December 1: Favorite Holiday Memories
To kick off the 24 Days of SWAK, we are giving away a $25 gift card!
Simply comment to this post sharing your favorite holiday memory (Christmas, Hanukkah, whatever it is you celebrate this time of year). One lucky person will be chosen at random to win the gift card.
Hurry! You have until midnight tonight to submit your comment. We’ll announce the winner tomorrow.
We have a winner - congratulations Heather! You have won a $25 gift card to SWAK.
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December 1st, 2009 at 12:13 am
As a child my favorite part of the holiday season was going to the candle light service at our church on Christmas Eve. There was something about the way the windows and the sanctuary would light up that seemed truly magical to me. I am now continuing that tradition with my son.
December 1st, 2009 at 12:19 am
Wow, I’m not sure if I could choose a favorite holiday memory. I loved cramming into my great grandmother’s house (all 75+ of us in her tiny one bathroom house) for her wonderful cooking.
December 1st, 2009 at 1:08 am
Glad to see I wasn’t the only one to stay up after midnight just to see what the surprise is.
My favorite holiday memory is when I was approximately 7. It was Christmas Eve, and I pretended to be asleep so I could “catch” Santa Claus. I faked having to go to the bathroom so I could go downstairs and catch a glimpse of the tree on the way down. I caught Santa in the act. Needless to say, Mom fessed up to Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy that night. It still makes me smile because I thought I was so clever and that Mom wouldn’t find out that I went downstairs on Christmas Eve.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:26 am
My favorite holiday memory is the last family Christmas my family had together. There was much warm and fuzzy feeling going around and we all even pretended that “Santa” had come in the night.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:21 am
My favorite (among many) Christmas memory occurred the Christmas after my Daddy died in August. Mama decided that we would fly from Ohio to Texas to spend Christmas with cousins and Grandma and my aunt. Christmas was not going to be fun…I had recently asked Mama if Santa was real and she told me the truth. No Santa? No Daddy? Well that just sucked the Christmas spirit right out of me. Christmas morning I awakened as my mom got up. She told me to just stay in bed until my younger cousin got up to see what Santa had left him. I swore I stayed awake the whole time reading my book..but amazingly enough when my cousin came screaming into the room to awaken me…Santa had been there!! Right there on the top of my suitcase was a Jon Gagny art set and a Toni doll (gave away my age there) Since I hadn’t seen my mom put them there it just proved she was wrong. There WAS a Santa!! And although I know that I must have dozed off, I’m thankful for the idea that has stuck with me all these years. Sometimes when you need it most..Santa WILL come!
December 1st, 2009 at 9:32 am
My favorite is getting to spend the day with my best friend Amanda back in Arizona. My family didn’t celebrate Christmas so instead me and my sister would spend the night at my friends house and wake up to find presents. It was nice of her mother to give us something small and a stocking full of stuff! The best parts would be the banana pancake breakfast.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:22 am
My favorite holiday memory….was one Christma Eve…there were lots of presents under the tree for my 2 sisters and myself….and like eveyone else I knew, we would beg to open just one present…..and Mom finally gave in…..and the one present we happened to open were socks or underwear…so we begged to open another… and she finally gave in again……unbelievable!!! And then she did something unheard of…she let us open all of them about 8:00 that night we were so happy….it was great…….and then about 10:00 she said it was time for bed…and she was glad she let us open all of them that night….she would not have to get up early on Christmas…’cause we opened them all up…and then we realized what we had done….it soundd like fun….but now we had nothing to open on Christmas day…..so we went to bed happy and sad.
The next morning we got up and under the tree…was a bunch more presents!!!! It was great!! No we did not get a bunch of big toys…but lots of small stuff, socks, etc…… but it was a BIG SURPRISE!!! I have remembered it all these years.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:25 am
I have three - the first holiday celebration after each child was born.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:33 am
We used to get Gummi Christmas candy in the mail from our aunt in Germany ~ Goo-mee, that is. There were candy cherries that reminded my Mimi of her Christmas trees as a child. She told us they decorated with candy cherries and lit REAL candles on the tree. Cool and yikes, fire hazard. My grandmother also made us beautiful red velvet stockings with big, white velvet cuffs and our names beaded in cursive. Lavish and lovely for a little (big) girl to recall. All you grandmothers out there rock.
