With Christmas almost here, I thought I’d share some special memories. I hope you’ll feel free to share some of your own.

1. The first Christmas as a new family. My fist born son was almost 9 months old and interested in all the bright lights and cracking paper. We lived in a mobile home. It was small. Very small. There was barely room for a tiny tree in the tiny living area of the place. But we were supremely happy to share the space and our love with our baby.

Now we share first Christmases with new grandchildren. Here’s the first Christmas with one granddaughter. 

2. When I was a child my mother strung heavy string across the walls and draped the Christmas cards over it. Sometimes the cards circled the room twice. She greatly enjoyed reading all the greetings from the many friends and family. And I remember how pretty the room was with all those cards on display.

3. I grew up on the bald-headed prairie where cutting down a live tree was a dastardly deed. (I still feel about the same about chopping down trees.) The first time we cut down our own live Christmas tree didn’t occur until we moved away from that area. We took our three youngest children and oldest grandson out, drove west to the river and waded through hip-deep snow to chop down a tree, getting sprinkled with snow from the branches. The tree seemed puny in the woods but was too tall to go into the living room without some trimming.

4. When I was a kid there was a community tradition of a Boxing Day skating party. People came from miles to congregate at a river. We skated, the boys played hockey, boys and girls skated in pairs. Then we went to a house and enjoyed a hot meal and played parlor games.

5. I remember one Christmas when I lived in the city during nurse’s training. I lived in residence as all nursing students did at that time (a thousand years ago). Each floor had a lounge and every year there was a competition to see who could decorate their lounge the best. One year our floor chose to do an-old-fashioned Christmas. We made tree ornaments from old cards. We hung cranberry and popcorn garlands. It was beautiful and we won first prize.

6. For years every year my mother-in-law  bought all her grandchildren brand new mittens for Christmas. It sounds so ordinary but we lived on a farm and my kids played outside every day. They built forts, climbed trees, sledded down hills, and skated after shoveling snow off the ice. By the time December rolled around they were anticipating some new mittens.

What memories of the season do you enjoy?