Funny you say that, I wondered if some people were afraid to share some of their memories because of what others might think...

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Melissa

I remember last christmas, seeing my children, their second christmas, but first one they could open their presents themselves. And thinking how precious gifts of life God has given me and i remember the food my wife magically cooked even thou she did not have so much to work with how she so gave her all for me and the kids with what we had, and seeing her looking at us and seeing us dig in to the ffod she had so given her time and effort to make us

thinking of those moments make me cry right now.

How blessed i am to have such a wife and children.

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CHRISTIAN

I remember when i was about 6yrs old celebrating Christmas with all my family including my parents,grandparents,uncles,aunts and cousins.
We all lived in the same street just different houses, we would all gather together to eat and just being together. The love of being with family was so sweet. i do not remember much about the gifts..i think because for us it was about celebrating the birth of Christ and just being together as a family. Since we used to celebrate the "three kings" day in Feb.
the gifts were giving out to the children on feb. instead.

We moved to the US and lived here for years now. so, i do miss being with my grandparents and cousins..oh, how much i miss them!!!
"c"

My Dad became a JW when i was six so i really only remember one Christmas as a child, but it was enuf to subsequently make me hate being a JW amongst so many other things like no more birthdays and alienation from my favorite aunts and uncles on the holidays because all of a sudden they were now heathen and worldly ... It was a totally awful early childhood experience, but i would always secretly celebrate Christmas in my own way, bringing home little twigs of Canadian Balsam to smell ... Canadian Balsam scent still sends me into Christmas mode reminding me mostly of my Aunt Cleo's trees, before she went haywire in the 60's/70's with those toilet brush limbed mod metallic trees ...

i actually love the holiday, the season, even tho i know it's no where near the day of Christ' birth and has a touch of pagan in it's origin, but what i've always truly loved about the holiday was that folk became so pleasant, nice, jolly, etc ... Of course that has much waned in these hellified times in which we live, folk trying to have Christmas without Christ, without even the mention of His name ... Things have certainly changed in America since the 50's ...

Anyhow i guess my favorite Christmas had to be when i was 27, as it was the first time i was in a position to flat out full fledged celebrate Christmas after having escaped all things JW and i went way overboard then, and for about the next ten years or so ... i still love the season, but much of my enthusiam for all the gift buying and trimmings along with my youthful vim and vigor has waned and i find i now moreso fully reflect on the reason for the season as pretty much summed up by Linus on "A Charlie Brown Christmas" ...

[b]Luke.2 -
[8] And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
[9] And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
[10] And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
[11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
[12] And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
[13] And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,
[14] Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.[/b]

I remember being about 8 years old and so excited at seeing eggnog at the shelves of the stores. Then being able to drink the eggnog at Christmas eve. This was pre-saved days in my life.

Christmas with my children now is always fun. My children are 4, 2 and 1. So needless to say, there is not much sleeping in my house anymore for us parents.

My favorite current memory of Christmas is watching my 4 year old son talk to grandpa and grandma (wifes side) about Jesus and explaining to them why we celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus.

It is great to see my son minister to my in-laws, who on the most part shut me down anytime I talk about the Lord. They listen to my son and hear his words. I know that the Lord blesses these times in my sons life, even if grandpa and grandma don't want to hear it. My 2 1/2 year old is starting to talk to grandma and grandpa about Jesus as well. Even though she knows little about the Lord, you can see His love in her. These are my favorite memories of Chirstmas...watching my children grow in the Lord and become sons and daughters of the living God.

May the Lord raise up all my children to contend for His name.

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Christiaan

Hi everyone, only just noticed this thread, it's a good one.

These days I don't use Christmas decorations, except for some appropriate decoration in the window, such as Christian cards or a poster, as a witness to its true meaning. Partly because of the pagan and worldly connnotations and partly because of being on my own. I'd rather be in work over Christmas, and, hopefully, have my employers leave out some Christmas goodies to eat :lol:

Various memories: As a child I was usually ill with excitement (being asthmatic - thankfully grew out of it by age 15). Christmas Eve was absolute agony because it seemed the morning would never come, and I had trouble getting to sleep.

When I was about 7 my mother swore me to secrrecy as far as other kids were concerned, told me that there was no Father Christmas. She did it because she as a child was told by another child and it was a terrible shock, so she decided to tell me herself before that should happen.

I was absolutely astonished, and at first wouldn't believe her, because she had never ever told me anything that wasn't absolutely true. After getting over the surprise however, it didn't trouble me very much. Maybe the thought of entering the world of grown-up "secrets" helped.

Every year my mother would make several cakes. There was always a tiny one for a little boy up our street. I never remember seeing him, but apparently he'd had severe polio. Then she stopped making them. I was too young to realise at the time that he'd died.

My traditional breakfast on Christmas morning was the dry bread crusts from the stuffing, with pieces of [i]chocolate[/i]! A treat becasue not usually allowed.

As I grew older I used to help ice the Christmas cake. We weren't very organised, and this was usually the last minute job on Christmas Eve, and tended to take till well after midnight! We found traditional white icing too dull and would have tremendous fun with all sorts of decorations in different colours, just as we fancied doing. It never actually looked much like a [i]Christmas[/i] cake, but what fun it was!

Another memory is of my father blowing up baloons and putting them up the chimney (we had an open fire) to see how long before they burst in the heat. My mother and I would put our fingers in our ears and beg him to sop, but he wouldn't listen! Dad [i]loved[/i] balloons, and we would always put a packet in his stocking with a pump to blow them up!

What a lot of memories!

But the best was the first Christmas after I became a Christian. We had a large poster of the Wise men visiting the baby Jesus, and it was always put up on my bedroom wall. I remeber gazing at it that year and for the first time realising something of the wonder of "God with us"...

Hallelujah!

Jeannette

I didnt grow up in the church, and my folks didnt go except on Christmas. But my grandparents did on my mom's side. And every December when we were young grandma & grandpa took us little kids to church so that we could be in the Christmas program. I remember being a shepherd and one year I was Joseph... and using beach towels as robes and head dresses. Kinda funny. And then after the program, the pastor would give all the kids bags of candy... and we would eat it all before we even left the church. THen we got into all kinds of trouble thanx to the sugar rush! I was hyper active enough without sugar! lol

And now my kids are the ones in the Christmas programs. We dont do a program in our house church, but the homeschool association we belong does. This year my 4 yr old was Joseph. That brought back memories of my own experiences on stage...lol.

Krispy

Only just seen this thread. Where has it been hiding?

I guess we all have so many fond memories of Christmas that we sometimes don't know where to start.

But for me, it goes back to when I was a child of about 9 years old.

Dad had bought these chocolates, and we children loved chocolates. We could have them, but not all on one day and have them all gone.

So, Dad put them high up on a shelf where we could not reach them. Well, were not supposed to reach them.

Night came. My 2 sisters 'volunteered' me to go downstairs and sneak out one of the big bars of chocolate.

I did my utmost to get up and down the creaking stairs without being heard, got back to bed with the treat, and remember Mum's voice booming out, 'I hope you haven't taken the fruit and nut'
which was her favourite chocolate.

Unfortunately, I hadn't. I got a horrible bar of plain chocolate which tasted like a laxative and worked like one too.

On to today. I have a confession to make. I still like to watch the movie 'A Christmas Carol' about Scrooge.
It's just one of those movies I like and about the only decent thing you can watch at Christmas.

Oh well, Merry Christmas everyone!

Done my brother ... :-D

Kool... thanx my brother.

Everyone else... nevermind. :-)

Krispy