December 1st, 2009 at 10:59 am
My best grown-up memory was just last year–my first year of being in the church choir. For the Candlelight Carol Service, we entered the sanctuary singing “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence” and it was just a very moving, powerful experience for me.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:04 am
Some of my favorite holiday memories revolve around my grandparent’s house, their silvery tinsel tree, being in the kitchen with my grand mother, and gathering around the table for the meal (loved her homemade rolls).
December 1st, 2009 at 12:03 pm
One of my favorite memories has to be eating pizzelle’s at Aunt Wanda’s house!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:46 pm
My favorite holiday memory was the year that Mom bought her wrapping paper in the discount bin. She ended up with 10 rolls of Hanukkah paper…and we’re not Jewish! Everybody had presents that were wrapped in menorahs and dreidels and she didn’t even notice until she was passing them out!
December 1st, 2009 at 12:51 pm
Many wonderful memories come to mind: Celebrations with family and friends. Waking up on Christmas morning to the smell of my husband’s homemade cinnamon rolls. Singing in the choir at the Christmas Eve 11 PM Candlelight Service of Nine Lessons and Carols - starting with the processional of “Once in Royal David’s City” with the reflections of candles glimmering in the window panes - and so many beautiful scripture passages and wonderful music (including “Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”). Participating in the choir for the annual German Christmas Service here in the City. Singing as a member of Canterbury Choral Society for the traditional “Christmas with Canterbury” concerts and surrounding the audience singing familiar carols. My very favorite might be singing with Windsong Chamber Choir at St. Gregory’s Abbey in Shawnee and ending every Christmas concert with Franz Biebl’s glorious setting of “Ave Maria.”
December 1st, 2009 at 12:58 pm
My favorite Christmas was the year my college-aged sons took all of their textbook refund money to buy me complete new silver bags from One Silver Place to hold all the silver I had inherited from my grandparents. Since it was a place setting for 14 or 15, that was a lot of bags! It came in a year when we were still more than struggling financially, but the memory of their thoughtfulness and generosity still brings me to tears.
December 1st, 2009 at 3:02 pm
My favorite Christmas memory was when I was 4 years old - Dad, the dog, and I headed out into the back 40 with my sled to cut down a Christmas tree. Well, we went a bit further than Dad had hoped to find the tree, and he ended up having to pull the sled back with not just the tree on it, but also me and the dog. I remember parts of this, and he swears that I sang carols to him all the way home!
December 1st, 2009 at 5:15 pm
It has got to be getting a Christmas tree every year with my father. It was always HUGE or so I thought(as tall as my sister). The last year my mother was alive my father and I picked out the most beautiful tree and my mother and I decorated it. It was Thanksgiving Day weekend which was really early that many years ago and hard to find a tree. It made my mother smile a smile I will never forget.
December 1st, 2009 at 7:23 pm
Last Christmas my 21 year-old cousin admitted to me that his mom has to give him a time when he can wake her on Christmas day, because otherwise, he’ll be up at 4 am with the 5 year old, looking for presents.
December 1st, 2009 at 8:11 pm
I have 2 favorites actually.
When I was about 5 or 6, I received from Santa a big wooden rocking chair that I had been dreaming of as well as a pink HUffy bike with pink and white streamers coming off the handlebars! Not sure which I loved more at the time!
And my 2nd would have to be when my son was 2 1/2 years old. We got about a foot of snow on Christmas Eve. I was GORGEOUS! I had never seen that much snow in my life in Oklahoma! We had so much fun that day! My neice, who was 10 1/2 at the time, brought her tire tube and fourwheeler to my parents house. She slid down the hills or rode on the tube while her dad (my brother) pulled her behind and let my son ride with him on the four wheeler. It was so much fun to play in the snow and watch the kids laugh and throw snow balls! This is my favorite memory in my adult years by far!
December 1st, 2009 at 11:14 pm
My favorite memories are from when I was really little. We always spent Christmas Eve at my grandparents. We would go to church, and when we got back home we would start opening gifts. Every year until I was about 6, there would be a knock at the door, and there would be SANTA! He always had exactly what I asked for, and I would sit on his lap and open my gift! He would then go to the cookie table with me and eat the cookies I picked for him, always putting one in his pocket for later. I was the only grandchild, so I got him all to myself every year. Then, he always made a trip back when I was asleep to fill my stocking and would leave a note telling me how good the cookie in his pocket (always described in detail) was! It was the BEST, and I will always be grateful to my grandparents for making Christmas so magical.
December 1st, 2009 at 11:21 pm
The year my son was 3 we were at my folks and Bryan spotted his Christmas present (a tricycle) mhidden in the closet and said “I want a bike”! you had to be there but it was really cute.