I'm a collector of stories.

Especially ones of the human experience.

With Christmas just around the corner, I thought
it would be interesting, and fun, for us to share
some of our experiences of a really memorable
Christmas. It could be a childhood Christmas,
a war time Christmas, or whatever you wish to
relate. But, it must be a time that meant a great
deal to you...

I'll go first.

I remember as a child I loved to go shopping
with my mum, not only because we ate a special
lunch, but what I loved the most was visiting
the pet shop in the shopping centre. I loved
looking at all the pets.

I used to beg my mum to buy me a pet, but the
answer was always the same.

"You can't have one until you're grown up enough
to look after it. You're still too young, wait a
few more years."

So I waited, and waited. I didn't care what kind of
a pet I had, as long as it belonged to me.

Finally, one Christmas morning I found a great big
box under the tree.

My hands started to shake with excitement as I opened
the box. There inside, looking at me very quietly,
were two big brown eyes, belonging to a black puppy,
with a white patch over his right eye.

"For me?" I gulped and turned to look at my parents.

"Yes, he belongs to you," said my mum.

"I think I'll call him Patch," I said looking at
my mum.

"You're a lucky little girl," said dad, giving me
a hug.

I knew I was, as Patch jumped up and licked my face.

Christmas story's? I have one Foxy.
Last election day as I set up my stall very early a gentle wonderful couple set up the sitting members one next to me.
A Liberal and still the sitting member he held on by his teeth.
The man spoke my name, it turned out we had last seen one another 30 years ago.
I had as a last resort entered his paper shop on Christmas eve trying to cash my pay check.
Trying to provide Christmas for 5 kids and my mum after a rough year.
The one that saw me go from employer to employee.
He cashed it!
What a rush, not my first but I had to run to get Christmas in the boot of my car.
I again told the couple how much it meant to me and my family.
We spoke with mutual respect and played verbal tennis in a good natured way about the result.
Both thought we had it in the bag.
Foxy the story speaks about us Aussies too, we rarely hate one another as a result of our differences
Oh I gave that lady my chair she gave me her home cooked cake
Would not be dead for quids would you?
Merry Christmas to EVERY one.

Time upon a once days a many ago. I was all alone (ALL together “’awwww”) so I pulled a double on the crisis service 8 hr phone 6 (joke) trouble team. They have a truism a in the service that says “if any dramatic events or severe weather then we’ll get no sleep.

10 am start and the phones started slowly. Just he odd “you’re a saint” call and “Oh god the rellies are coming for lunch what will I give them, they hate me anyway” and the very odd regular who told us about “the many women he’d bed since breakfast “when he gets excited you tell him to call his Dr then ring the contact through.

Later in the am was the “pissed off kids time” like those who got undies instead of the latest toy and “Why can’t they go to their mates instead of the boring family celebrations”

After 12 the real work began it was ‘Eleanor Rigby’ time all those poor soles who had no one to tell us their sad stories others were heart breaking. Busy busy.

One had to be careful because the caller might come around to share Christmas spirit with you. They (M&F) were often drunk but some women would arrive in BMWs, mercs and jags, dressed for entertaining. Great but a NO NO for good reason. One pair met outside and consummated their meeting in full view of our security cameras.
One caller cooked and delivered a Christmas dinner complete with a nice Chardonnay. We weren’t permitted to accept gifts so it was sent down to the homeless dinner down stairs. The management were puzzled why someone would donate a legless chicken and partly eaten cake with brandy cream sauce scraped off. Despite the inevitable calls about family fights and disintegration the shift wasn’t so bad.
Dutch Doris and I spent most of the night on site trying to stop other’s Family Christmases turning too disastrous. At 5am we discovered the remainder of the wine in the fridge (fancy) wrote our reports then went to our respective homes, exhausted.

