Christmas..

[Teresa Heilevang]

This month I would like everyone ( if you want to) to post things you get about Christmas..
If you have a thought about Christmas.. a memory.. a funny.. a song..or just something someone sends to you that makes you feel good and might make someone else feel good that pertains to Christmas.. This is the place to put it..
I wish everyone good health, happiness, laughter and love this season.

[Teresa Heilevang]

I remember my first Christmas adventure with Grandma. I was just a kid.
I remember tearing across town on my bike to visit her on the day my big sister dropped the bomb: "There is no Santa Claus," she jeered. "Even dummies know that!"
My Grandma was not the gushy kind, never had been. I fled to her that day because I knew she would be straight with me. I knew Grandma always told the truth, and I knew that the truth always went down a whole lot easier when swallowed with one of her "world-famous" cinnamon buns. I knew they were world-famous, because Grandma said so. It had to be true.

Grandma was home, and the buns were still warm. Between bites, I told her everything. She was ready for me. "No Santa Claus?" she snorted...."Ridiculous! Don't believe it. That rumor has been going around for years, and it makes me mad, plain mad!! Now, put on your coat, and let's go."

"Go? Go where, Grandma?" I asked. I hadn't even finished my second world-famous cinnamon bun. "Where" turned out to be Kerby's General Store, the one store in town that had a little bit of just about everything. As we walked through its doors, Grandma handed me ten dollars. That was a bundle in those days. "Take this money," she said, "and buy something for someone who needs it. I'll wait for you in the car." Then she turned and walked out of Kerby's.

I was only eight years old. I'd often gone shopping with my mother, but never had I shopped for anything all by myself. The store seemed big and crowded, full of people scrambling to finish their Christmas shopping.

For a few moments I just stood there, confused, clutching that ten-dollar bill, wondering what to buy, and who on earth to buy it for.

I thought of everybody I knew: my family, my friends, my neighbors, the kids at school, the people who went to my church.

I was just about thought out, when I suddenly thought of Bobby Decker. He was a kid with bad breath and messy hair, and he sat right behind me in Mrs. Pollock's grade-two class. Bobby Decker didn't have a coat. I knew that because he never went out to recess during the winter. His mother always wrote a note, telling the teacher that he had a cough, but all we kids knew that Bobby Decker didn't have a cough; he didn't have a good coat. I fingered the ten-dollar bill with growing excitement. I would buy Bobby Decker a coat!
I settled on a red corduroy one that had a hood to it. It looked real warm, and he would like that.
"Is this a Christmas present for someone?" the lady behind the counter asked kindly, as I laid my ten dollars down. "Yes, ma'am," I replied shyly. "It's for Bobby."

The nice lady smiled at me, as I told her about how Bobby really needed a good winter coat. I didn't get any change, but she put the coat in a bag, smiled again, and wished me a Merry Christmas.

That evening, Grandma helped me wrap the coat (a little tag fell out of the coat, and Grandma tucked it in her Bible) in Christmas paper and ribbons and wrote, "To Bobby, From Santa Claus" on it.
Grandma said that Santa always insisted on secrecy. Then she drove me over to Bobby Decker's house, explaining as we went that I was now and forever officially, one of Santa's helpers.
Grandma parked down the street from Bobby's house, and she and I crept noiselessly and hid in the bushes by his front walk. Then Grandma gave me a nudge. "All right, Santa Claus," she whispered, "get going."

I took a deep breath, dashed for his front door, threw the present down on his step, pounded his door and flew back to the safety of the bushes and Grandma.

Together we waited breathlessly in the darkness for the front door to open. Finally it did, and there stood Bobby.

Fifty years haven't dimmed the thrill of those moments spent shivering, beside my Grandma, in Bobby Decker's bushes. That night, I realized that those awful rumors about Santa Claus were just what Grandma said they were -- ridiculous. Santa was alive and well, and we were on his team.

I still have the Bible, with the coat tag tucked inside: $19.95.

And may you always believe in the magic of Santa Claus!

[Dakotaranger]

Dang allergies

[PegLeg45]

A quick funny:

The new DRTV Trees ......totally represents this 'warped' bunch..........        
(saw them at Sam's the other day)

[twyacht]

Growing up in Miami in the early 70's, Village Pines Elementary would have a " Christmas Snow Day",...A couple of large ice trucks, with some form of "blowers/grinders",...would coat as much of the front yard of the school with 3 to 5 inches of slushy icy (to us, it was snow)...to have a "White Christmas"....

