One Favourite Christmas memory is from when my mother and I went to Fiji for Xmas, I was just ten years old. I was very worried that Santa wouldn't know I was in Fiji and wouldn't know where to deliver my gifts. We had a very exciting time - especially when the big hotel in Suva put on a Christmas party for all the staff and their families and invited us/me as I was the only child guest staying in the hotel. Santa at the party was a very large Fijian man - wearing one of those celluloid masks you used to be able to buy so he looked like a white Santa! The party was lovely but what was even more special was that I got a gift - a box of embroidered hankies which I kept and used until well into adulthood. Then it was Christmas Eve and my anxiety was high but my mum assured me that Santa would find me. I got up during the night for the bathroom and as I walked through the suite, my mum was sitting on her bed wrapping presents (!!) - "What are you doing?" says I - oh,just wrapping some presents she replied, cool as a cucumber. And I was completely none the wiser when I woke up in the morning to a pillowslip full of presents wrapped in paper - haha!! I was a very innocent child I think!
 
Our children were young (under 10) - we travelled after work on 24th December - some 500 km to my parents home - got the kids to bed after midnight (they had slept part of the way, so weren't that keen). Pressies under the tree, wait for kids to sleep so Santa could sneak past - so it's about 2 am when we hit the sack.
Kids are up about 6 am - but my mother had beaten them - and greeted them with- "Well, Santa has been - look at what he left!" Possums had come down the chimney, plenty of soot, plenty of torn paper, and Christmas tree knocked over as they tried to climb it. Didn't stop the excitement, but rather added to making that Christmas even more special. The now adult children comment on it now - some 40+ years later - and delight telling their children of the episode
 
Christmas was the excitement of putting up a fresh Christmas 🌲 tree which mum would buy from the Fruit Shop greengrocer in those days. Mum had no car and she couldn't drive so we would walk a few KMs home carrying this tree. I will never forget the smell of the pine . Mum would set it up in an old metal bucket which she would fill with sand. She would lovingly wrap Christmas paper around the old metal bucket. Our tree was set up in our small hot lounge. Decorations were limited but my brother and I I would make paper decorations as kids did in those days. There was always a small Nativity at the bottom of the tree and a Star at the top. Mum had bought some lights and every year one or two would no longer work. The excitement of Christmas day was unbelievable even though we never received many presents. The smell of
the Pine tree will always be Christmas for me. Good happy simple days.
 
The year was around 1970 when I truly experienced a Christmas Miracle. We never had much in those days but Mum had prepared a lovely traditional lunch for around 10 people, not allowing for any extra visitors. Well people kept 'popping' in throughout the morning and Mum kept inviting them to stay and have lunch with us. I questioned Mum as to how she planned to feed everyone and she just smiled and said that everything would be ok.
That Christmas, as our table kept extending, remains etched into my memory bank. Not only did our lunch for around 10 end up feeding 25 people, we also had leftovers for the next day.
A great reminder that miracles still do happen
 
My most precious memories are the ones on Christmas Eve where we all sat around and my Mum would pass out leaflets with Christmas songs and we would have to sing each and every carol. It all has stopped now since both my parents have passed away, but will always remember the fun and laughter we all had.
 
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!

 
My greatest memory is relived every year only slightly different. When I was 6 my father bought a new Christmas tree, plastic. We thought it was the greatest thing, before then we had a stick tinsel tree many of you will remember them. Our new tree at 6ft tall and very full was a marvel. Well I still have that tree, 55 years later. It is the pride of my family every year. I grew up with it, full of memories and then I became custodian and when my sons were born it took on a whole new life of wonder. Now as adults my boys still look forward to the tradition of the tree. I load the lights and tinsel as it's getting more fragile, and seems to have shrunk ha ha. Then the boys decorate with baubles collected through the years. Sadly most of the original ones are gone now, just like family who are remembered while the tree is decorated.
 
My favourite xmas memory is with my mum enjoying the xmas eve carol service at st andrews anglican chuch sydney. We stayed in sydney for the night.
Mum passed away this year and to have this special memory of the real meaning of xmas will always be in my heart.
 
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!

 
My Christmas memory is from childhood. My German mother always had a real Christmas tree decorated in white and silver with real candles! She would not allow us into the sitting room on Christmas Eve because she was in there with Father Christmas.organising the presents but he was too busy and too shy for her to allow us in! We were absolutely certain he was in there! Then , when he had gone, we were allowed in to view the dazzling tree and receive our gifts. When I married, I kept up the gift-giving on Christmas Eve because it meant we were not woken at 5 am on Christmas Day by our excited children!
 
