Christmas has always been my favourite time. The anticipation, looking forward to Santa and the presents!
I don’t remember how I found out Santa wasn’t ‘real’ but because I don’t remember, I guess it wasn’t a traumatic event. I never told my brother and sister that he wasn’t real, I wasn’t that kind of kid.
I do remember managing to stay awake to watch one parent or the other (usually our mother) sneaking into the room to leave the stockings.
“I knew it was you, not Santa,” I whispered once.
“Shh… go to sleep…”
Because we didn’t have a lot of stuff, I think we looked forward to Christmas with avaricious delight. Of course, the television didn’t help. From the end of summer, kids are bombarded by an endless stream of advertising for toys to ask for for Christmas and I dare say, parents the world over are sick to the back teeth of, “Can I have,” by the beginning of October.
If ever we got our hands on a catalogue – oh boy! Something – from EVERY page!
We knew there was not a chance we’d get everything we asked for… we’d be lucky if we got one thing. That’s not entirely true, but sometimes, we’d ask for loads of things, a massive array to choose from and the excitement of Christmas and the gifts waned and the disappointment of not getting that one thing lingered. (I sound like an ungrateful brat!)
Over the years, I remember one of my most-played-with toys (apart from my bike) was ‘Tippy Tumbles’.
Youtube
In the run-up to Christmas, we’d (I’d) decide it was a good idea to go off looking for the gifts. They were sometimes under our parents’ bed, sometimes on top of their wardrobe, and sometimes in their wardrobe. Ingenious hiding places, folks. I never found them…
One year, my brother and I found the gifts and there was something our sister really wanted. We decided to not tell her what she’d got because it would spoil her surprise.
I’d been reading Watership Down and in the story, there was a tale of a fairytale creature called a ‘Fairy Wog-Dog’.
We told our sister she was getting that rather than the Barbie she really was getting.
Ooops, that backfired… she spent ages looking forward to receiving the ‘Fairy Wog-Dog’ we’d (I’d) told her about. Our parents couldn’t understand why she was so disappointed in the gift of that doll!
Our parents worked late at the club on weekends and especially so on Christmas eve. Sometimes we’d be packed off to grandparents, and here’s the reason for that.
We’d wake up at stupid o’clock, so excited!
The rule was that we could open the little gifts in our Christmas stockings, but we weren’t allowed downstairs. And we were only allowed the stockings if we were quiet so our parents could sleep.
One year, our parents got in at around 4am. They snuck into our room (all three of us shared a room) and placed the stockings at the bottom of our beds.
My brother must have woken up at the closing of the door. He was so excited.
We were making too much noise with the stockings. It must have been the excitement of that orange and the nuts that did it… or could it have been the little plastic puzzle where you had to get the tiny ball-bearings into their holes all at the same time?
You remember those… they were completed within five minutes, then you’d spend another ten minutes completing everyone else’s and then a few seconds of trying to get the ball-bearings out of the casing. All-in-all, around 20 minutes-worth of entertainment.
http://s7.orientaltrading.com/is/image/OrientalTrading/VIEWER_IMAGE_400/handheld-pinball-games~16_813c
Source
Then the image-swap puzzles…
My mother came into the room and told us to be quiet.
We snuggled back under our bedclothes and were quiet… for a few minutes.
My mother came back into the room, angry that we were making noise so early.
She threatened to take our stockings away. We calmed down… for a minute.
The final time she came in, she took all our stockings away.
I learned from her mistakes and our kids never woke us up too early. We had to wake them up most Christmases.
Our tradition was for them to wait for their dad to come home from work (he had to be at the mine… more on that later). He’d come home at around 9am and the kids would wait until he got home before they opened the gifts. It was a much better way of working things.
I knew my childhood was over the Christmas I got just clothes.
I had a lovely huge, warm coat, a warm, thick, long-sleeved t-shirt and a new bra.