Hi Foxy,
what a lovely surprise to find a thread like this. And some wonderful stories already!
The most memorable Christmas story in my house would be this one:

Noises coming from the living room woke me up at around 5am on Christmas morning.
Ignoring it at first because I thought that my cat probably had one of these flying sprint urges that cats sometimes have, I half-dozed off again.

More noises, and my brain started waking up. Dragging myself out of bed, I tiptoed to the living room.

In front of the Christmas tree, where I had, the night before, arranged the oh-so-prettily wrapped presents for all the family, sat my son, barely two.

Not a possessed cat but a hurricane, embodied in a little boy, had ravaged the room.
Sitting amongst mountains of Christmas wrappings, he had been dismantling -and still eating- the ruins of the gingerbread house, which I had slaved over the previous night when the kids were sound asleep.
The crackers had been cracked, and he presents, all unwrapped, lay scattered throughout the room.

How my husband and I managed to re-wrap the whole lot again before my 4 year-old daughter woke up, while trying to explain to my son that 'families unwrap presents together' I don't recall.
My daughter didn't seem to mind that Santa's elves did a sloppy job this Christmas, and that the ginger-bread house looked like an edible jigsaw.

Thanks Everyone for your contributions so far.

Each one is so different and interesting.

The feast of Christmas at our house is always
preceded by four weeks of Advent, a period of
"fasting and contemplation."

"Kucios," Christmas Eve, is the last day of fasting,
followed by sumptuous feasting.

No less than 12 dishes must be served at this special
Christmas Eve meal, beginning with the recitation of
Grace and the breaking of a special unleavened wafer,
called "Plotkele." This wafer, blessed by the parish
priest, is shared by all at the table, signifying a
spirit of unity.

Christmas Eve was always special. This particular year,
my step-father had suffered a stroke six months prior,
and was partially paralysed down his right-side. He
had lost the power of speech. When it came his turn to
share the wafer with me, he very slowly and clearly
uttered the words, "M-M-M-ME-R-R-Y C-C-CH-R-R-I-S-T-M-A-S!"

Mum started to cry, I joined her.

It was the best present any of us could have received.

What lovely stories!!

I can still remember when I was a child I was always so excited about Christmas. We always put milk and cookies on the table for Santa and one Christmas eve after I went to bed I quietly sneaked down to the Christmas tree and to my astonishment saw my father eating one of the cookies. Really angry I announced to my father how he dared to eat Santa's cookies as I was afraid that I wouldn't get any presents from him if they were all gone. :-)
I had forgotten about it, but my father told me this story when I was older and it is being told over and over every Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you all!

Yes Foxy thanks for a great thread.
My story was not well told, it was 6 pm when that check was cashed.
I alone in my family knew just how close our Christmas had come to being ruined,
But we made it, and I never told mum and kids how close we had come to camp pie for Christmas.
Another post reminds me of mums last Christmas, we did not know as we packed many of her kids grand kids and great grand kids 37 in all, into a farm house.
5 unexpected arrived ,so made it stretch.
Strange every Christmas in my family is the full English baked one.
Home made pudding and all.
Just once I would like to sit down to mud crab and a beer but as the eldest survivor I must keep up tradition
regards all.

All
The point of my story was to remind people that Christmas isn't necessarily a happy time for some, spare them some of your Christmas I doubt you'll miss it.. And to be grateful for The Dr, nurses, ambos, police etc especially the volunteers who serve doing what we're often too busy or not interested in doing.
For those who say I'm a bleeding heart...I've seen families like yours upended and destroyed in an instant reminding us that "there but for circumstance/grace of your God(s) go you"...think of them as your insurance nice to know they're there and hope you never need them. Have a good every day.

On a comedic note one apocryphal story went around was about a call from a “father Christmas” who had been left some biscuits and the following note UNDER the plate
"Dear Santa,
Dad says you should always bargain from a position of strength.
If you leave me the bike I want I'll tell you the antidote for the poison in the biscuits

Yours faithfully
Adam
PS the milk’s ok it made the milk go funny

Oops a budding banker/CEO perhap?