The most exciting Christmas I can remember was when my sister and I were about 7 and 9. Our parents always managed to have Christmas presents for us that Santa had left, although I am sure it was a struggle for them. Our local small shop had a Christmas Raffle, with the prize being a giant Christmas stocking about 5 feet tall full of small toys and Christmas treats. On Christmas Eve, it was drawn, and our Mum had won! We both knew that we had to be sound asleep before any presents would be left under the tree, so we went to bed, and pretended to be sound asleep (for hours). Our parents put out our presents, including the Christmas stocking, when they went to bed. We waited until we were sure that they were asleep, and quietly got up and opened the stocking. We had such fun discovering all the toys inside, then we quietly repacked the stocking, and went to sleep. The next morning, we woke up, and "found" the Christmas stocking with our parents watching and enjoying our surprise. They never knew that we already knew what was inside. We still feel a bit guilty about it, and we are both in our seventies.
 
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!

My favourite Xmas memory is one of a family tradition.
I'm one of 11 children and we would always go to Arcadia Vale in NSW every Xmas holidays for 5 weeks.
With about 6 of kids tagging along others working,organising was a huge event but one none the less was like an an Army drill team.
Thankfully it was only an hours drive from home but the pre, during and post setup was fine drill.
A huge tent with 3 large bedrooms,main bed and double bunks and a well equipped kitchen with kerosene fridge, dining, outdoor sitting area, we always setup right near the parks seats and table.....and at night, out came the bath.....no shower blocks back then although some of the other families set up a bucket and rope system for a shower in the toilet and change shed.
The fun us kids had for many Xmas holidays is one I still remember 60 years on.
Swimming, canoeing, boat hires, fishing,walking along the rocks, cracking oysters and peering into one of Australians well know artists home...William Dobell.
Our parents didn't have a lot, except for children but what they had was shared with us.
A time where family lived together, worked together, fought sonetimes and enjoyed time together.
I am blessed to have had wonderful parents who instilled so much about being good into everyone of us.
 
My Mum was a single mum ... our family comprised her, me and my younger sister. Mum, like many women of her pre-World War II generation, came from a family where the boys were educated and the girls left school for menial work as soon as they turned 15. My uncle was a highly trained school teacher, and all my aunties were all uneducated like my mum.
Hence, the only work she could get in Tamworth NSW in those days was as a cafe waitress. Obviously, such a menial job didn't pay much. We lived very basically, but with Mum's innate ability to manage her pittance of a wage, we never wanted for anything ... except luxuries.
It was Christmas 1956 which stands out in my mind as the best Christmas of my life. I was about to go up to high school and this was a major step ... Mum had to buy uniforms (extremely expensive) and all of the paraphernalia that went with starting senior school.
I didn't give a damn about the uniforms or the Globeite school port (case), or anything else necessary for a higher education ... my only desire was my very own pushbike!
But, Mum had drilled into both me and my sister that we should never expect what were considered "luxuries" in our lives, but to be happy with what we had, and got.
Mum was a very good seamstress/tailor and most of our Christmas presents came from her old, foot-pedalled Singer sewing machine.
Wendy (my sister) and I used to make a fuss over our hand-made clothes that Mum produced for Christmases and birthdays, but we looked on in awe and jealousy at the gifts that our friends from two-parent families got on gift-giving occasions.
A bike ... a bike ... my Kingdom for a bike! But I knew there was no way that Mum could afford such a luxury and I was committed to continuing my life on foot into high school.
Then came Christmas morning, December 25, 1956 ... I woke up at crack of dawn (as we always did on Christmas morn) expecting to see a pile of nicely wrapped new clothes on the end of my bed.
Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, they gradually focussed on something totally out of character and unexpected propped at the end of my bed.
Nah ... no way ... it couldn't be! But it was!!! It was a brand new, Malvern Star Coronation Edition 26 inch pushbike! Deep purple in colour, with Royal crowns as decoration, made by Malvern Star to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and probably the only one of its type of the limited edition in Tamworth!
I looked up from inspecting it with tears streaming down my face (very embarrassingly) to see my adored Mum standing there in the doorway with tears in her eyes too at my joy ... very unusual for her as she was one tough chick who frowned at displays of unnecessary affection such as crying.
I jumped up and hugged her for all she was worth!
I asked her how the hell she could afford such a luxury gift for me, and she told me that she had put it on lay-buy with the local bike dealer (who was an old schoolfriend of her's) since January, and paid it off a few shillings at a time throughout the year. What a woman!
Then, pride took over ... there was only one other person on Earth who mattered to me, and that was my Nana (my grandmother - Mum's Mum) ... she lived in West Tamworth, two miles away, but I just had to show here my new pride and joy.
So, with a quick kiss on Mum's cheek (a major show of affection between us), I jumped on my new steed and rode (I am sure) what was a record time between East and West Tamworth to Nana's house.
She, and a couple of my aunties who still lived at home with her, oohed and aahed over my new pride of possession, sufficiently to reinforce my new place in the world order - an owner of my own transportation device!
After a feed of Christmas biscuits, homemade by Nana, which I was forced to eat before leaving, I set off on a bit slower trip back home.
As I was pedalling down Philip Street (where Nana lived), I smelt this beautiful fragrance of something I've never yet identified ... definitely a bush of some sort that only blooms at Christmas, apparently.
I've only smelt it once again in my life, and that was driving into West Wyalong, NSW, many years later with my own wife and children in my car, going up to Tamworth for Christmas with an ageing Mum.
That fragrance has stayed with me for my 77 years on this planet, and will always remind me of the best Christmas of my life, when a woman who was a tower of strength, who raised two kids on her own with absolutely no help from our father, or anyone else, and who, through scrimping and saving, made for me the best Christmas of my life.

