[Vin]

My favourite Christmas memory happened when I was 9 and my brother
Was 7 our grandmother whom we lived with took us to see Santa at grace brothers in broadway Sydney we sat on his lap and told him what we wanted.Colin got of his lap and went back to nanna and Santa said to me. Now vinlei mind you don’t get ants in your pants I was so shocked I told nanna and she went up to him to ask why he said that and came back laughing and didn’t tell me why. She told me when I was a teenager Santa was my uncle and I didn’t know it.

 

[Elbe]

Mine is a weird one ..... a decade or two ago, we had the joy of hosting an Italian exchange student for the 6 months which included the festive season. Oh boy! Did it rejuvenate Christmas for our family! It is hard to pick a favourite from our memories of her joy at decorated shops (shopping took forever!), driving around looking at decorated houses (and her complimenting the owners of every house she thought was wonderful), going to our local carols (and her singing 'Cool Rocking Santa') or how amazed she was at being hot at Christmas (and us still having the baked dinner)...... however, I think my favourite memory is her joy at getting a sleeping bag & her hopping around in it like a kangaroo for ages! Did I mention she was a super sophisticated utterly adorable 19 year old back then? She is now a Supreme Court Judge in Italy and our darling girl still keeps in touch with us.

 

[Possum Lover]

Christmas memories, the magic of midnight Mass with my Mother and siblings, where neighbours greeted you with cheery words as you walked up the hill to the church. The hymns sung with such vigor and beauty of a full church.

The walk home with most often starry skies above us. When we arrived home we were allowed a slice of the leg ham, a real treat, and maybe even a small slice of delicious Mum's Christmas cake and a glass of milk. Then off to bed, wishing I could open just one gift under the tree. To sleep and to dream.

One year I received a blue beach towel and a pair of gold jiffy slippers, obviously I was very happy with these gifts as I remember the thrill of them over 60 years ago.

 

[Ricci]

I have very vivid memories of an exceptional Christmas that happened when my kids would have been 12 and 13 but the story starts many years before that.
When we were about to emigrate from the UK the musical Les Mis was on the stage in London and I would have sold my soul to go and see it but it wasn't to be as we were emigrating and had to save every penny as we were heading into the unknown.
Fast forward 14 years and Christmas was fast approaching with all things being planned and shopping done. Christmas day arrived and the presents were being handed out, I was left till last and the kids approached me with an envelope in their hands. I thought Whooppee I've got a gift card to get something special but boy, was I wrong, inside were two tickets to see Les Mis in Perth that next February (which also happens to be my Birthday month).
Without either my husband or I knowing the kids had emptied their bank accounts, pooled their money and asked a friends mum to take them into Perth so they could buy the tickets. they didn't know about the booking fee so came up short with the friends mum putting in the balance. They repaid her by mowing the lawn and washing her car every weekend for a month I found out later. The tears flowed that year I was so overcome. By the time the show came round in February they also chipped in so that we could have dinner out at a restaurant for my Birthday and make a proper outing of it. The show was magical and everything I thought it would be.

 

[Nancyjoy]

My late husband Gwyn volunteered to be Santa at the local rural school's end of year concert. One of the children unfortunately wasn't able to attend because he was ill so Gwyn arranged for the local fire brigade to take him to the boy's home with his present much to the child's delight. On the same night one of the children decided to help Santa by taking out each present from his sack to pass to Santa. The Mothers' Club generally organised the presents and made sure that there were presents for every child in the district. However as the names were read out and the bag was getting lighter the little boy's name still hadn't been called. We all held our breaths hoping he hadn't been overlooked - then to everybody's delight, the very last present belonged to that little boy. He was so excited jumping up and down and it really made my Christmas.

 

[Annemaree60]

Christmas Competition!​

We are so excited to launch our final competition of 2022! This one is extra special because it’s Christmas themed for the holidays AND we are drawing it in the first week of December, so the winner can use their $100 voucher to either Coles, Woolies, ALDI or IGA to help with the Christmas shopping!

