Sweet Memories of Holidays Past

I have wonderful memories of Christmases.

Some came from when my husband and I celebrated our first one as a married couple in our first home. But, for me, many come from childhood.

I remember when I was in kindergarten, I had one of the most exciting Christmas days ever in my young life. One of the gifts I had asked Santa for was a blackboard. Back then, we loved playing "school." Although my friends and I didn't know that in a few years, we would instead be longing for summer to arrive as quickly as possible.

When I came running down the steps to the living room to see if Santa had come, I was thrilled to see that he had! He had eaten the cookies and drunk the milk I'd left for him, and the carrot was gone that I left for the reindeer.

There, in the middle of the room, was the most fantastic gift of all: my blackboard. Actually, it was one with a green background and was affixed to an easel.

The best part? Santa had written a note to me in chalk on it. I don't remember what it said exactly, but I know it said something about my having been good that year, and it was signed "Santa."

My mom had to convince me that he would think it was okay to erase it so that I could play with it.

Oh, and at that age, I didn't realize that the printing somehow looked exactly like my mom's handwriting.

We asked many folks about their favorite memories from their childhood holidays. Although we couldn't include them all, we'd like to thank everyone who shared their stories with us.

"My favorite memory is believing we saw Santa Claus coming home one Christmas Eve and rushed into bed since he was just down the street and we didn't want him to skip our house. In retrospect it was probably some drunk guy outside of a party but my parents played it perfectly!" – Angie Dobransky, Silver Spring, Maryland

"The year I told my parents that I was sure my dad put our presents under our tree — not Santa Claus. So, we went to midnight mass, and I sat next to my dad the whole time. We got home, and our presents were under our tree. It made me a Santa believer for another year.

Found out later that a friend of my parents put the presents out while we were at church." — Beverly Hurley, Raleigh, North Carolina

"I had three grandchildren who were all the same age. When they had barely turned three, we had everyone to our house and made arrangements for a friend to come by dressed as Santa to put the gifts out. Grandpa kept them upstairs, reading to them, until I snuck up and whispered loudly that 'Santa is here, but don't tell the kids!'

Of course, they had to sneak down the stairs and watch. Santa came over and talked to three little kids who didn't really know what to believe. He even picked one of them up. I have this precious memory all on DVD." — Bonnie Moore, Salt Lake City, Utah

"I remember watching the classroom clock on the last day of school before Christmas break, knowing my parents would have the station wagon packed, and we would start the eight-hour drive from Tennessee to my grandparents' house in Indiana! I loved the anticipation of the road trip, knowing my grandmother was just as excited, and would greet us with open arms, house decorated, and tins full of homemade cookies and candies!" — Ginger Claremohr, Indianapolis, Indiana

"My favorite is Christmas 2001, when my husband and I celebrated our first Christmas together as a married couple. We went to a tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree. He was under the tree sawing, and I was supposed to be holding on to the tree to keep it upright.

I sneezed, and I let the tree go…It fell on my husband, and all my daughters and I saw were boots and hands! (He was fine, though!)" — Cass Benkert, Chesterfield, Virginia

"We always had an artificial tree when I was growing up. It was always so much fun looking for the bunches of branches and sorting them into the proper rows.

One year, I guess I was about ten or eleven, the tree was not holding together in the center, where the two halves of the tree connected. My Grandma always had a solution to fix whatever was wrong. For this, she decided that we (herself, my mom, and myself) would chew gum and use it to hold the two halves together.

She used that and duct tape, and it worked. That tree lasted many years afterward." — Sharon O'Brien, Freehold, New Jersey

"We always put together our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve but only put on the colored lights. Then I went to bed and was allowed to sleep with a plush snowman.

When my parents woke me, I had to sit on the top step until they said it was okay to come down. I was in complete awe, as the sunlight flooded through our stained-glass windows, and the tree was fully decorated by Santa when he left our presents. My poor parents were so sleep-deprived for these magical moments.

After presents and breakfast, we went to my great uncle's house and feasted on my great aunt's food. The kids' table — there were 4 of us — split one chocolate cream pie with 2-3 tablespoons of Cool Whip on each piece!" — Connie O'Malley, Baltimore, Maryland

"I loved how our Christmas mornings in Maine usually were. We went to Christmas service at midnight (ish) the night before, so there was never a rush to be up early. I was usually the last to rise, but everything was low key. A breakfast casserole was in the oven, a fire in the fireplace, coffee in mugs — something I didn't appreciate until I was older — and we took our time opening gifts and enjoying the day.

We'd start with the stockings and then work our way to the gifts under the tree. Someone always helped get all the gifts out and put them in each person's pile before anyone opened any gifts.

When we were older, there were several occasions we had Christmas dinner (mid- to late afternoon), and we all were still in our pajamas or comfy clothes. The entire day was a slow-paced, relaxing time with no urgency to do anything or be anywhere. I'm glad to say most of that still exists in my home, though 2020 was the only year we had no place to go all day (and loved it)." — Dave McHugh, Cockeysville, Maryland

"Chinese food is the traditional dining-out choice for Jewish families on Christmas, so much so that you'd be very likely to see other people you knew while out for dinner on Christmas Day.

My parents' temple decided to capitalize on this back when I was growing up in Rhode Island, and would rent out an entire Chinese buffet, making it an event for their members. I loved the idea, turning 'this is the only thing that's open' into a convivial celebration.

A few years after moving to North Adams, I decided to start my own more inclusive event, and thus announced the first Heathen Hullabaloo, where I invited all my friends who didn't celebrate Christmas (and even a few who did but had no plans) to join me for a non-denominational gathering at the local Chinese buffet.

(I didn't try to rent it out, because I didn't want to displace random people looking forward to their own Chinese buffet Christmas.)

The event was a great success, and so I went on to host it for a dozen more years until the pandemic removed my enthusiasm for buffets." — Seth Brown, North Adams, Massachusetts

"The smell of latkes frying and playing dreidel with my parents. As immigrants, it was very rare for them to play games with their children." –Helen Wolkowicz, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

"Every year, Mom and Dad would have us come in one by one into the living room where the tree and all the gifts would be. Every year they would blind us with the giant floodlight from the camera that was used just for such an occasion.One year, when we were high school and older, we lined up, but came in wearing sunglasses.

Dad cracked up and as a bonus, stopped using the blind-you-for-twenty-minutes flash to film our entrances on December 25th." — Sherry Antonetti, Gaithersburg, Maryland

"We would go to midnight mass when I was younger and get to open one gift before we went to bed.

We make pierogis for our meatless Christmas Eve called 'Wigilia.' Also, on Christmas Eve we share the church wafer. Everyone gets a piece of it and walks around the room while others take a piece of yours, and you wish each other well. The tradition is called 'Oplatki.'" — Justine Janora, Cheektowaga, New York

"My older sister, Terrie, always wanted to open our gifts or at least shake them. She was impatient and wanted to know what we were getting. I was fine with waiting.

But I remember one Christmas, when she brought a gift into my room, opened it, and discovered a gum ball machine! I was so scared our parents would wake up, and we would get in trouble.

It came with a box of gumballs, and I remember each one sounding like an explosion when she dropped them into the machine. I can't believe we didn't get caught!" — Kathie Brooks Ruth, Seven Valley, Pennsylvania

Michele Wojciechowski Michele "Wojo" Wojciechowski is an award-winning writer who lives in Baltimore, Md. She's the author of the humor book Next Time I Move, They'll Carry Me Out in a Box. Reach her at www.WojosWorld.com. Read More