Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
Tell us a true story, something that actually happened to you, that made a memory that stuck with you through the years and taught you something about the spirit of Christmas.
I've got a bunch of them. For me Christmas is an intensely memorable and meaningful time, so every little thing stays in my mind for years. It seems like most of my old memories are Christmas memories.
To get things started, here's my little true story (200 words or less!) that I posted a while back on another thread as a sort of repentance and peace offering for being even more crabby than usual:
| When I was three, my older brother begged Santa for a bicycle. Although a bike was an expensive gift for us at that time, my parents scraped together the money. They wanted the bike to appear magically on Christmas morning, but the big brown cardboard box containing the unassembled bike was too big to hide in our little house, so my dad put it right next to the tree. When we kids asked what was in that box, dad said he had trapped Santa in the box to make sure he wouldn't skip over our house. He said he would release him on Christmas Eve. Us kids were aghast. Yes, we were pretty sure my dad was teasing. His story made no sense, and we knew dad was too kind ever to do such a thing. But somehow we just weren't sure. We kids put our heads together to figure out how to help poor Santa. Our big worry was Santa might starve before Christmas, so we poked a little hole in the box and through it we fed Santa dry spaghetti. Santa survived, and my brother got his bicycle. |
Happy. Sad. Silly. Funny. What's your own true Christmas Story?
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Oct '12
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
My first Christmas after all my training was very memorable. I, being the new doc, got the holiday weekend coverage for the whole group. Working my way through the hospital, I met a nice elderly man, Mr. Jones (names changed to protect the HIPPA police). He was hospitalized with an infection and was improving. After checking him out, and talking a little, I went to the nurses station. About 10 minutes later, I got an odd call from the medical examiner, "would I sign the death certificate on Jones?" Confused, it was finally cleared up that Mrs Jones was found that morning and had expired. I sat confused, upset, and wondering what to do. Tell Mr. Jones? He's frail, ill and this might be very dangerous. No longer in training, no one to call. I checked with the nurses, he had no other family, and made a tough call. I asked for the chaplan and we went to tell Mr Jones about his wife. He was sad, we cried, prayed, and talked a while. I finished my rounds and went home. Two hours later the nurses called, Mr. Jones had expired. They passed on the same day.
Nov '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
Okay, you made me cry. But I guess I asked for it. What a touching story.
Oct '12
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
Astonishing: "Okay, you made me cry. But I guess I asked for it. What a touching story."
In full disclosure for every story I have that will make you cry, I have ten that will make you laugh. People are more often funny and stupid, far more than tragic.
Jul '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
Four days ago I got a call from a current patient about a Palestinian relative, potentially about to be deported to where Christians (the forgotten Palestinian minority) like him are killed, with a nasty medical issue and no money to deal with it. I dealt with it three days ago and got a nice follow up email wishing me God's Blessings and a Merry Christmas for being charitable to someone in a sucky situation.
The world is filled with good and evil, kindness and selfishness. Each of us is filled with those as well and letting the better stuff shine reminds me of Christmas.
Aug '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
When I was a small child, Christmas Eve was spent with my Grandma Bea. She lived in a small apartment above the Safeway in a very, very small town. My folks didn't have much money in those days but a friend suggested that they give me something fun and they bought a pinata. They hung it up in Grandma's apartment and my Dad gave me something to swing at it and off I went. I repeatedly hit it but nothing happened. Finally my Dad took over and continued the beating...still nothing.
Perplexed, they finally took it down and checked the cavity for candy. Nothing...nada! They didn't know they were supposed to buy candy and fill it.
So they did what every respectable parent would do...they told me that it was Santa's fault. Good times!
Jun '12
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
In about 1995, when my boys were 8 and 10, we made the annual drive from Ohio to Grandma's in Virginia, this time on Christmas Eve. Coming over the mountain in Beckley, a snowstorm that had been growing made the turnpike impassable and the road invisible. We pulled off and found a single-story motel, but it was closed. We could see the owners inside playing cards. Like the Holy Family, we begged for a place to stay, and they opened the motel for us. My husband bought a gallon of milk and put it outside in the snow for morning; it was frozen when we woke up.
