Our Favourite Christmas Memories
To get into the spirit of the season, everyone here at Generator has a Christmas memory to share. We’ve put together our fondest memories for your Christmastime reading enjoyment. So light the fire, get yourself some cookies and cocoa, and experience Christmases long, long ago (well, not that long ago).
Christmas has to be my favourite time of the year. Overall, I love the change in mood it gives to the world and because I’m Catholic it has a special meaning to my faith. To me, people seem to be more giving, and thankful this time of year. I love hearing people say Merry Christmas to one another, I know it may not seem like a big deal but when people wish you Merry Christmas it’s a simple gesture of love and well wishes to others which we all need more of in the world.
The first Christmas that I remember was as a four year old whose family had recently immigrated to Canada. My father was setting up a tree in the living room which I thought was very strange. He decorated it with all these candies and candles. In the kitchen my mother was cooking up a storm and it wasn’t even Sunday. All day there was this strange anticipation and excitement which I didn’t understand. For some reason we were dressed in our Sunday best and my mother put this huge bow in my hair which was only done for very special occasions. The next thing I remember was being ushered into a bedroom with my brother and sister and told to stay there until summoned. And then it happened. We came into the living room. The tree was lit with the candles and there were presents under it. And then I saw it. There it was…the most beautiful tricycle in the whole wide world and it was mine. I will never forget that feeling of awe and joy as long as I live. There have been many great memories throughout the years but none to compare with that first magical Christmas.
I was about three or four when my sister and I got a Nintendo for Christmas. It came with the Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt game combo, a cool poster, a zapper gun, and loads of inspiration for the “kidult” I am today. It was the first Christmas I remember, and I can still recall the heat from the old Christmas tree lights in their blue, yellow, red, and green glows. I close my eyes and see my cat, Toto, inspecting boxes and shreds of tissue paper with a wild looks in his eyes (Christmas was HIS favourite, too). My Grandma made me a complete wardrobe set for my Barbies, set off to one side, while I open another present… it’s a Popple! And my sister opens a Gem and the Holograms doll, the one with blinking earrings. So 1980s. And colouring books and markers and crayons and a SKETCHBOOK. I was torn between playing Super Mario and drawing Super Mario. I spent the rest of the day proudly in a Christmas dress at a family gathering, pretending to be Super Mario, thinking about playing more video games when we got home. It was a very Nintendo Christmas!
I remember every Christmas I would never get any sleep because I would be waiting up to catch my parents putting the present under the tree through my key hole and once they went to sleep I would crack the door open to peak at the tree. For rest of the night I would be too excited to go back to sleep, so I would try to force myself to close my eyes and wait for my mom to “wake” me up with Christmas bells in the morning. Before I could get to the presents we would say a prayer of thanks and read the nativity story out of the bible. On this Christmas morning I got a dress made from my aunt and my favourite doll.
I have one particular Christmas memory that has been told and retold throughout the years by my parents. I was in elementary school, perhaps Grade 2. Old enough to have glasses and young enough to hate wearing them. I was continuously removing my glasses at any given chance – it wasn’t my fault! They just didn’t want to stay on. It was the last week of school before the Christmas Holidays. Every year our school would have a mystery lunch and our parents were encouraged to prepare special lunches and to wrap them in bright Christmas paper. I remember loving these lunches. In true fashion, I would set my glasses on my small under-sized desk and then proceed to tear through my presents. Wrapping paper would be piled high on my desk and tucked away neatly in the corner would be my the delicious spoils of battle. The excitement of unwrapping my lunch was close to that of Christmas Day, even though deep-down inside, I knew Lunch-Santa was only bringing me a warm apple, bologna sandwich and a peanut-free cookie.
Now, the details of the remainder of this day are quite blurry, so for all you Millennials with a bad case of TLDR syndrome reading this, I will just get to the point. Sometime between lunch and the end of the school day, I lost my glasses. My parents were so angry. Convinced that my glasses somehow got mixed within my mighty mountain of torn wrapping paper, my parents did what every parent would do. They went dumpster diving. It was dark, cold, and I can only imagine wet and quite smelly. One by one, they opened each bag of half-eaten food, chewed gum and every other imaginable substance that your child could produce during a day at school. Over an hour passed and despite all their sacrifice, they climbed out of that bin without my glasses. While they left empty handed, little did they know that they were filled with a story that would carry on for decades.
Like faithful tradition, every Christmas this story is told to anyone within earshot… as well as the one about my brother waking up at 5 am and opening up every gift under the tree. But I won’t get into that. TLDR, I know! Oh, and what happened to my glasses you might wonder? Well the very next spring, after the first snow thaw, they were found resting comfortably in the grass of the school yard. I guess my parents didn’t need to play in all that trash after all.
We’d love to hear your most memorable Christmas stories, so feel free to share them here with us. From all of us at Generator, have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
