Your Childhood Christmas Time memories

[rusty pins]

Some topics here got me thinking about my Christmas memories when I was a child.  I'm not talking strictly diaper memories but if that is part of it, go ahead.  My memories were in the very early 1960's.  I remember going with my Mom to the Sears store when they had a big train layout at Christmas time and buying a car for my brother.  I remember the old style plastic decorations of wreaths, Christmas trees, candy canes and snowmen on the downtown lamp posts.  We ran a train around our tree with old cardboard houses from the 1940's and 1950's.  My mom taped on flat cardboard reindeer on the corneses above the curtains and cardboard Santa's and snowmen on the front windows.  We had our Manger scene on the top of the old black and white console TV and Garfield Goose (Chicago area children's TV show) played Suzy Snowflake and Hardrock Cocoa and Joe.  Back then there was no internet, Amazon or on-line shopping.  You either went store to store or you ordered from the 1000 page Sears, J.C.Penny or Speigal catalogs.  In fact, those heavy Christmas catalogs sent to your house by mail every season was what kids looked forwards to. 

We had a huge pine tree in our back yard that my dad would trim with lights every year.  He actually climbed the branches inside to get to the top and he always made sure to put the blinking green light at the top.  We lived in a small 2 story house and I would lay in bed at night (thickly diapered in cloth and plastic pants as I wet the bed until almost 6) and look out the window at the lit up tree and the blinking green light at the top.   Each year we would drive to a tree lot, go down the rows or freshly cut pine trees and pick out a nice one.  My dad hauled it home in the trunk of the 1955 Pontiac and it stood out in the snow to keep it fresh until the day we put it up.   Back then our inside tree was lit with C7 bulbs as the miniature bulbs were still new back then.  These were not LED bulbs either!  In fact, at one point in the 1960's there were big round colored bulbs that had plastic crystals glued on them and some had Styrofoam so they resembled colored snow and ice balls.  We still have a few of the old ornaments that we put on the tree, some my parents had in the late 1940's.  No CD's or MP3 players back then. We listened to Bing Crosby, Perry Como and many others on the record player. 

Then there is the memory of my mom cooking for all the relatives that would come over Christmas morning and all the home made cookies and coffee cakes.  Later in the afternoon we would go to my grandmother's house and all the relatives from my dad's family would be there.  My grandmother was an old German woman who immigrated in the late 1890's to America.  She made the best home made noodles, chicken soup and fried chicken, often killing the chickens herself.  Her cherry and apple strudel was absolutely the best and I've never found anyone who can make it like that in the past 50 years. 

 We have home movies from around the late 1950's through the 1960's that help keep those memories alive.  It seems now days people do their shopping on-line, buy gift cards, everything is I-phone, I-pad or electronics and video games.  People work tremendous hours and I can see the comvienience.  What kid these days wants a coloring book, Monopoly game or a skateboard (not hover board but old time skateboard)?  Sure people may crowd the local WalMart and Best Buy stores on Black Friday (excuse me, Black Thanksgiving day now) for super bargains, but how many actually go out to individual stores taking in the music, decorations and general holiday spirit anymore?  Especially the young people who were not brought up with the old memories and ways of doing things.

If you are so inclined, post some of your holiday memories from when you were a kid.  What was it like for you back then?  Shopping with your parents, putting up the tree, decorations you put up, gifts you gave or got, family get togethers, music.  I'd love to hear childhood memories from any of you, older and younger members both and I think it will be interesting to see just how much has changed over the last 50 years or more.

[beallucanb]

The old man was a drunk, he worked and made money but every Christmas was the same.

A mess.

[Gejoe]

My memories are similar to yours, but mine was in the fifties and early sixties. I wore out the toy section of those catalogs at xmas. Then when I was about 11 or 12 I started wearing out the baby and medical section of those same catalogs. I ended up ordering my first real diapers and vinyl pants from a Wards catalog when I was 16. Had some ever since. 

[Pampertimmy]

My favorite memory of Christmas was opening a present to find the Fisher Price Castle. I played with that into my teens. It's still at my Mom and Dad's house with most of the pieces with it. Maybe it's time it came back to me this Christmas. I wonder if my mom would wrap it for me again? Ha!