Sep '12
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
Eons ago when I was a kid in Michigan, my dad was the pastor of a small rural church in the central part of the state. The nearest town was also the county seat and had the county jail which my dad would visit regularly as part of a jail ministry. On one of his visits, not long before Christmas, he met a man who had been jailed because of a DUI conviction, but the man was also the sole provider for his family, a wife and four children. Dad visited them, and found they had no food, and no heat in a drafty old house in the middle of December during a cold Michigan winter.
Even though money was very tight in our house too, as my dad was bi-vocational, and he had to work a second job since the church was too small to support the pastor, he was determined to help this family. To this day I don't know how he came up with the money, but he bought groceries, we shared Christmas presents, and took them over to their house. Twas a good lesson for a selfish kid about the true meaning of Christmas.
Jul '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
In the winter of 1981 my brother had an intelligent and talented friend (of many years) whose mom (no dad around)was a schizophrenic. They had some rented hovel out on Plum Island and rode bikes everywhere. He was over our house as usual and had eaten. Somehow before he left my mom figured out he'd been displaced and were out in the cold wet New England winter and would be in some blankets in a mostly dry outdoor place that night. She had none of that and he stayed. We went to the carol singing at the Unitarian church that weekend and I remember him thanking God in his own way then( a Christian Scientist of sorts he was).
Mom was an elementary teacher and single, we weren't poor but not rich either. We took David in for the next year and a half. Mom was able to get him a full ride at Brandeis based on his grades/scores/need.
I learned everything God wanted me to do in life charity wise from my mom, a committed atheist.
Mar '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
My favorite is still my first Christmas with my wife, posted last night here:
A Christmas Courtship
Jun '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
My wife and I finally decided to adopt, struggled with getting accepted by a country, then found a great agency that got us into their Guatemala program in 2005. They helped us find a wonderful young boy and the country's legal machinery ground slowly, but surely.
However, our government gummed up the works. USCIS made us reset the paperwork clock, then the US Embassy mysteriously lost our son's visa application. Our public servants were as helpful as you might imagine. It was 18 December and it looked like our son wouldn't be home for Christmas.
There was a happy ending, thanks to our senior US senator (D). That day I had reached out to my congressman and both senators; a member of the senior senator's staff called me before the day was out. Within 24 hours our application had resurfaced and we were back on track. He landed in the US the 23rd and ate Christmas Dinner with his grandparents (he's recovering in the pic below).
P.S. -- Our GOP senator? A staffer called about six weeks afterwards asking if we still needed help. And we wonder why we're in trouble.
Aug '10
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
My 16 yr old came home last night from sledding and told me as they were downtown on a big
by cityhall , there is a high rise govt housing project there, they noticed someone struggling with his walker in the newly fallen six inches of snow. The sidewalk hadnt been cleared. Well she and her friends went to help this person to find out that one of the legs and one of the arms didn't work very well, so they pretty much carried him to his car, and after putting him into the car, realized that he couldn't scrape the half inch of ice and six inches of snow. It took her and her 2 friends about a half an hour to get the windows clear, using their drivers licenses and whatever else was at hand. First snow so they werent equipped with the good scrapers that Dad makes sure they have for the winter.
She was very matter of fact about this. Anecdotal rather than heroic. But what a hero she was to me. Made my Christmas already. My luck holds, another fantastic child !! Yayy God .
Edited on December 22, 2012 at 2:28amMay '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
What is Christmas without great memories? Traditions turn into great memories and vice versa. When my younger son was a teenager he was a talented musician and hung out with an eclectic crowd. One year he and his friends organized a small group to sing carols all over the town at the homes of everyone they knew. You know what I mean. They show up at the front door singing carols and the people inside come out and try to figure out if this is some kind of fundraiser or what. It was not a fundraiser but just a gesture of good cheer. What made it memorable was that although there were many accomplished musicians in the group, the only instrument that they chose for accompaniment was a tuba. You haven't heard anything until you have heard Silent Night sung with a tuba on the side.
May '10
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
I love how this thread combines the dramatic with the frivolous.
My dad once gave my brother and me a giant styrofoam glider. He tied it to the fan and left the fan on low so that the plane was slowly circling when we came into the room on Christmas morning. Some hours later, we took it outside to watch it fly. It crashed and broke on the first throw.
When I was about 16, I found a 4-piece dinosaur puzzle in my stocking. My dad had meant to give to me when I was a toddler, and discovered it in his closet a decade later. Better late than never.