Entering the competition is simple! All we want is to hear about your favourite Christmas memories. It can be any Christmas you remember. Maybe it was your childhood Christmas. Or maybe, it was last year’s Christmas. Whatever it was, we want to hear about it! The person with our favourite Christmas memory will win a $100 voucher to the supermarket of their choice (Coles, Woolies, ALDI or IGA!)

So get storytelling members; it’s time to get into the Christmas Spirit!

View attachment 8129​

The one Christmas that I'll always treasure is when I had my three sons together with myself, after a lot of sad times with my oldest son. We all had such a wonderful happy day, unfortunately it won't happen again.

 

[maxesmum]

Oh gosh! How I remember! Mum and dad driving six kids in a great big chevvy driving from bendigo to Seaford on a stinking hot Christmas Day . All the windows down and all of us singing songs from every musical ever released. Sound of music,Oklahoma,west side story,paint your wagon…and on and on. My mum was a concert pianist and we would sit and listen to her play for hours. After hours of driving we would arrive at grandma and grandpas where all the aunts and uncles and cousins were gathered for a wonderful Christmas feast and then,after waiting the obligatory hour after eating,the older kids would take the rest of us across the road to the beach until the sun went down. The best of times. Driving home was quieter with the younger ones usually sleeping. I remember in my later years my dad saying those drives with his kids singing were some of the happiest moments of his life. They were certainly mine.

 

[Tsangar]

My fave memory is making the trip to the city once a year with my Mum and older brother. Even though we only lived a 20 min tram ride away, we only ever went in at Xmas time. We’d check out the Myer windows and go get lunch at coles cafeteria and always have jelly in a pond for dessert. We’d do our shopping at Coles and Myer and we’d even get to choose one present that we wanted but couldn’t open it till Xmas time. My mum even had this special bag that she took for all the Xmas goodies we bought that day that only came out then.
It was a treat going to Myer once a year and the coles was huge compared to the one in chapel street that we usually went to.

 

[Carol Dorritt]

OOne Christmas in the UK our youngest son Neil age 6 got a blown up space shuttle from Santa he lived in it eat his meals and sleeper in it for weeks until enter next food cat who popped his beloved space sip great fun while it lasted couldn't ever get him another one at 45 he still it's his best and worst Christmas rolled into one

 

[RoWood]

The year was approximately 1964 and I was just 3 years and 5 months old. This is the first Christmas that I have a memory of. I am the youngest of 7 children and we lived in North Queensland so we didn't have TV and mum was a strict Catholic lady. I recall one of my brothers dressed up as Santa Claus. One of my sisters was playing the piano and the whole family was standing around the piano singing Christmas Carols. Now I have to tell you that my father always said that no-one in his family or ancestors could sing in tune. I don't remember all of us singing together ever again after this. So perhaps our singing affected the way the sugar cane grew or the how the chickens laid. I am so grateful that I have this treasured memory of all of us together and having a good time. We were very lucky to have had the parents we did and the life we had on the farm. Mum would work from daylight until late at night preparing the the Christmas dinner and we always had a Plum Pudding (with sixpenses in) and Christmas Cake and of course a wonderful roast dinner. Christmas and birthdays were the only time we had softdrink. Oh wouldn't it be wonderful if we could go back in a time machine and relive our happiest memories.

 

[Rashida1958]

Christmas Competition!​

We are so excited to launch our final competition of 2022! This one is extra special because it’s Christmas themed for the holidays AND we are drawing it in the first week of December, so the winner can use their $100 voucher to either Coles, Woolies, ALDI or IGA to help with the Christmas shopping!

Entering the competition is simple! All we want is to hear about your favourite Christmas memories. It can be any Christmas you remember. Maybe it was your childhood Christmas. Or maybe, it was last year’s Christmas. Whatever it was, we want to hear about it! The person with our favourite Christmas memory will win a $100 voucher to the supermarket of their choice (Coles, Woolies, ALDI or IGA!)

So get storytelling members; it’s time to get into the Christmas Spirit!

View attachment 8129​

 

[Cyberchook]

My most memorable Xmas was also at the lunchtime table, along with the immediate family that year with my new Dutch husband joining us for the first time.

