Special Childhood Christmas Memories

December Writing Prompts by J. M. Troppello

J.M. Troppelle provides this writing prompt for today: “Do you have any special childhood memories from Christmas time?”

Childhood Christmas Memories

Christmas is wonderful for children. While I have enjoyed many Christmas seasons as an adult I’ve never had that same excitement that I had as a child. A child wonders what will Santa bring me? I loved the things my mother baked for Christmas as well. I knew we had Christmas to celebrate the birth of Jesus, but I understood it much better as an adult. We did have a manger scene when I was a child. We sang Christmas songs.

My mother baked all kinds of cookies and decorated them. We always had a live Christmas tree. We used lights, ornaments and tinsel. We were quite particular in the way we put the tinsel on the tree. We had a white cloth (probably a sheet) under the tree. I believed we had something we sprinkled on the cloth that looked like snow.

We had so much fun in those days. I know my parents didn’t have much money. My father worked a part time job after his regular job. It was for a large department store. He did it in order to buy us Christmas presents. I didn’t realize that as a child but appreciated it as an adult.

We left cookies and something to drink out for Santa on Christmas Eve. Of course, I no longer believed at this time. I don’t remember amy age when I found found there was no Santa. We opened the gifts first thing Christmas morning.

On Christmas morning we would have a kuchen, which is the German word for cake. I do not have the recipe but I believe it was like a cake with custard and fruit. I think my mother used peaches for the topping.

We always had a good dinner on Christmas. It was typically something like roast beef or ham with some fresh vegetables. There was always a special dessert, which was usually an apple pie or some kind of cake.

At this time my father was in Alcoholics Anonymous trying to stay sober. He had made some friends and if they didn’t have a family close by we would have them over for Christmas dinner. I remember two men who were a gay couple and they came for a couple of Christmas dinners. They were nice and a lot of fun. We would play board games after the dinner. Christmas was a special time for our family.

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