My Favorite Christmas Eve Memories

[JimBowie1958]

5) The quiet of a snow covered field at night, particularly in the moon light. Nothing moves, not even animals who hunker down to stay warm. My best such memories are from when we would do patrols in the snow in Germany. Hallmark does not match the real beauty of the actual scenes, trust me.

4) Snow days and time out from school. School was so freaking boring for me, and college was a welcome environment where I could learn at my own pace.

3) The cool air would come to Texas and everything would chilax as for a few weeks as most Texans would pause a bit as they adapted to the cold weather. We didnt get a lot of that in Dallas, as I grew up, and it was a welcome break.

2) The fighting in the family would stop, truces respected, and we would all come together to show respect for something greater than all of us. That tranquility was something that I never forgot and I harbor in my mind as an ideal I want to achieve with those I love and that share my life.

1) Sharing with people that I did not know well, but who I knew needed some company. We rob ourselves of some of the greatest joys, even greater than giving gifts to our children, when we duck the needy at Christmas time. That need doesnt have to be money or a gift. Most of the time it only has to be a friendly "Merry Christmas!" and a warm smile and letting them know that you are happy to visit and talk if they need you to come by.

Merry Christmas everybody!

 

[Ernie S.]

One of my fondest memories is returning home from my cousin's house one Christmas Eve. The wife hat met me there, so she and my son were in the other car. I was riding home feeling pretty good about life. I stopped in a rest area for gas and saw a young man, obviously distraught talking to a gas station employee. There he is next to a car that looked like it had been through a war. The car had a flat tire. The kid had a wife and baby in the car, and come to find out money for either a used tire or gasoline to make it the last 30 miles home. I bought him a tire and filled his gas tank. He insisted on taking my name and address and some months later, I received a card and most of the cash I had put out.
It gave me a good, warm fuzzy to help and another a few months later when my faith in humanity needed a boost.

 

[Bonzi]

Thinking about Santa coming and wondering what he would bring me....

Going to 11 pm Christmas Eve Candle Light service and singing Christmas carols......

Wrapping presents for the kids until 2 am drinking a bottle of wine........

 

[Tom Horn]

Christmas Eve was everything I could ask for as a kid. We were supposed to only open ONE present but that rule was broken as soon as the wrapping paper and ribbon started to fly. I always proposed we leave ONE present to Christmas morning instead and the rule was changed....by a 6 year old. My Daisy Red Ryder wooden stock bb gun is the present I remember best. My dad didn't put it under the tree because he knew I would know what it was. My sister and I were pretty good at finding the gift-hiding spots in the house, but we couldn't find the Red Ryder. When he gave it to me Christmas morning, the package was cold and I correctly guessed he'd hidden it in the trunk of our new '53 4-door Ford.

Our tree was always fresh and the lights were mostly red, white, and green, with the round red ornaments and bathed in "icicles" tinsel. My folks left the tree lit all night and we would sneak down to sit and look at it in the dark. We didn't have much money but we had each other and I know my folks couldn't afford everything they got us but they did it anyway. And snow....the question in Michigan was will it be a white Christmas and it always was. It covered the large maple leaf pile in the back yard making it look like an igloo out a frosty window. And no, I didn't put my eye out with that Red Ryder although the first time I shot a song bird with it, my Mom was furious and sat me down for a good talk on how everything has a life, and loves it's life, and I shouldn't ever shoot anything that sang like a song bird or what I wasn't going to eat. So after that my kills were water snakes in the gravel pit and rats at the town dump.

 

[skye]

Me my sister and brother in pajamas, barefoot and half asleep, very early on Christmas day running to our big Christmas tree and opening the presents. ... a scene it will always remain in my mind.

 

[JimBowie1958]

Jesus said it correctly; it is more blessed to give than to receive and I pity those who miss out because they just dont get it.

 

[EvilCat Breath]

My parents and I arrived, penniless in San Francisco in September 1959. I was 12 years old. By December I was so homesick for New York I did not think I would survive. I tried to call my uncle collect more than 100 times before he took my call. I begged him to send for me, just for Christmas. One last Christmas at home. He said no. Christmas plans had already been made. I actually thanked him and never spoke to my mother's family again.
Christmas Eve I was pretty dejected. I had saved up 25 cents to get myself a present. I was going to get a milkshake from Herbert's Sherbet Shoppe . I went on Christmas Eve and counted out my dime, nickle and ten pennies to the pimply faced young man who was no doubt anxious to close and go home.

I don't know what he was thinking but he made my shake and said "it's a tradition. The last customer on Christmas Eve gets a milkshake on the house" He slid my 25 cents back to me. I saw him a few minutes later slip a quarter into the till.

I sat down with my present and just cried. This was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me. It was the last tears I ever shed for anything. I was cured of maudlin.