My mother, with her many talents and skills, was also the epitome of beautiful decor and always chose the finest of everything, created a beautiful table with a special handmade laced cloth and serviettes, the best china, silverware and old-fashioned accoutrements as small silver salt pots shaped like Norwegian Viking boats the tiny spoons shaped as oars ( I still have them) with her ‘ piece de resistance’ 12 very long slim red tapers, each one sitting tall in a stunning (12) crystal star as the main centrepiece.

This was our usual family Xmas Day, a late lunch after spending the morning walking around visiting many neighbours for a celebratory drink and piece of their Xmas cake, a custom we all enjoyed (except for the Xmas cake overkill I still can't abide).
The turkey would be slow cooking in the oven and our ancient family recipe for traditional Xmas cake and pudding had been prepared weeks in advance, the pudding steaming in the old copper hung from the broomstick over boiling for water for about 8 hours.
We all had a stir of the mixtures and Dad was the one who wrapped and organised the pudding and the cake in the slow oven. He would get up through the night to check the water levels.
He also helped with festive cooking and as well stuffing the turkey and many veggies and sided dishes served and making the rather strong brandy sauce.
Being elected to carry the pudding 'a la flambe' shooting blue flames with an eggcup of brandy that had been tossed on the hot pudding and lit, I walked from the kitchen to the dining room somewhat flamboyantly as the excess brandy ran up my forearms setting them on fire. I still carried that flaming pudding to the table. ( no burns, just mildly singed forearm hair)

A Christmas Day in the early '70s when the temperatures were around 100 degrees outside but never daunted, my mother lit the 12 tapers.
We opened the windows to gain some air circulation, wrong I know, but we were stifled and perspiring with the cooking and heat sitting at the table only a short distance from those lit tapers any breeze was welcome even if hot.
We ate our hot heavy Christmas lunch watching the 12 tapers start to lean and droop out across the table ( they did not drip wax either) still lit, lower and lower during the meal until they had to be put out.
My mother was determined they stay there.

The first Australian Christmas for my Dutch husband unaware of our ways of celebrating Yule and not knowing the tradition of hiding those special lucky silver trinkets, as well as (pre-boiled) threepenny bits in the rich hot brandy sauced pudding that my mother with her generosity made sure he had 6 or so hidden in his copious serving.
When we had finished she asked him where were his. He said he was not sure what the odd lumps in his pudding were, so not to seem rude he had swallowed them all. He survived.
My father capped the day by saying as he was offering our later guests a 'Crease of pussmas kidding'.
( a piece of Christmas pudding)

A Christmas full of laughter I still recall so clearly 50 years later.

 

[ShelleyH]

My favourite Christmas memory is the year my sister swallowed the sixpence in the Christmas pudding. Every year my Mum would put only one sixpence in the pudding. The finder not only got the sixpence but also got to opt out of the washing up and choose our entertainment for the afternoon.
It was snowing heavily that Christmas, lovely to look at through the double glazed windows, not something you'd want to be out in though but that's what she chose, making snowmen and a snowball fight in our front yard. Pretty soon nearly everyone in the street was out with us, making snowmen and throwing snowballs. We forgot how cold we were in all the fun.

 

[Honeybear]

My favourite childhood Christmas memory was the whole family involved in making the Christmas cake one month ahead of Christmas so the favours would be right for Christmas.
Coming from SriLanka mum would put all the ingredients into a big basin and we would all have to take turns stirring with a wooden spoon and when mum would go to check if the oven temperature was right just before she put the cake into trays for baking she would say now keep talking so I know you are not eating anything while iam gone and the moment she was out of sight we would stick our fingers in and have a tick with a lot of encouragement from dad those were the days bless them both

 

[OmaC]

Christmas Competition!​

We are so excited to launch our final competition of 2022! This one is extra special because it’s Christmas themed for the holidays AND we are drawing it in the first week of December, so the winner can use their $100 voucher to either Coles, Woolies, ALDI or IGA to help with the Christmas shopping!

Entering the competition is simple! All we want is to hear about your favourite Christmas memories. It can be any Christmas you remember. Maybe it was your childhood Christmas. Or maybe, it was last year’s Christmas. Whatever it was, we want to hear about it! The person with our favourite Christmas memory will win a $100 voucher to the supermarket of their choice (Coles, Woolies, ALDI or IGA!)

