My Favorite Childhood Christmas, the Best Childhood Christmases

Christmas is my favorite childhood memory. Not only does it belong to me, it also belongs to my siblings and our children and grandchildren. The Christmases between my siblings and myself were the best any child could ever have!

It was the time of year I dreamed would come and stay. It always went too fast. The excitement that went with it. How my stomach would get butterflies as I looked forward to Christmas time.

Our family was big. We had aunts and uncles and great aunts and great uncles, and cousins, and our great grandparents as well as our grandparents. We always went to my grandma's house for Christmas Eve. That was better than Christmas Day to me. There were so many of us. My grandma's house held us all.

There would be tables of food. Pies that my grandma made. She made them better than anyone else. Even at her funeral, 4 people spoke of her pie baking and she was the best. We had all kinds of foods. My favorite was my grandma's "Christmas" bite size sandwiches. I crave them today. Of course we had a Christmas Eve dinner as well.

After the dinner, we would celebrate the birth of Jesus by reading scripture. Then we would sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. We would pray. When I was real young, I remember my uncle saying he had to go to the store that they forgot something. He would go out and leave and change into a Santa Claus outfit. We believed it was Santa. Then when he came back, we told him how he missed Santa and that he came here while he was at the store!

My aunt and and me both played the piano. My aunt had a big organ that she also played. So before we could exchange gifts, we all sang Christmas songs while my aunt played for us. It was joyous and we gathered with family and close friends as well. Everyone was so happy. These were the best Christmas memories ever!

My grandma used to buy a real tree but after a few years, she bought one of those aluminum trees that she would set up. I guess she got tired of the pine needles. But that didn't matter. The tree was beautiful. It was always decorated so pretty.

When it was time to pass out presents, the older kids did the job. We gathered around the tree to find whose names were on the gifts and then took it to each person. It took awhile as there were so many of us. The gifts were so many that they didn't fit under the tree. It took up a lot of floor space. I remember my grandpa getting large plastic trash bags for everyone to put their gift wrap in.
Those were the best childhoold Christmas memories. I wish I could bring them back. Just for one more Christmas.

Weeks before Christmas my grandma would tell us kids that she saw a "brownie" meaning an elf. She would say there he was watching you so he can tell Santa if your good or not. Then she would say, oh, there is another one. She did that every year. Even to her great grandkids and great great grandkids!

When we left my grandma's house we packed up the car with our gifts. Knowing that we had to try and go to sleep, because Santa was coming in the morning was the hardest thing to do. I was all worked up from Christmas Eve.
The next day, our family would gather again and have a wonderful Christmas dinner.
Those were the best times of my childhood. Many of my wonderful aunts and uncles and my grandparents are gone now. We try to carry our tradition to our own children. Sad to say, that none are as good as those childhood Christmases were for me.