12-09-22 malvern star.jpg
 
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When my son was just 4 yrs old, he was so excited about Santa coming Xmas night. He was laying in bed and i was with him talking about Santa, and explaining that he had to go to sleep. I looked at his little face and saw tears ... he said I'm scared that the roof will fall in on me when the reindeer and Santa stops the slay on the roof! Explanation was not easy! But sooo lovely!
 
my favourite Christmas memories is when my mums first guide dog was still with us. His name was Winston he was so much part of our family and he use to get Christmas presents like the rest of us. He use to get so excited and would go around the family and show each of us his present, he wouldn’t move onto the next person until you said to him ‘wow look at what you got’ Or what a luck boy. He use to always get a Christmas lamb shank when we had lunch. We still miss him and still talk about him on Christmas Day, he brought so much joy into our lives and he was such an amazing guide dog for our mum.
 
My Christmas memories of 60+ years ago were, on Christmas day we went up to my mum's sister's farm with our relatives for lunch, they had goose and pork, which had been fattening for this meal. Boxing day was down at my Mum's brother's house, where he lived with their younger sister and family. Turkey and an entertainer, clown or magician was the order of the day. This brought together our relatives and the sister's husband's relatives. After a while it was getting a bit too much for my aunty, so my Uncle treated us all to the pantomime at the Bradford Theatre, and then dinner at the Royal Hotel in Ilkley. The following day after being turkey and pudding full, they came to our house where mum's relatives and Dad's family sat down to steak and kidney pudding and apple pastry and custard. This went on for quite some years. Even at 81 I still remember those good times.
 
I have all the special Christmas memories of our tree, our presents,
making a wish while stirring the plum pudding, the once-a-year chicken, the hydrangeas, Mum playing the carols on the piano, going to Church on Christmas Day, and the relatives visiting later.
However, there's something even more special.
From the time my sister and I were quite tiny, every eve before Christmas Eve our Mum told us a story. She did not read it out of a book.
Initially, it was a simplified version, and each year as we grew older, the story became a bit longer with more detail.
It was Hans Christian Andersen's
"The Little Match Girl."
The poor little girl dreams of warmth and food as she unsuccessfully tries to earn money for her family by selling matches.
She decides to light a match in an attempt to get warm, then another and another and another.
The light from the matches symbolise hope and happiness, and in this light the little girl visualises a warm stove, a beautiful Christmas table laden with aromatic food, a magnificent Christmas tree with hundreds of burning candles, then she sees a falling star.
As the last match burns out, her beloved grandmother appeared, who scooped up the frozen little girl in her loving arms and took her to the place where there is no more cold or hunger, only warmth and comfort and hope and joy.
It is a timeless fable, with a lesson for us to be kind to everyone, especially those less fortunate.
It was to teach us to be content with what we have, despite our own difficulties post war.
For adults, it depicts the harsh reality of poverty.
 
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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!

Greatest memory was when the young bloke got out of bed at 5.30 am (3years old) you could hear the foot steps through the house stopping in the kitchen the delightful squeal that Santa had been because he ate the biscuits and milk he had left on the table then the foot steps got to the lounge room and another squeal presents 🎁 under the tree then into us asking if he could open them and this was 26 years ago ❤
 
My memories of a family Christmas would be when I was six years old was the last Christmas that both my grandparents were still alive,my nanna and my mum cooked up a big Italian Christmas lunch/dinner ther was my brother,mum and dad nanna and grandpa and myself,the whole street was invited to share Christmas Day and if my memory serves me there would have been at least 100 neighbours from the street we all lived in,went till late at night and the only day we were allowed to stay up late
Lost both grandparents three months later nothing was ever the same after that but my memories of my grandparents are still strong
 
Christmas Competition: When the three of us were children we would race down to the family room about 4 am where the Aga cooker kept the room warm (Scotland) and our presents were piled up for us to open. Every year my father would wrap a piece of coal for each of us. We always laughed at Dad's 'present' but were always aware the present was a wish for us always to have warmth in our lives. Thanks Dad
 

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