This Christmas, my 94-year-old grandma was visited by carolers from the church she has been unable to attend for many years. The local elementary school sent her a hand-drawn Christmas card.
She keeps telling me I missed a spot when I decorated the tree with ornaments, and I keep telling her there is no branch there.
Oct '12
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
(I posted my Christmas memory, then considered that some might find it a downer. Sorry.)
Edited on December 22, 2012 at 4:06pmJun '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
For Christmas 2010 I talked my husband and children into breaking the tradition of having Christmas at our own house, and instead we spent it at my mother's two hundred miles away. She was 87 and independent, but getting tired. So we brought a Christmas tree and hung up socks by the fireplace and made the oyster stew that until probably the previous year she had made herself. We went to church together and made a crowd at my sister's house nearby for Christmas dinner. It was a good choice for all of us, as my mother died less than three months later, and it's a happy memory.
Apr '12
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
I'm not even sure it was Christmas Eve, but....
When I was about 14, my folks got a call about a bull they'd been looking for since August being spotted up in the forest. They left before it was light, in a mild snow storm, and didn't get back until at least six that evening. Mom was a total wreak-- not only did they end up shooting the bull when he broke a hind leg trying to kill their horses in thigh-deep snow up on the forest, it was a big holiday and the only prep she'd done was thaw the turkey.
They got the horses taken care of and walked in to dinner on the table. Not being totally stupid, my sister and brother and I had put the turkey in the oven when they didn't get home at the expected time, had put together all the fixings that we always have, and the family friend that works in the road department had called us when they called him. (Always set up a search party.)
First time I ever saw mom cry from being happy! (Second and later were grandbabies.)
May '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
My very first memories are about Christmas. Our family had just moved to a new town, we did not have any friends of family in this new town, in semi northern BC, Prince George. I was about three and I loved Christmas, did I say that? Well, both sets of grand parents drove all the way up to Prince George in the winter to spend Christmas with us, so we had a full house. My older brother and I got bumped from our room into the basement, I did not like this, I'm told, and in the middle of the night I got up from bed and went upstairs to where the Christmas tree was, I loved that tree. I plugged the lights in and then I crawled under the tree and looked up through the branches, I could smell the pine and see the lovely blue and green lights, I fell asleep under the tree, amongst the presents. Early in the morning my brother woke up and could not find me, he thought I had gone upstairs, so he went to look for me, he could not find me. he woke my mom and told her..... cont...
May '11
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
.... I guess they turned the house upside down looking for me, remember this is COLD winter in Canada, they were afraid I'd gone outside and locked myself out. The police were called, the neighbours were woken up and a search we started. Then someone noticed that the lights were lit on the Christmas tree. I remember none of this, but I've been told the story so many times. What I remember was looking up through the tree and the green and blue lights, and the wonderful smell, I also remember being woken up and pulled out from under the tree by an RCMP officer, fur hat and all, and everyone being happy and angry to see me.
That Christmas was really my first memory I retain.
Merry Christmas everyone!
Aug '10
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
My relatives enjoy the story of how Midge almost burned down the family homestead by going to church on Christmas Eve.
I won't go into details, just say I learned my lesson: Don't leave my relatives unattended around burning candles. They haven't the sense to put candles out when they're done enjoying them if they weren't the ones who lit them.
Jun '10
Re: Tell Us Your Own True Christmas Story
Thinking about this, I remembered a good source of family Christmas Eeyoreishness.
When I was about 10, my father declared that this whole tree thing was just too much [CofC] trouble, they were a waste of money, too [CofC] messy, so just forget it.
Particularly displeased, I took the hatchet, went down through the woods, up across Mrs. Coker's field, to where an abandoned fence had become a long, dense line of pines and cedars. I picked out what I thought an inconspicuous sample and dragged it back to the house. About half-way through the door, I got "What the [CofC] are you doing?! Where the [CofC] did you get that?! After being initially told to get rid of it, I successfully argued that it was already cut down, and I was allowed to set it up, decorate it (and clean up after it).
Last on the list was to be dragged over to Mrs. Coker's to apologize for stealing her tree. I think my parents were hoping I would get a good humiliation, but the elderly Mrs. Coker couldn't have been nicer, and laughed warmly about the whole thing.