Back in the days you could make simple gifts and donate them to a charity, I made gifts of packages filled with lollies for children with families doing it tough. When I took them to the charity with daughter and girlfriend towing along, the lady at the counter was smiling and thanking me which was all the reward I needed. It made me so happy to know the children would enjoy the gifts. I love donating items for people of all ages and continue doing it even now at 76. That is what makes Christmas special for me. Love helping others in need.
 
!959, I just arrived in Australia, not speaking English was tough but I managed OK, just before Christmas a workmate asked me what I was doing for Christmas, I told him the same as usual, I would have breakfast cook some lunch and go on the beach, St Kilda Esplanade where I lived. He told me to come to his home and enjoy a family fare with his family, I accepted the invitation and had the best meal with the best friends in the world, a memory I will cherish until my last breath.
 
Our Christmas celebration in europe was on 24th evening. We kids were exhited waiting when real life Santa Claus will arrive to each home with gifts . This was magital time for children all ages as here we were talking with our own Santa Claus . Lovely memories.
 
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Trust me, this story is true, only the needle has been changed to protect the record. Or the ink cartridges changed to protect the printer. With apologies to Charles Dickens.
 

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The best Christmas for me was when my daughter came home being away overseas for 3 years working and touring. Unbeknownst to me, my partner and daughter were in cahoots with each other for 2 months, even to the point of hiding all the emails.
On Xmas Eve, I had come home around 4pmish and John had met me at the car, saying there was a package in the lounge room. And there she was standing with her arms out waiting for her Mum, my beautiful girl. That was the Christmas of 2019.
 
The best Christmas for me was when my daughter came home being away overseas for 3 years working and touring. Unbeknownst to me, my partner and daughter were in cahoots with each other for 2 months, even to the point of hiding all the emails.
On Xmas Eve, I had come home around 4pmish and John had met me at the car, saying there was a package in the lounge room. And there she was standing with her arms out waiting for her Mum, my beautiful girl. That was the Christmas of 2019.
That is so precious and I know how it feels.
I did the same thing to my mum after I moved to Perth and she was in Adelaide. I hadn't seen her for years. I rang her from a phone box, pre mobile phone days, on the way to see her to wish her a Merry Christmas and she had a little cry about missing me, then 10 minutes later I walked through the door, I thought she was going to faint.

Then my daughter did it to me, she had conspired with my partner to come over one Christmas, he had spoken to an old mate to call him to pretend his car had broken down and could he come over to help him, well that was the ruse to get him to the airport to pick my daughter up.
He dropped her off out the front then came in like nothing exciting had happened, a minute later she knocked on the door, I knew how my mum felt back when I did it to her. The only problem was I didn't have anything in for Christmas dinner as my partner and I usually just had something like cheese on toast so we got pizza instead 😂
 
The Christmas I remember most was the first time I was not at home to see it, It was the time I was doing my National Service, after serving 5 months in Jerusalem we left the day before it became Israel and traveled over the Sanai desert to Egypt, after a few weeks there I was posted To Brigade Headquater's and went with them to Salonica Greece where we took over a small hotel about 10 miles outside the city, I was made to be a batman to a Roman Catholic Padre, a few months before Xmas the officer's mess bought 3 young piglets and as one of our group had worked on a farm he got the job of looking after them, when a few days before Xmas when a butcher had done is duty the Officers mess kept one pig, all other ranks had one and the third went to the Motor Transport Department in the city On Christmas Day I had no parcels to open only Christmas cards, about 10 o'clock in the morning taking a walk around the hotels gardens thinking of my family it began to snow heavily, I spent 10 months in Greece so I saw winter and summer there.

The Padre was a Captain in the Airborne Regiment and dropped at the big battle at Arnhem.
 
For my daughter’s first Christmas I bought a children’s Xmas Carols LP. She is now 41, and every Xmas morning for 41 years the first thing she does when she come to me for Xmas breakfast (Champagne & OJ+ French crepes with fresh berries & cream) is to put on her Christmas LP, starting with ‘Frosty the Snowman’- and we all sing along.
It has been lovingly cared for and has no scratches…. Great memories tie us together ( plus her brother too for 38 years) with this simple and delightful tradition 💝☃️🎄🧑‍🎄
 
my favorite Christmas was 2012 when myself my boyfriend and my daughter went to rainbow beach , we swam in the ocean and enjoy a few beers and some lovely meals great few days Then Russell boyfriend stood beside me and ask me to marry him then ask my daughter if he can marry her Mum . she said of course and i said I DO. So we thought maybe in a year so we saved Then in November 2013 Russell had a major stroke . . He came home was starting to walkathon had another stroke 2022 so i had to put him into StA HOUSE .
This year we having a chrismas with the carers who look after him . this year we are going to spend the day with cares
 
When I was little and young enough to believe in Father Christmas (not Santa) I accidently saw bits & pieces of metal & wood hanging on the clothesline drying. No one would tell me what they were there for. On Christmas morning, when I discovered a cute little chair for a present, I didn't connect the dots that this was the homemade chair my Dad had made for me from Father Xmas. I still have the little chair. It's been painted many different colours over the 60 oldd years and has lived in many homes in W.A.
 