[diaperedandspanked]

10 hours ago, beallucanb said:

The old man was a drunk, he worked and made money but every Christmas was the same.

A mess.

Sounds familiar, alcohol, arguing and a not so merry Christmas.

[Les Lea]

I remember one Christmas Eve I'd gone to bed but was just too excited to sleep. I was 5 Years old my bedroom was small and at the rear of the house overlooking the back garden and it was a wonderfully clear night.

I could see the stars twinkling but I was just too excited and wriggled around in my nappy and plastic pants (I too was a bedwetter until much later) but just couldn't get to sleep.

I remembered mummy and daddy saying that if I didn't go to sleep then Santa wouldn't come because I was being a naughty little boy so I was desperate to fall asleep.

And then I saw Santa.

Well, perhaps not Santa but his sleigh because high up in the clear night sky I could see a twinkling red light, which I knew meant Santa was on his way... and horror of horrors I wasn't sleep.

So I scrunched my eyes tightly shut and suddenly felt my nappy fill as I wet myself... the warmth relaxing me under the heavy winter blankets and that was the last thing I remember until morning.

Thankfully, when I toddled downstairs at 6am my ruse must have worked because I had tons of pressies to open. Which I did sat in a wet and saggy nappy but I couldn't have been happier at that moment.

It wasn't until I was much older that my brother told me that the flashing light was a passing plane... up until he told me I still thought I'd seen Santa's Sleigh.

[oliver d]

Most of my memories about Christmas start from the age of about 5 yrs old upwards.My dad always worked on Xmas eve but in reality he would be father Christmas who came to give us  our presents ,we were always dressed up in our fineist cloths and we used to wait for that knock on the windows and then the knock on the front door  and in would come father Xmas and give us our presents and most years there where a lot of them.This tradition  carried on until I was about 10yrs old and my sister 7yrs old.After wards as we got older we used to go on long holidays as in South Africa its summertime in December,always to some where else in the country.Some of my best memories are of these holidays as a family fishing exploring new places meeting new people being on the beech.The smells of my mothers Xmas cooking and baking will always stay in my nose ,the cakes that she used to back about 2 months before Xmas because the had to mature until the fourth sunday before Xmas when the first one was cut.The Xmas calander with little windows on it witch we opened each day until the 24th of December, behind each window there was a small piece of chocolate.The christmas music playing in the background on the turntable or on my dads 8 track.The atmosphere in the house the smells of the insence coming out of the smoking father Xmas figure all the decorations that my parents have had since the got married.The going shopping and feeling that Xmas feeilng that today is mostly lost because everthing has become so commercilized and cold.

[Nyte Kitsune]

My fondest memories of Christmas, my grandmother yelling "Susan (my mother) get out of the kitchen! Dinner will be ready soon!" Christmas at grandma's was always the best, I watched that house grow, but last year she decided to finally sell it (She's 90) and "Retire", she's earned it. She had 5 Kids (My 3 uncles, aunt and mother), then all us grandkids (7 total) and 3 Great grandkids (2 From my sister, one from my cousin). She's been a busy grandma, plus all her sisters and brothers that visited, sadly she's the last of her family. 

 

As for specific memories.. had to be about 1976-1977, I had gotten a train set for Christmas, Yay!  I loved trains, wasn't a small one either.. We hooked it up in the living room.. and after about 30 minutes, my Uncle stepped on it, *sigh*. Sadly, there was no saving the train and a number of track pieces were ruined, he made up for it a year or 2 later by getting me a slot car track, which lasted me years until it and the cars wore out.

[redneck diaper boy]

Back in the 50's Christmas was pretty modest. I was curious about the television in the corner that I saw in the photo. I saw that same TV in a photo dated 1951. Since I am a TV buff, I looked up the cost of that TV. It sold for $149. I could only think what that would be in today's dollars.

[rusty pins]

Funny but it was probably a 12 inch TV back in the early 1950's.  That was a lot of money back them and if you think of it, 65 years later you can get a 32 inch flat screen high definition TV for less that $149, especially on Black Friday when all the deals are out there. I well remember Christmas time watching Garfield Goose on the old black and white TV from the mid 1950's waiting for Hardrock Coco and Joe to come on.  Probably early mornings in the livingroom still in my heavy wet night diapers and plastic pants at 5 years old.