Foxy - I posted straight after your initial post but for some reason it didn't go through so:-

Being a family unit of three my parents always rounded up people without family to spend Xmas Day with us.One that stands out was in PNG the summer I turned 18.

Bigger crowd than usual so, apart from the extended dining table, we brought in two more tables. Helping us was a young Pom with the bluest eyes I had ever seen who was put at the head of one table and an elderly family friend at the head of the other
.

My mother noticed that this lady, though praising my father's cooking to the skies earlier, seemed reluctant to start serving the turkey so, thinking she had guessed why, asked one of the guests, a Catholic priest, to say a Xmas Grace.

Father O'Malley obligingly stood up and began "Dear Lord, on this wonderful day, we would all like to say..." when someone knocked over an ornamental Santa Claus which took up the thread in a tinny voice crying "Merry Xmas to All, Ho! Ho! Ho!"

"Ah,dear Lord, how can I follow an act like that?" laughed the priest and sat back down. But our friend, while making free with all the trimmings, still seemed reluctant to take the silver lid from the meat platter.

Some time later we noticed however, that the group, though looking a little strained, were at last eating.

It was only afterward we discovered that, by mistake, our timid friend had been given a huge platter on which my father had placed all the scraps as he was carving - so the entire table had dined on gristle, gizzards and guts!

However, once someone had produced a guitar, my mother had sat down at the piano and someone else appropriated my bongos the afternoon was wonderful and I still have a hazy recollection of Father O'Malley, my girlfriend and I knockin' 'em dead with Three Little Maids From School at one point!

p.s. Blue Eyes and I became an item for the next two years!

Dear Belly,

Thanks for your heartwarming story. It restores my faith
in human nature. Cashing that cheque certainly
made your family's Christmas. And I agree with
you, I too believe that basically people are decent.
I love tradition as well. Especially at this time
of the year. Christmas lunch is always the usual
Turkey, Ham, et cetera. And always with family.
I do all the cooking both Christmas Eve and
Christmas Lunch. And I love it, and wouldn't have
it any other way. One year we went away for Christmas,
and it just wasn't the same.

Dear examinator,

Thanks for sharing your Christmas
Story. You're such a 'softie' with such a big heart.
You described the scene so poignantly, making all of us
aware how fortunate we are. (While many others are not).
I count my blessings every day.
I loved your 'little boy's' note to Santa.
Definitely, a future CEO or lawyer, I'd say.

Dear Celivia,

Great story!
Two year olds are quite a force to be reckoned with.
What a shock it must have been for you. Thanks for
sharing. And what a relief that all ended well.

Dear Nocky96,

Thank you for your Christmas Story.
These are memories that will last a lifetime.
I can imagine how you must have felt when your
dad ate the cookie. But now you've got something
to tell your grandchildren.

Again, Thanks to you all.

Dear Romany,

Thank You for coming on board with your
wonderful story. You write so well, I feel
as if I was there.

What an afternoon it must have been!

As for 'blue-eyed' men ...
I must confess my preference in my
'salad-days' (when I was fresh and green), was
always for the brown-eyed dark-haired guys.

So who do I marry?
A blue-eyed, sandy-haired, Adonis (sigh).

I'm having problems with my computer
and just in case it packs up before
Christmas, while it's still working
I'd like to wish everyone the Best
Christmas/Holiday Season ever, and may the New Year
bring Health, Happiness, and Prosperity.

May we continue to share our views on this
great Forum.

Take Care, and
All The Best,

cont'd...

Where had the year so quickly flown?
A thought echoed in a reflection of a glass ball.
The fragrance of pine, the shimmer of tinsel,
Small packages nicely wrapped, for giving once a year.

A Festive Season here again, time for celebration,
Broken promises renewed.
What promise for the future? An answer did not come.
In its place a quiet reality...

The toll of church bells in the still night air,
A chorus of voices breaking the silence,
Joy and Peace to all on earth, at least this once a year.
(Written - Christmas 1999).