my children is when they were about 3, 7 & 9 we took the 4-wheeler and a wagon and went out and cut our tree. I video taped it and the kids sang songs, it was just such a precious memory of them. Now they are 17, 21 and 23 - time flies.