Monday 10 December 2007

Traditions and Memories #1




What is your most treasured Christmas memory?


I am having trouble just deciding on one. I have so many memories around the Christmas time from my childhood through to the present day that it is hard for me to choose just one. I guess that what sticks out the most for me is the time that was spent with family. I am one of FOUR girls and my Maternal Grandmother also lived with us from when I was about 6 months old so there was always alot of us on Christmas Morning. We were not allowed to go downstairs until every last one of us was up, this meant waiting for my Gran to wash, get dressed and apply her face before we could go downstairs. Dad would always go down first to check if Santa had paid us a visit during the night and then we were allowed to go down and open our stockings. Santa was always generous to all of us and there was always the traditional Orange and Raisins in the bottom of the stockings. Next we would open presents from under the tree, there always seemed to be so many of them and they would be handed out ONE at a time and we would always sit and watch that person open their gift before another would be passed out. This was a nice way t open them but if your gifts had somehow been pushed to the back or the bottom of the pile it seemed to take an age before you would get one. LOL...


Christmas mornig in my own house is very similar, stocking are hung downstairs and the children dont come down until we are up and ready. Andrew will "check" to make sure that Santa has been and we go down to open presents. I am trying to change afew things this year as last year my poor Daughter was so overwhelmed that she didnt seem to know what to do with her presents and was sat with a glazed expression on her face. It is not that we go overboard with buying them things but I think that the day can get a little overwhelming for little ones. Dont you think?
The picture by the way is the view from the front door of the house that we lived in when we were first married. Tiny tiny house but lots of wonderful memories.

2 comments:

Barbara said...

Hi Sarah - yes I agree it can be overwhelming for little ones at Christmas. We always used to go away for Christmas when E was little so got in the habit of letting her open some presents the night before we went. Now we stay at home but always allow her to open a couple of gifts on Christmas eve. Maybe a game we can all play for example. As it's very much a family evening here it works for us.

Little House By The Sea said...

Hi Barbara, Hubby and I always opened a gift from eachother on Christmas Eve but since the children came along we stopped for some reason. I was thinking of getting the children some PJ's and getting them to open them on Christmas Eve but I really like your idea of getting them to open a game we can play. I will have to work on this I think.
Sarah x