A previous post gave me an idea…

This would be mine, as close as I can find..
When I was a child I lived on a farm outside of town in a big drafty house with seven gables.
I shared a bedroom with two brothers upstairs wich was unheated with only holes in the floors covered by metal grates to let heat from downstairs drift through.

My neighbors. The owners of the farm from whom we rented the house. lived a few hundred yards up the hill from us..
in the front yard they had a small fir tree of perfect shape and each year they would hang lights on it.

My bed in our room sat beneath a window that looked out at the house on the hill and the little tree.
At Christmas time i would kneel on my pillow against the headboard and gaze out the window at the little tree. It always made me happy to see it lit up, especially when it was snowing..

I'd kneel there looking at it and imagine the children in his house playing in their warm rooms with the lights on and toys strewn about..
I was happy for them.. not jealous.. in the dark in my cold room I was happy that Christmas was good for them.. because it should be..
Even if i couldn't have what they had i was still glad that my friends were happy..
Because they must be, i thought.. they had lights and heat and toys and the little tree in the yard..

Those were good days 😌

Something like this.....but imagine 70s decor!!! We did things oddly in our house. Us kids opened our gifts in our bedrooms at silly am, and listened out for mum and dads teasmade to buzz before going into their room to watch them open their gifts!! The dog would join us too, the only day he was allowed upstairs!
Always lots of laughter....happy memories. X

Hahhaaa! This one’s pretty accurate. Just have to add that awesome 70s decor. 😂 I’ve been to other family christmases where they were all neat and organized and polite and took turns but ours were always a joyful mad dash of laughter and everybody calling out to everybody else and a sea of shredded wrapping paper and bows stuck in hair. The number of people ebbed and flowed, but that joy was always there.

I’m an only child, but our house was always the house for extended family gatherings. This isn’t my photo, but we were lucky to have lots of food and lots of fun at our holiday dinners, and that’s what I remember.

Caroling, all of us wrapped to the crowns of our heads in hand-me-down scarves and to the soles of our feet in big galumping boots. Since we lived in the country, we traveled in cars or, on one memorable Christmas Eve, a horse-drawn wagon, to each little clump of houses and were usually invited in for hot chocolate and ginger snaps.

My parents were divorced and my family kinda sucked. All I really remember is leaving one Xmas early, missing most of the second and hating all of it 😆 I enjoy giving, but opening presents was embarrassing. And I just never felt wanted.

My earliest memories of Christmas are of watching (and later on, helping) my father decorate the tree.

Never been to the tree lighting, but the square was pretty exciting for the entire season. Pre whatever the hell the area is today. Time flies...

The living room covered with gift wrappings.

Mom serving some sweet pastries.

Going to grandma's later and eating chocolates.

For me it was the Christmas decorated store windows and the other kids ask wishing and praying out loud about the toys

That's really nice. Did you carry on the tradition?

Yeah cousin Larry will be there again 🤦‍♂️

The one in NY is nice,too

Wonderful memories.

I waited every year to see Santa at the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade...

I remember wanting to be there on the street. Have still never made it..maybe one day soon.

Midtown mall in downtwon Rochester and seeing Santa on top of Magic Mountain then riding the monorail around the entire mall court amd eventually through a tunnel that ran through magic mountain.

Afterwards going over to Sibley's where they had the Toyland tunnel. Which was this dark amd kinda spooky tunnel with all these Christmas animatronics from the 40's,50's, and 60's.
Kinda like a Christmas dungeon. At the end you got a Rudolph coloring book amd a kazoo shaped like a trombone.

I was born just in time to see this spectacle because by early 90's Midtown Mall was a sinking ship and the place really turned into a dump afyer that. But man was it great.