Christmas Memories

2006-10-11 Posted at 11:09:32 PM

Christmas is fast approaching.  Soon the stores will be filled with Christmas decorations and Christmas music and television commercials will be showing children all the new items that they “want” for Christmas this year.  As soon as those Thanksgiving and Hallowe’en decorations are gone………up go the Christmas ones……..sometimes even before they are gone

Do you think that Christmas has become way too commercialized!   Do you want to get back to the simpler life?

When I thought about the Christmases of my childhood, I remembered Christmas Eve services at the church and then coming back to the house to celebrate Jesus’ birthday along with the neighbours.  We had a cake and the children enacted the Christmas story as the adults read it and we all sang Christmas carols.  What a fun time.  And it didn’t cost a lot of money.

My children are now grown and away from home, but with 4 children, Christmas could be very expensive.  We used to try to buy one big present for the family and a smaller present for each individual, plus, of course the Christmas stocking.

The Christmas stocking is the part that stands out most for me from my childhood.  There were always oranges, hard candies, and small wrapped gifts.  You knew that there would be certain things that only “Santa” could have brought because those things were never in the house all the time.  The stockings were so special.  My children had special “toe” stockings made by their grandmother.  Each child had their own with their name on it.

There are two particular Christmas presents that stand out in my mind from my childhood.  One was doll clothes that were hand made by my mother in secret and one was a tape recorder that my dad gave me and addressed to his “Pineapple Princess”.   That was the year I was in Grade 8.

I remember two particular presents that I gave to my two boys as well.  One was a small model of the starship Enterprise which was the one thing that my oldest child played with the most.  It cost less than $5.00, but it was important to him.  The other one was a duvet cover that I made for my youngest son.  It was a Canadian flag.  His reaction was priceless…. “Mom, how did you do this without me knowng?  How could you sew this without me seeing it or seeing any of the material?  When did you do this?”  He wrote an essay at school and said that his most favourite thing was his duvet cover.

I made sweaters recently for my two daughters, one of whom is living in at the moment.  They were the same sweater in different colours.

I got thinking about how Christmas was in the early 19^th and 20^th century and I decided that I would create a gift for my family members and my extended family members.  I found some old Christmas Carols and other booklets as well as some public domain materials, some short stories, some craft ideas, some recipes and some resources.

For a sample of what you will get in my Christmas Memories gift package, send me an email.  You will also receive a free copy of my Christmas Memories book as soon as it is available.   (just email me.)

Fran Watson

P.S.  The book is already over 140 pages and I'm not finished yet!!! 

P.P.S. Please feel free to pass this information on to your friends and neighbours.

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