Christmas Memories. They come in all shapes and sizes. We tend to think mostly of the ones from our childhood, and with good reason. They are usually the most “pure”. Those are the times when all we had to think about was what Santa brought us. As we get older, we appreciate them more because we know now how simple life really was back then.

But Christmas memories don’t have to just be from our childhood, there are lots more. Like the first Christmas you spent with your now significant other. Or a Christmas shopping weekend with your girlfriends. It’s really about whatever makes you smile and feel good. Even if we’re missing someone special at the holidays. It’s nice to remember the wonderful times we had with them.

For me (Dianne) a lot of my memories are rooted in music which you can read about a little further down. One of the songs that puts me right in Christmas memory mode is “Somewhere in my Memory” from “Home Alone”. Is there anyone out there that doesn’t well up when they hear this song? Listen along as you read this post. This is a different version than the soundtrack, but I love it. It’s by Michael W. Smith, who sings this song with his granddaughter. Go grab a tissue.

So, here’s to the memories – past, present and future. We wish you new and exciting Christmas memories this holiday season.

Jen’s Christmas Memories

Every Christmas Eve, still to this day, my dad, sister and I go out and get donuts for Christmas morning. We needed something to eat when we woke up super early in the morning to open presents! 

I wasn’t a great Christmas Eve sleeper. How could I possibly sleep when there are presents to be opened soon?! 

I’d wake up as early as I could, and then would call Grandma and Grandpa as soon as I was allowed to. Then it was an agonizing wait until they would show up (they lived one subdivision over, and it was probably 15 minutes). 

My sister and I would try to hustle our dad to get the camera set up so we could get started as soon as Grandma and Grandpa got there. And once they did get there, it was excruciating when they’d want coffee or to grab a donut before we start opening presents. 

Oh, and Grandma and Grandpa would wear (usually matching) velour tracksuits. I’m still trying to get my dad to wear a velour tracksuit in lieu of Grandma and Grandpa. 

Depending on the year, we would go to one set of Grandparent’s house first in the morning, and then the other in the afternoon. 

Grandma and Grandpa Harper didn’t have a tree or stockings as I got older, but they did have their Christmas in the City village set up. Having a tree was too much of a hassle (in their opinion). 

Everyone had their specific seats in the living room, and we opened presents one at a time so we could watch each other. The presents would start in one pile, and my sister and I would put all the gifts by each person’s seat. 

We each had bags at our seats for the trash, but we’d usually toss our crumpled up wrapping paper at someone else. 

At Grandma and Grandpa Senia’s, if we went in the morning it was usually just us and them. And in the afternoon it was with my Aunts and Uncles and cousins. There was always a fire burning, and the smell of a fireplace is still such a happy memory for me. 

We’d open stockings, and hang out in the basement and usually play with toys that we had just gotten and brought from home. 

Grandma always made her vegetable chowder and cheese soup, that are so good, and everyone else would bring something else to share. 

Everyone would take turns going upstairs to get food, and would find a place to sit in the living room, kitchen or basement. 

As the cousins all got older (there are 11 of us), we would have picked a name out of a hat a while before and gotten that person a gift. We’d all exchange presents, and hang out together! 

Christmas was always a busy day, but I always enjoyed spending the day with everyone I love! 

Dianne’s Memories

As I mentioned in our introduction, a lot of my memories are tied to music. Both of my parents loved music and my dad was always “playing records on the stereo”. We had one of those stereo cabinets that were popular back in the 1960’s that stored all your records. I found this image online and it looks almost exactly like the one my parents had.

I used to love to flip through and look at all of them. When my dad passed away earlier this year, I made sure to keep those Christmas records (yes, he still had a turntable and still played them). Just the album covers alone take me back to a happy place in my childhood. I love listening to all those classic songs from Andy Williams, Perry Como and more.

My husband Jeff always laughs at me because food is always a part of my memories. My dad rarely cooked, but he would help make Christmas breakfast which was usually eggs, bacon and toast. To this day, I don’t like eggs, so I would make myself a bacon sandwich, which I still do to this day!

When I started making breakfast for my own family, I switched more to easy breakfast casseroles. But we always have Pillsbury Cinnamon Rolls. Those started when the boys were little. Back then they were more of the main meal for them, but we still have them now as a side dish! You can see all my breakfast recipes at the “Great Recipes to Start Christmas Morning Right”. Food really is a big part of my memories as you can see.

We showed a couple of our ornaments above that bring back memories. We use ornaments as memory joggers on purpose. Everyplace we go on vacation we try to find an ornament from that trip. It’s so fun when we hang each ornament on the tree and it brings us all right back. What I love most about our tree is that even though the boys don’t live at home anymore, they still walk around the tree when they come over looking for memories.

One of the things that I remember growing up was that our house was always full with people. When I was very young and we lived in New Jersey, it would be my grandparents, aunt and uncle and cousins. When we moved to Greece and lived overseas for almost six years, it would be other American families who were away from home. My mom always loved to entertain and have a full house.

Nowadays, it’s mostly “just” family, but what I love is that our family keeps growing. From Jen’s daughter Eme, to my own grandson, Colin, the magic of Christmas just keeps coming back around year after year.

If you liked this post, then you should like our post on “Holiday Traditions”. What are some of your best Christmas memories? We ‘d love to hear about them in the comments below.