What are yours ? Share them with the class please. I just thought that since we're a multi-generational, multi-culture group, it would be interesting to share some Christmas memories.

Whether it's a favorite song, or movie, or recipe, or even memory, let's share and share alike.

For some reason lost in the depths of Old Presbyterianism ... it was traditional in my family that we have fish as our Christmas Eve dinner. We'd go to Midnight Services and welcome Christmas into our day, then we'd all head back to my Grandparents house or my Aunt & Uncle's house for Oyster Stew, cornbread, and a few other fixings.

I loathe Oyster Stew. Absolutely, undeniably, loathe Oyster Stew. There's no amount of butter in the world that you could plop on that & make it palatable. I think the reason we had Oyster Stew was because my Grandfather loved it.

Then, on Christmas Day, we'd have 3 types of dressing ( stuffing, for you Southerners.. ) with our Turkey. Traditional Sage Dressing, Oyster Dressing with the left over oysters from the stew the night before, and, if there was enough left over, Corn Bread Dressing. A couple of years I accidentially got the Oyster Dressing so I learned to sneak into the kitchen & find out which bowl had the Oyster Dressing first. Because in my family, the rule was, you could eat all you wanted but you had to eat what you took. None of this " I made a mistake, Grandpa ... I hate Oyster Dressing ! " That was sure to get you a 30 minute lecture on the starving children of the world.

So .... what do you remember ?

I was 7, had chickenpox, and my dad bought me the acoustic guitar I had been begging him for all year...did I mention the chickenpox were so bad, I had them on my hands and fingers? DOH!!!

Actually a couple years ago I had been hinting and hinting that I wanted the Harry Potter box set and I kept getting these ugly sweaters (I am not a sweater person to begin with)...so then my mom hands me this box, I open it, and there is a hideous sweater, she says take it out cuz she got me a skirt to go with it, and it was under the sweater...
so I'm thinking "great, an ugly skirt to go with the butt-ugly sweater" I pull the sweater out expecting a hideous skirt, and there instead, was my Harry Potter box set. I didn't know if I should be overjoyed, or wanting to kill my mom for playing a joke on me like that!!

My friend poked me with a flaming stick, i still have the scar on my arm :D

Surprisingly it didn't hurt... not until the wind blew into the open flesh

When I was about 4, I had a slight cold on Christmas day, but since all the doctor's surgeries were closed, I had to go to hospital. For a cold. Oh my.

Things that mean/meant holidays for me:

Boiling hot weather; the smell of the artificial christmas tree as it comes out of storage; parents telling us "not to expect too much this year" again and us knowing that there will be even more presents than last year (we were never disappointed); at least one "gag gift" for each of us (tea towels were one of my mothers favourites); being absolutely stuffed for at least two days; leftover ham for at least a month.

More later as I think of them...

so Sam, being that it is boiling hot on your end of the world at Christmas, are there songs about hot Christmases? Do drawings of Santa portray him as more of a beach kind of guy, or do you still get all the American white cold Christmas stuff over there?

I hope i don't sound like an ignorant northern hemispherian

Well for a start we generally call him father christmas rather than santa (although like everything else it seems to be slowly converted to the American version). For some reason he seems to travel around on fire engines alot, I don't know if that's somehow related to hot weather, I think it's probably just because they're red and slightly out of the ordinary. There are certainly some songs about christmas in summer, most of them are just parodies of trditional carols but there is at least one good one I can think of that I'll attempt to locate via the magic of internet...

Lyrics

The tune is quite good actually. There is a link to another one down the bottom that I've never heard even though the page says it is "better known"...

I have only ever heard the second one, Sam, but only as a mum at my children's christmas carol nights. And as for father Christmas, that must be a Queensland thing - its 'Santa' down here in NSW. For me a very Australian thing is the seafood platters instead of roast dinners. Yum...
Also, for many years prior to children, we had champagne and fruit (think mangos, strawberries, peaches, plums etc) and champagne for breakfast with anyone who had no family in Sydney. They were fun mornings.

My friends moved to Australia a few weeks ago. This will be their first Christmas there. They'll most likely stay indoors and rocks backwards and forwards in the corner, pretending to themselves that the sun is not shining.

Lol, in Australia most winter days can be scorchers (28 degrees+) according to you people in colder places

Summer can reach anywhere up to 50 degrees in Alice springs, around 45 on the coast

So in short, christmas is generally boiling and a pool is required (just borrow someones :P)

Christmas '98 - I arrived in Brazil for the first of eight times...and can't wait to go back!

I've reached the conclusion that as a group ... us Caedesians have poor memories. :oP

This was almost off of page one ... but ... but, here I is to save the thread.

Ok, buckle up ... it's story time ...

Alright, Christmas for me, particularly when it comes to memories ... that word has a nostalgic connotation for me ... means my grandparents.

And with my grandparents comes grandpa with his spitoon. Yep, he had one and kept it nearby ... even during dinner. *shudders a little at the thought*

Then ... of course, the food. Oh my ... the food.

Roast chicken, roast pork, turkey, dumplings, goulash, potatoes, cabbage rolls; made with real bacon lard ... the stuff that you could feel grabbing onto the sides of your arteries it was that good and 'bad,' if you know what I mean ... stuffing, salads, homemade bread and rolls, duck; sometimes ... and so on.

It truly did not get better than that when it came to food. And I haven't even touched on the sweets yet. The dessert items. Alllll home made and so so good.

Well, when it came to visiting our grandparents ... the rules were laxed(?). As in, eat as much as you want, whatever you wanted. This pertained more to the sweet stuff.

And as soon as you entered the house of my grandparents, much like Pavlov's dog ... the salivary glands kicked into overdrive. Hmm ... now that I think of it ... maybe Grandpa was onto something with that spitoon idea. Nahhh, lol.

I think I have set up the feast sufficiently ... so ...

One year, I was ... hmm, maybe 8?? Not sure, but, still quite young.

I ate everything ... and I mean everything. Even surprised my dad who was no slouch at packing away the good stuff.

And I was a fast eater as they say. Usually the first done and away from the table. Not this year though, I was still eating well after everyone had finished. Don't know the why, as the food was as delicious as it always was.

Time for dessert. I had some home made apple pie with French Vanilla ice cream. Next ... tapioca pudding with loads of cinnamon. And then the best saved for last ... home made lemon meringue pie. The best ... bar none, even to this date.

Two pieces, in fact.

Alright ... I am done. Stuffed to the gills. I had to undo my pants ... serious ... I couldn't move from the table without doing so.

I waddle to the front room and slowly fall asleep. OD'ed on the tryptophan, I believe. :oP

Next thing I know ... I am awake and sweating profusely ... oh, oh ... run to the bathroom ... but, no ... nothing happening. Just a period of intense stomach cramps, fever, and followed by intense chills.

My word ... I almost expired because I ate too much??

The kicker ... after praying and promising never, ever, ever, ever ... to eat that much again ... to be more considerate in my gluttony with respect to those who have no food to speak of at all ... oh, I was making pacts left, right and center just hoping the pains would go away ... wellll ... an hour or two later, after my near encounter with the porcelain gods ... my Grandma asks; "Anyone want some kifli?"

Me? "Ok ... I guess I have room for a couple."