We walked around to our aunt’s house for Christmas morning – then drove on to my mother’s mother for Christmas dinner (lunch).
At my aunt’s, we showed what we’d got that morning as a tradition. My brother and sister had their toys, I wore my coat, t-shirt and bra.
“What have you had, Michelle?”
“This coat and this t-shirt.”
“What else?”
In front of my parents, my grandparents, my two aunts and their husbands, I was asked about my ‘other gift’.
“I had a bra,” I said…
“Show them your new bra,” my father said.
I looked at him, aghast.
“Show them what you’ve had for Christmas, show them your new bra.”
I felt I had no other option but to show everyone my new bra. Humiliating? Definitely.
A bit creepy? No. It was a LOT creepy.
Images from Google (free to use images) unless otherwise stated the source
Hi, Michelle )) You made me smile with your story and I remembered a funny case from my life. In Russia we have a tadition. When the clock rings the bell 12 times at New Year midnight, you have to quickly write down your wish on a peice of paper, burn it, put the ash to the glass of champagne and drink it before the last bell. That's why everyone thinks of his wish in advance. A daughter of our friend didn't know that, and when the bell started, she didn't know what to write. So after a few moments of confusion she wrote: "I want EVERYTHING"! That's also the way how you can get some nice gifts from Santa ))
Haha! I want EVERYTHING! Too!
I would think the tradition originally used Vodka rather than Champagne... ;)
well, you never know and the story doesn't tell )
And for us on New Year's Eve, the main thing is to open a bottle of champagne and make a wish earlier than the chiming clock will strike 12 times. But that does not always work. And one day, with excitement, I was so in a hurry to open the champagne, which hit the chandelier in the chandelier.
It was necessary to make a wish that in the New Year Santa Claus gave us a new chandelier :)
OOoops!
Or was it, "Good Shot!" :)
Whenever it comes to festival we have to talk about Christmas and really Christmas brings a lot of good positivity in us ...whenever christmas comes there is a kind of new feeling and enjoyment in us....in india where i live christmas is also a prominent festival for us because nowadays we indians just need a reason to be happy so irrespective of race,religions we go onto to celebrate each of the festival very joyfully.....there is a kind of holy enthusiams whenever it comes about festival ...as you know india is a land of festivals and you might be surprised that we celebrate over 300+ festivals a year because peole living here have an endless faith in God ..... and morever at the end of september till the end of october ...there gonna be tons of festivals especially dusshera and diwali...and as there is every reason or story behind a festival and so on there is an epic story behind these two festivals which i will let you know through my post during those days......
Ahhhhhh well i think i have written quite big but i guess this is worth to write.....thanks @michelle.gent for letting me remind of festivals...... by the way u may have felt very awkward at your Gift..isn't ??
I didn't feel awkward at the gift, but in the way I was bullied into showing the gift.
It embarrassed and humiliated me - then again, another lesson on how not to parent.
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Good post @michelle.gent
The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.
- Albert Einstein
Hahaha... you are so funny and talented in writing... i am enjoying it so much... anyway, are you going to write about bra for christmas for the next post? Wkwkwk...
Thank you...
Maybe not ;)
Tippy Tumble ,barbie and image swap puzzles are childhood memory of most of us .Thanks for your story @michelle.gent .
You're most welcome :)
Thank you for your comment.
Very soulful and touching story! Big to you for nostalgia, which I now feel!))) I wish you much good in your life and a lot of happiness)))
Thank you. And to you :)
Hey that's a good story !!! Keep up the great stories !!!
Christmas has always been my favourite time of the year, but I wish it wasn't so commercialised. I remember going to my grandfather's farm to cut down the Christmas tree on the 23rd of December and lighting it for the first time. It still gets me...
Yeah, we have our traditions too. Because we are such a young family, we're making new traditions and enjoying them all :)
That's what it all about. Making new traditions to pass on along with a few of the good old ones...
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