It was my son’s third Christmas and Santa had given him the very thing he’d been wishing and hoping for … a Superman costume. He was feverish with excitement. “Put it on, mummy. Put it on”. And so, with a quick costume change, amid the mess of Christmas wrapping paper and yet-to-be-opened presents, our almost three year old toddler became a pint-sized super hero. Until he wasn’t.
You see, he’d decided to try out his new super powers by flying somewhere. While I was off fussing over Stephanie Alexander’s tips for cooking the perfect pork crackling, Superman had leapt off the patio and fallen flat on the ground. I froze when I heard the thud. By some miracle, he was unhurt. Tearful eyes looked up at me.
“Take it off, mummy. Take it off. It’s broken”.
The doctors at the hospital’s emergency department said he was fine. No broken bones, no sprains. They said, because he thought he could fly, his body was relaxed, not tense, and that made all the difference. The pork crackling was fine too.
 
Good morning all and this is a child hood Christmas memory that I fondly remember from 1968.... I was raised on a farm in Victoria's Northern Wimmera area and we rarely went to town(Nhill). This Christmas I remember going to Grandma's for lunch and receiving a glass of lemonade for the first time in my life. It was the most delicious drink I had ever had and of course I drank it all very fast and then did a big burp and everyone laughed at me. That was just the first yummy treats. I was then given a card that had 2 round fifty cents pieces taped inside...rather a large amount of money for a 6 year old to be given back then but the bees knees of that Christmas was the little black and white striped lolly that I was given by Grandma....it was a Humbug and by far the best thing I have ever tasted and to this day 56 years later is still my favourite lolly of all time....each year on the visit to Grandma's after that I would try to climb her kitchenIMG_20241116_092724.jpg cupboard to pinch a Humbug from the jar on top of the dresser and altimatly get caught and smacked on the fingers every time and end up in tears because one Humbug was never enough. I now have a jar of Humbugs in my house at all times❤️ thankyou Grandma for giving me the lasting memory and deliciousness of Lemonade and Humbugs at Christmas time .... I have missed you and Christmas at your place since you died in 1973 ❤️
 
It was Christmas 1942 in German occupied Paris. It was very cold, we had no heating and not much to eat as the Nazis took nearly all our food etc.....our ration cards were hardly sufficient to keep us well fed.....Nevertheless my sister and I always looked forward to Christmas as children do.....much to our great joy we were both given an orange each by our Grandmother !......It was, without a doubt the best oranges we ever tasted !......Even now I still remember the joy I felt receiving this gift...probably the best one ever.
 
It was Christmas 1942 in German occupied Paris. It was very cold, we had no heating and not much to eat as the Nazis took nearly all our food etc.....our ration cards were hardly sufficient to keep us well fed.....Nevertheless my sister and I always looked forward to Christmas as children do.....much to our great joy we were both given an orange each by our Grandmother !......It was, without a doubt the best oranges we ever tasted !......Even now I still remember the joy I felt receiving this gift...probably the best one ever.
Best Christmas story ❤️
 
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I have had many wonderful memories of Christmas over my life time and enjoyed every one. But as we have aged we hold a Pre Christmas get together in November and Hubby and myself hand our gifts out to our Great Grandchildren , ten in number. The looks on their tiny faces as we call their names out and the cuddles after are our memories now ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🤗🦋 Merry Christmas to you all and a happy and healthy 2025
 
We lived in Liverpool and always had giblet soup for Christmas morning breakfast. We then went round to my cousin's place to exchange gifts, I was about 13 and was given 4 balls of beautiful red yarn and a pattern for a sleeveless jumper in the feather and fan stitch. We came home and discovered we were locked out so Dad got the ladder and climbed through my bedroom window, we lived in a Coronation Street type of house, and he succeeded in breaking the only thing I had of value, a beautiful Wedgewood vase. He came downstairs and let us in. There was a dreadful smell in the kitchen. Mum had left the oven on with the chicken in one dish and pork in another, it was the chicken that was off. Fortunately we had a fairly big piece of pork and the roast potatoes were cooking with the pork. After the holiday Mum went to the butcher with whom she had dealt for years and all he said was "That's your bad luck". She never bought meat from him again. Apart from all that we had a lovely Christmas.
 

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