[barnburner]

One Christmas, Grandma came to visit, she took my room, my sister took the living room couch and I took her bed, it was a bunk bed type bed, the kind with a dresser and desk under the bed, I was strictly told not to leave the bedroom that night I guess so the family can prepare the presents for under the tree that Xmas Eve night. Got very sick and threw up on my sisters bed since it took too much effort to try and get out of her bed.

 

Good times...

[AbabeBill]

I remember waking up 5:30, 6ish, and running to my older sisters room all excited, to tell her, it’s time to open the presents! She would turn over,  and tell me gruffly, it’s to early and to go back to bed. Dejected, I would go back to my bed. Fifteen minutes later, my sister would come wake me up, and say, let’s go open our presents! I thought, good idea, why hadn’t I thought of it? Hmmm? But, first we’d grab our stockings, which hung in our kitchen, on the ironing board door. Mostly our stocking held goodies like, gum, chocolate, small toys/games, socks, underwear (yeah underwear), toothpaste (yeah toothpaste), and for me Matchbox or Hot wheels cars. After the stockings, we’d head into the living room, where the real booty was laying under the tree. We did pretty good most years, didn’t get everything you wanted, or asked for, but sometimes Mom, I mean Santa hit on the head. Over the years, I would have gotten racing sets, train sets, Lagos, board games, shooting gallery, model kits, trucks, Hess gasoline collectors toys, lots of Matchbox cars, Hot wheels tracks, robots. Always seemed to work out every year, I would get something broken, or something that wouldn’t  work right. Or, batteries would be forgotten, Arrr! Then you’d have to wait till the stores would open back up, for a return, or to get the forgotten batteries. 

As I said, we did ok. But, nothing could compair to when I got to my cousins house later in the day for Christmas dinner, and family get together. We were the same age, me and my cousin, so we looked forward to the same things. But, you name it, he got it! I was kinda jealous, who wouldn’t be? Every cool new toy that was out, he had it. His dad would tell him, not to let anyone play with his new toys! I guess my uncle thought, they’d get broken. But, my cousin was pretty cool with me, and let me play with them anyway. 

Some pretty good memories, all and all. Thanks to Mom, Dad, and Santa. 

[rusty pins]

On ‎12‎/‎15‎/‎2017 at 8:04 PM, AbabeBill said:

We’d grab our stockings, which hung in our kitchen, on the ironing board door. Mostly our stocking held goodies like, gum, chocolate, small toys/games, socks, underwear (yeah underwear)

You'd need one of these now to hold your "underwear".  http://lospibil.com/giant-christmas-stocking  Diapers take up a lot of space in a Christmas stocking! 

[AbabeBill]

4 hours ago, rusty pins said:

You'd need one of these now to hold your "underwear".  http://lospibil.com/giant-christmas-stocking  Diapers take up a lot of space in a Christmas stocking! 

The link isn’t working, but I think I get the jest of your post. Adult sized diapers, and regular sized Christmas stockings don’t work together well. Lol

[rusty pins]

I tried the link.  It works but it takes a minute or so for the picture to show.

[AlluneedisLuvs]

My favorite Christmas memories were when  my family  would do xmas at my aunts house (usually three families total) We'd have Christmas Eve dinner and all the kids would play in the basement all ramped up on cookies. My aunt/uncle had three daughters the youngest was was around my age so we'd always play  together some variation of thundercats meets she-ra meets Barbie meets GI joe and run around causing childish chaos till someone threatened to spank us or take away Christinas which was usually my mom or aunt. Since my moms younger sister came with her son (baby at the time) and her daughter that was around the middle daughters age the youngest would room with me and the baby and the two middle daughter shared a room while the oldest had her own.  Since I was a bedwetter people figured the sharing room with baby was best since I would sometimes have to get my pull-ups changed along with the baby.  On Christmas morning me and the youngest daughter would wake up and go rush to the tree and just stare at the presents  till one of the adults came by. If I had wet that night I would usually go to the the oldest daughter to ask to get me changed. She'd  change me and the baby then go make us a bowl of cereal and watch tv with us till everyone was up. Wed have a big pancake breakfast open presents and the it was Cartoons and video games for a week straight!