Enid... great story!

I love The Christmas Carol too. I read it to the kids. Sorry to say, kinda hard to maintain a British accent all the way thru... my southern drawl keeps creeping in. :-?

Of course... who doesnt love "It's A Wonderful Life"? I'm a huge fan of Jimmy Stewart. He was cool.

I have to admit that one of my recent favorite Christmas movies is "Elf". That movie has me in stitches every time we watch it. Especially the scene with the 45 second burp in it... "Did you hear that???"

Krispy

Quote: 'My southern drawl keeps creeping in.'

Don't worry, there are worse sins!

God bless.

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Melissa

I was spoiled growing up with TONS of gifts as a child I have to admit. ;-)
I think all the special memories are those of ALL my family that were together and now have passed on.
I think we need to treasure those special times of family being all together at Christmas because we dont know what will happen in a years time.

On a side note: I feel sorry for all the legalists who dont celebrate a joyous time as Christmas.
...sorry krispy I couldnt help myself.

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Brent

Share your Christmas merories ... hhhmmm which memories to share a happy ones, a sad ones, good or bad. We all have those :-D i like to share the time my daughter called me a liar at the age of 6 because i did not tell her the truth that there is no santa claus :-D she cries for hours and that hurt her not because santa is not real now but the fact i follow the tradition i grew up with, we still celabrate Christmas with the fat fellow, but still have the tree and lights and goodies and family parties, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. but with the children understanding of why Jesus born.
MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERY ONE

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Claudette

I have soooo many christmas memories, none bad- all good! I especially have wonderful memories of spending time at my grandma's house. I loved her and now she has passed away. I loved her house and her christmas tree, I loved the music she played and the dinner she always fixed. She was a picture of 'hospitality' that i didn't get anywhere else. She was really my only family except for my parents and my younger brother.

One of my favorite things to do at Christmas was lay under the christmas tree and look at the lights. My parents usually let me sleep in a sleeping bag under the tree one night before Christmas every year. I felt like I was in heaven (though I am sure heaven is much better :)

My favorite funny memory (which is not too funny to my Mother) My mom bought my Dad a watch one year and wrapped it up and put it under the tree. My dad knew what it was and on Christmas Eve he carefully unwrapped it and took the watch out and then carefully wrapped it back up. In the morning we opened the presents just like always and he opened up the package that was supposed to have the watch in it and he pretended to be surprised that there was nothing in it. My mom freaked out! After about 5 minutes (or more) my Dad finally told her what he had done and she was more than a little upset with him! We all still laugh about that today! :-)

My newer memories are of my own children at Christmas. There is a little song/saying that I always sang to them before they went to sleep on Christmas Eve because they couldn't sleep- "The sooner you sleep, the sooner you wake..."

We always have a birthday cake for Jesus and we use this time to show our children about giving. We usually choose a family to give Christmas presents and dinner to. This year we are looking into an orphange and a restoration home for people trying to stay off drugs. Yes, we do these things even when it is not Christmas, but it does make this time more special and meaningful. It is wonderful to bless others who may not get to experience a nice dinner or a few new clothes for Christmas.

Have a blessed Christmas everyone and may you all create wonderful memories this year, for yourself and for your children :-)

In His love, Chanin

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Chanin

Channin, I love that story about the watch! That sounds like something I would do.

One thing we've done the last two years is we have some friends who have absolutely nothing. Very very poor. 2 years ago the mom mentioned to my wife that their kids were getting one gift each... just a new shirt (bought at a second hand store).

So we talked to several other families who know them, and we took up a collection. Everyone's kids threw in whatever money they wanted to donate, and my wife and I and our kids went Christmas shopping. I think we had about $350 to spend. It was such a joy to see our kids picking out toys and stuff for thier friends. We wrapped everything, and then put everything in this HUGE cardboard refridgerator box, and wrapper that too.

Well this family goes to a little country church about a mile from our house, so I waited until I knew they were there for evening service... and I parked my truck around the bend in the road and my two older sons and I carried that big old box of presents over to the church and set it down right in front of their van. Then we left.

About 3 hours later the mom calls my wife and quizzed her for about 30 minutes to see if it was us who left the presents. My wife kept laughing and say "No! It must have been Santa!"... and the kids and I had to leave the room we were laughing so hard.

We did the exact same thing last year too. To this day they have no idea who delivered the presents to them.

The biggest kick for me in this whole thing tho is to see the joy my kids get out of [b]giving[/b]. It's a waaay bigger joy than they get on Christmas with their own presents.

Krispy

Earlier we were talking about Christmas movies, and I mentioned the "burping" scene from ELF... for those who have never seen it... here's the scene:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1Xh35MymZo

Krispy

Bump! I want to hear about others' memories!

Every Christmas Eve my mother’s side of the family would gather at my grandmother’s house to celebrate Christmas. Our traditional meal that night was seafood gumbo that my grandmother would prepare. Those who have tasted Louisiana cuisine will know that it is very flavorful – quite possibly the best food in the country. But not my grandmother’s. And the jokes about the gumbo would start about 2 weeks prior to Christmas Eve. But everybody would still eat the obligatory bowl of gumbo.

One year while we were all giggling over our bowls of gumbo, my uncle got up from the table with his bowl and left the room. He returned moments later with a sheepish grin on his face and an empty bowl, with sounds of a flushing toilet in the background.

10 years later, we are still laughing about this.

But my favorite memories are of when my sister and I were little and we would finish opening our gifts and then it was time for us to watch our parents exchange gifts. We could hardly wait because each year my dad would get my mom some beautifully extravagant piece of jewelry. He loved to give her things like that and watch her open them. Of course she would always take them back because I’m sure they were more expensive than we could afford back then. But I remember the wonderful feeling of knowing that my parents loved each other and watching my dad demonstrate that through his gift giving.

Danielle

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Danielle