Christmases Past for you?

Belated Merry Christmas for Christmases Past to all you MLU-ers lot.

Just wondering what sorts of Christmases you folks remember and might want to tell us about. Thought it would be nice, neat, fun, to hear some stories ...

Once upon a time, in a land long ago, a very yappy child was born and lived a couple or 6 years until she had her two front teeth knocked out (or something) and her 6th Christmas she was literally and lispfully singing a true song ........... an oldy but a goodie, and true for the wee yappy wonder ....

"All I want for Christmas is my two front teeeeef
my two froont teeeeeef
my two front teeeeeeeeeef"

I still remember THAT

Sorry ... no memories of getting any CMPs or stenguns for Christmases to hunt bad guys or buffalo But maybe you got something like that?

Ma Yappy

[Alex Blair (RIP)]

Jeez ma...
No CMP CHRISTMAS PRESENTS!!!


...Gather round and I'll tell you a true Christmas story from my youth...

Once upon a time .....er...

I'll start again..

My dad worked for a major Canadian Bank and in '53 he was transfered to a small branch in one of the small outports in Newfoundland..

This outport was not as isolated as some and had a govt wharf and regular boat traffic and a fish plant and an unpaved road out to St.John's ,7-8 hours away by car..
7 flat tires on one trip my dad made to a meeting in St Johns..
Anyway ..Christmas of '53 my mom was asking around to see if there were any familys that needed food hampers at Christmas..
Through the Anglican church there was one family that had great need of anything we could spare..
The family had lost the husband at sea in a fishing accident and the mom had three or four small kids as I remember..
Anyway we got directions to the house,packed up some stuff and off we went on Christmas eve..
My dad arrived at the house..a weather beaten little house,paint peeling and windows sealed over the cracks with newspapers and in poor repair..It was a wild and stormy afternoon and dad beat on the door and was greeted like a long lost friend and the woman,probably in her late 30's waved us in..We lugged all the stuff in a trailed into the house..The house ,as I remember ,only had a few rooms and the main room was the kitchen..a dry sink..Ice box..and big wood cooking and heating stove..It was fired up and she was rolling out dough to make bread..
The kids were trying to steal bits of raw bread dough to eat and the smaller ones had shirts and underwear ,no shoes or socks.The two little ones had undershirts and cloth diapers.
The place had a dirt floor...

Looking back I could say those kids were starving to death..
You have to remember the times..NFLD had just come into confederation 4 years before..
Communications were slow to nil..
There was no welfare..
And people were poor..
But the Newfoundland spirit and love was still alive in that poor little house..
After we unloaded a pile of presents and food and stuff the oldest child...a girl if I remember ,went to the cupboard and got a stool and reached into the cupboard and brought out an orange..!!
It was the only thing that they had for Christmas and they were saving it for Christmas day..
That young girl peeled it and divided it up and we all had a section of orange...
I'll never forget that ..
As poor as that Newfoundland family was they wanted to share their last orange with strangers..
I remember that my mom and dad never let that family get in that state again as long as we lived there and that the Church paid special attention to them..But there were many hard stories like that in Newfoundland...and any other place that you want to look..if you want to go out and find them..

I think of that family every Christmas and a few years ago had a family meeting.I was so Peeeeeeeee'd off at the Commercialization of Christmas I told the family that I wasn't giving out any more Christmas presents ..I was giving the money that I was going to spend on them to the Church Christmas family fund that feed poor family's at Christmas..
I got a rounding great vote of Yeas and to this day we all give our Christmas present money to the fOOd bank or the church Christmas hamper fund..
So you won't find any Christmas presents under our tree..and we wouldn't have it any other way..
Christmas is 365 days a year at our house..

And that is my Christmas story..

Love your family Christmas history and family traditional Alex ... you have a lot of similar feelings about it as I do. My feelings are that Christmas is about celebrating birth and life and humane selfsacrifice and doing unto others in ways that enhance and sustain life ... call it spiritual, religeon, heart, humanity ... its all these things and more to me. I feel its a 365/24-7 thing too but with a one special day we call all acknowledge and celebrate that in each other and in everyone around us ... especially wonderful and fun to share that with family and loved ones



I regret that I have no memories of Christmases with my Dad to enjoy ... he had to be elsewhere, at Christmases of course, but I did receive Christmas gifts from him ... in early childhood, toboggans, sleds, wagons and the like every year GREAT JOY for me to have those gifts and enjoy them for so long ... so he was with me every year in spirit if not in body for the Christmas times, whether I understood and knew that or not, at the time.

