... any special Christmas memories you'd like to share with the rest of us?
I have two specially great ones, so I thought I'd share this one with you. When I was a kid, I was very ill one year and had to spend Christmas in hospital. I can remember oh so well, that at midnight (well, it was probably about 9pm, but I was just a kid) everything was very quiet in the ward, and it was dark too. My bed was positioned so I could see down the corridor, and gradually I started to hear the sound of Silent Night being sung. I could see candlelight too. It was the nurses, who were going from ward to ward singing Christmas carols. They always had navy capes as part of their uniform with red linings, and they had turned the capes round too. It was absolutely magical.
Oh, and don't feel too sorry for me - it was a great Christmas. All the parents were told to bring in a pillowcase beforehand, and every nurse on the ward put a little present in each child's "stocking", the doctors came and did things like conjuring and magic, the nurses all dressed up, and we even had a visit from Father Christmas with more presents. My parents and my sister were there too and Father Christmas had a present for her too. It really was a great Christmas, and a lovely memory to have of what could have been a miserable time.
I remember when nurses were like that. A relative was a nurse back then - she lived in nurses housing, they had a "maid", and were treated superbly. They worked very hard but were highly valued. Hospitals had Matrons too - and no cleanliness issues.
ReplyDeleteNo sewing here today, hope everyone else is making good progress.
Christmas is my favorite time of hte year. When I was a kid our living room had a very high ceiling, 12 feet, it went up in a point. Our Christmas tree was 11.5 feet tall and my dad had to get a ladder and broom to put the silver tinsel on the top. As a child I would stand tere in awe as my dad finished the tree. Then he would turn the lights out and we would just sit there together watching the lights.
ReplyDeleteOh, I have some great memories from Christmas in distant climes whilst on deployment! But I think I ought to keep them to myself! Hehe ... you might get the wrong impression of me! LOL :)
ReplyDeleteI remember one Christmas in our small southern Utah town a J.C Penney Store on our main street. The display windows were quite large as they divided the store into two parts and the front door was set back a bit to provide lot's of displays. One Christmas there was a most beautiful red headed doll. I loved everything about that doll. I wanted it with all my heart. Imagine my disappointment when on Christmas Day I had a littler version of that doll and a blonde one too! She just wasn't the doll I'd dreamt about and hoped for. That afternoon, I was playing with my doll and wanted to make her hair look more like the red haired doll. I cut bangs!!! Oh, and did I cut bangs! They were UGLY and stuck out all over in wirey angles from the sewn-in wig. There was nothing I could do. Now I had an ugly doll that I really hated. Don't remember much else, just the finish of the combing and combing hoping that the combing would make the hair grow back and then no response as hoped. I don't think I ever played much with that doll after that.
ReplyDeleteMy mother's mother came from Poland, and we always got together at her home on Christmas Eve to share Vigilia, or the Vigil. Along with all the Polish food, Santa always came for the kids (I don't think that's part of Vigilia, but a new tradition for them.) One year, I spied my father's very distinctive ring on Santa's hand, and said "You're not Santa. You're my daddy." I don't remember if I spoiled things, since I was younger than my cousins and they had probably already figured it out. What I do think of now is how nice the grownups were to make Christmas special for the kids.
ReplyDeleteLove the momories I've read so far.
Oh my what a great story.
ReplyDeleteThis one might seem strange, but here it goes. When I was in first grade I brought a Christmas oranament at the school's Christmas Craft Sale (can you believe the parents actually got together months ahead and made things to sell?!?!?!) It was a Walnut Painted red with little white dots on it, with a felt leaf on top. Not certain what it's supposed to be now that I think about it but it looks like a strawberry to me. Well come to find out my best friends mother made it (and I had to borrow 50 cents from her to buy it!)
So Christmas break started and the new ornament was on the tree. I woke up in the morning on the 20th and there was a note from my parents (oh yeah home alone in first grade) they'd gone to the hospital to have my baby sister. I did pretty good with my cartoons for a while but then I got the munchies (most likely because I hadn't had breakfast) and I wanted to eat that Walnut.
I looked all over the place and couldn't find a nut cracker so my young little brain took a knife and tried to cut it open. Of course the knife slipped and cut the daylights out of my finger.
Ever since when I look at the scar on my finger it reminds me of Christmas and my sister. It's not magical but for me it's love.
We were in the hospital last Christmas Eve...with the birth of our new baby. I thought that we would get a visit from Santa, or a stocking of goodies or something...but not a thing!! I was hoping for pics with Santa for his first Christmas since we couldn't leave the hospital to get them!!
ReplyDeleteI had a friend that lived 350 miles away that was trying to figure out how to drive clear over to see us...all dressed in his Santa suit; but he has a family and Christmas Eve wasn't a good time. Not to mention a Missouri ice storm...pretty common anymore.
But, I'd saying bringing a little baby boy home Christmas morning was a very special memory...don't you think?