So get storytelling members; it’s time to get into the Christmas Spirit!

View attachment 8129​

 

[OmaC]

My favourite Christmas memory is the last Christmas my family spent with my Mum before she passed away at age 89. My mum struggled in an abusive marriage for over 60 years before my father passed away. It was my Mum's wish after his passing that the whole family be together for Christmas, something that had not happened since I had left home and married over 35 years ago. Her last Christmas involved us flying from Brisbane to Sydney with our 3 children, their partners and our grandchildren. We met up with my 3 brothers and their families. We spent the day celebrating and my Mum's words at the end of the day summed up everything......"this is the best Christmas I have had in my entire life".

 

[Balwyngirl]

I have wonderful memories of Christmas when I was a child. I was the youngest of 5, dad had fought in World War 11, and Mum managed to make beautiful meals for the seven of us out of seemingly a small amount of food. Dad grew lots of vegetables and fruit so that helped. So, when I got married and my husband and I had our first Christmas with our son, I wanted to re-live those happy Christmas memories as well as create new ones. One very amusing Christmas , we bought our son, Robbie, a swing set with a slide. Robbie was 2 and a half year 's old and was absolutely besotted with Santa and the whole Christmas experience. So, with our naivety and inexperience, we decided that Christmas Eve was the best time to erect the swing set!!!! How wrong we were. My job was to keep Robbie amused inside watching Carols By Candlelight, while my husband erected the swing set (that came with very few directions!) Robbie finally fell asleep around 11pm and I went to see how things were going outside............Hubby was frustrated that he had done so little in a long period of time and to make things worse, he had been eaten alive with mozzies!!!! To top it off, the swing set looked like the Leaning Tower of Pisa!!!! Well I laughed and I laughed! My hubby didn't want my help, thank goodness, so I headed inside to finish wrapping presents, then I finally went to bed. About 3am I heard my husband come to bed and he looked exhausted but happy with himself that the job was completed. I will never forget his face, covered everywhere with mozzie bites!
We did get wiser and more experienced as time went on with the assembling of Christmas presents (especially allowing adequate time to do so!)
These are the sort of things that make Christmas so special......... the innocence of the child not knowing what lengths their parents had gone to in trying to make Christmas a very happy and special time.

 

[Ibyang]

Our Christmas Tradition has been the same since I was young.Midnight mass every 24th of Dec,, followed by noche buena and opening of gifts (all gifts under the Christmas tree).But the most unforgetable ones are those years when we go to homes for the aged and sing Christmas songs to old people who were not picked up by family thus spending the day at the homes.
We sung simple songs, brought small gifts and spend a few moments with them.Boy it broke my heart when we saw them slowly singing with us and then tears flowing from their eyes maybe because they remembered some old memories.Then, after that they lit up and tru to join us in singing , and eat their meals and oorn their little presents..That I can’t forget, those few years we were doing it..Of course we had to book our visit then early on..
Now that I came of senior age, the more I hope younger people can do the same, share some of their christmas day with those who doesn’t have family picking them up to be with family..
Happy Christmas!

 

[lmitch48]

My favourite Christmas memory is of my four month old daughter, dressed in a very cute red and green velvet dress, sitting in the palm of her father's hand. It made a wonderful photograph which, after many moves since then, has been lost. However, I've only to stop and think for a minute and I can see that moment so clearly. My daughter is now 53.

 

[cherylmanley]

Best Christmas memory for me is the fresh smell of the real pine Christmas tree. My Dad would cut a good sized branch or two from the trees my parents planted when they moved into their first home.
It was memorable for many reasons - firstly because my grandparents helped to grow these trees by taking care of them as very young bushes so that when Mum & Dads house was ready they helped to plant them.
Secondly because once Christmas was over our family spent most of the day cleaning up all the pine needles left from the tree. This was a real fun time as Dad would somehow get the quite dead branches into the boot of the family sedan and we would all go to the local tip to ‘donate’ the tree back to nature.
Every time I see or smell pine trees now - I’m taken back to those happy days!