I have lots of other memories of all kinds, cifferent Christmas experiences, mostly huge close family gatherings and all. God how I miss those, but am okay and enjoy my Christmases now too, in different ways.

Merry Christmas to you and your awesome family Alex.

Ma

Hey folks, where the are all of your stories and memories of CHRISTMAS SPIRIT to touch and stir us MLU-ers THIS year?

Come on ... start talking NOW ... sayeth Ma Yappy!

(p-l-e-a-s-e ? )

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but I could sure use a little more Christmas Spirit hits in here and what a great way to do it by giving and getting some of that Christmas Spirit of the past spreading into our present one through your stories!

Ma Yappy!

I've always loved this carol .........

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas
Have yourself a merry little Christmas.
Let your heart be light,
From now on our troubles
Will be out of sight.

Have yourself a merry little Christmas,
Make the Yule-tide gay,
From now on our troubles
Will be miles away.

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore,
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Through the years
We all will be together
If the Fates allow,
Hang a shining star
On the highest bough,
And have yourself
A merry little Christmas now ...

Oh gawd ... surfing Christmas songs I just came across these lyrics and had to post 'em here for a good laugh. Too bad they only have the lyrics as I would REALLY love to hear it sung too. never heard of it before and the song lists no author ... enjoy ... I did!

I Yust Go Nuts At Christmas

Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas
On that yolly holiday
I’ll go in the red like a knucklehead
Cuz I'll squander all my pay.

Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas
Shopping sure drives me berserk
On the day before, I rush in a store
Like a pure bewildered yerk.

I look at nightgowns for my wife
Those black ones trimmed in red
But I won’t know her size and so
She'll get a carpet sweeper instead.

Oh I yust go nuts at Christmas
When each kid hangs up his sock
It's a time for kids to flip their lids
While their papa goes in hock.

On the night before Christmas
It's still in the house
My family is sleeping
So I'm quiet like a mouse.

I look at my watch and midnight is near
I think I'll sneak off for a cold glass of beer
Down at the corner the crowd is so merry
I end up by drinking about 12 Tom & Yerry

I get to bed late and gee whiz how I'm sleeping
When on to my bed those darn kids they come leaping
They sit on my face and they yump on my belly
And I'm quivering all over like a bowl full of yelly.

They scream Merry Christmas, and my poor wife and me
We stumble downstairs and she lights up the tree
My head is exploding, my mouth tastes like a pickle
I step on a skate and fall on a tricycle.

Yust before Christmas dinner I relax to a point
Then relatives start swarming all over the yoint
On Christmas I hug and I kiss my wife's mother
The rest of the year we don't speak to each other.

After dinner my Aunt and my wife's Uncle Louie
Get into an argument; they're both awful screwy
Then all my wife's family say Louie is right
And my goofy relations, they yoin in the fight.
Back in the corner the radio is playing
And over the racket Gabriel Heater is saying
"Peace on earth everybody and good will toward men"
And yust at that moment someone slugs Uncle Ben.

They all run outside whooping so the neighbors will hear
Oh, I'm so glad Merry Christmas comes yust once a year.

Oh, I yust go nuts at Christmas
But I still have lots of fun
Yust the same as you, I enyoy it too

Merry Christmas Everyone!

And here ... some more serious memories of a very MLU-ers interests type ...

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/speci...es/hendry.html

This below quote from the above story makes me "Can't help but wonder if the German POWS that Hendery guarded, well, if any of them were the same POWS my Dad had to escort in Canada. I wonder ....

Mr. Hendrey's patriotism survived the experience. He signed up for the Second World War, hoping to be sent overseas again. Instead, he wound up guarding German PoWs in Canada, while his son took the Hendery name into battle, helping with the D-day landings in 1944.