We would dress up in the only "Winter Clothes" we had,...a sweater or two, an ugly knit cap, mittens, and an old hand me down coat,...and play in that "snow" until it was gone.... It was a S. Florida Christmas, in a different time. As a "kid",...it was a memorable time. Now liability and possible lawsuits have ended all that.

Decades later, I took my Mother's ashes to the Gulf Stream with my younger sister Christina, 48 miles off the coast of Wilmington, NC, just NE of Frying Pan Shoals on Christmas Morning 2005. I borrowed my neighbors 36' Bertram for the trip. It was a priceless sunrise, and fulfilled her wishes and brought me closer to God, and my Sister.

Moments like this will always be with me until I leave this Earth. Moments in this thread, are all worthy of sharing.

Thank you Marshal'ette for the chance to express them.

Merry Christmas DRTV!

Tom W.

[Sponsor]

[robheath]

I remember one year, my two brothers and myself saved all our allowance and birthday money all year to buy my dad a new shotgun.  My dad told me he was getting my older brother a shotgun.  He told my older brother tha I was getting a shotgun and he told us both that he was getting my younger brother his first .410. It was a crazy year everybody got new shotguns. The secrets were kept all around.  We refer to it as the James bond/I spy Christmas.  I miss my Pop he died Dec. 6 1999.  Today is 12 years hes been gone and I think about him every day.  If you still have your dad, spend as much time with him as you can.  I would give anything just to sit and talk to him again.

[PegLeg45]

I had a big family (I had 9 living grand and great gran parents in all) when I was a kid, with many fond holiday memories.

One recurring tradition on my mother's side was for my great-grandmother to rent the American Legion hall just down the street from her house. It was the only way we could all get together under one roof. I remember they had one of the big de-milled guns from WWII out front and my cousin and I would play all over the thing. As we got older, my cousin went through some troubling times....but eventually got on track and enlisted in the USMC. Just a few weeks before he was to embark to Paris Island, he was over at a friend's house and as his friend was showing him his dad's new .357 magnum, my cousin was shot in the chest and killed by his friend with the "unloaded" gun.

Up until the big gun was removed from the Legion grounds, every time I passed it by, I remembered all the Christmas Days spent there playing 'Army' with my cousin.


I think my all-time favorite Christmas morning was the year I got a Silver Streak electric train set. First year they came out and I was 10. I was always fascinated by trains, and wanted a 'real' electric train set. Heck, I wish I had one now, and if it weren't for the gun 'hobby,' I'd probably have a room full of the things set up.



Merry Christmas all.

[ellis4538]

Guess I'm lucky because all Christmases were/are special to me and none really sticks out.  I always got something I wanted and as usual needed too.  Even though Dad bought the tree, sometimes waiting until the last minute, the house wasn't decorated (complete w/fake fireplace) until Christmas eve.  We All went to bed and Santa decorated while we were sleeping and we never heard a thing!  It was always amazing to us how he was able to get so much done in such a short time and eat cookies and drink milk too!  We would always take movies showing Mom showing off our gifts as she handed them to us to put away after NY and one of the gifts we were given when we got older was a tape of all those Cristmas memories.  Mom and Dad are gone now and our family isn't close but the "WarmFuzzy" memories still persist.

Thanks and God Bless M

Richard 

[Ping]

Merry Christmas y'all.

I remember in the early 1970's that my Grandfather/Grandmother bought me the Adam 12 action figure with the squad car. Loved that show when I was a kid. The later years they bought me the SWAT Figures, SWAT Van, Starsky and Hutch Figures. Grandpa always bought me the cool stuff.

[Timothy]

Christmas of '63, I would have been about 6, my brother about 8 and we shared the gift of a Mighty Mo cannon that shot a hard plastic cannon ball some distance.  It was definitely an outdoor toy if there ever was one.

Well, Pat and I set up fort in the LR and aimed the cannon down the hall to the dining room waiting for the enemy.  My sister came out of the kitchen carrying a glass milk bottle (remember those?) in her hand and we had our target.  

With a bit of adjustment and some ranging estimates, we let fly the howitzer and blew that bottle clear out of her hand, sending broken glass everywhere!

Needless to say, Pop wasn't happy and our Mighty Mo cannon was sentenced to the rubbish pile for the next weeks refuse pick up!  Our punishment was much more severe!