Christmas Memories

Christmas…what sort of images and memories do you recall that happened for you each Christmas, or what was your best ever Christmas day that you remember?

For me as I was growing up, it was scorching hot summer days with a nor’wester blowing, going to a local family’s paddock to pick buckets full of peas, and then spending many hours shelling them, scraping new potatoes for the pot (this job felt like it would never end, and if I could get another better job, then I always took it!), preparing the trifle, making, creaming and decorating the pavlova, making the Christmas cake, polishing the silver and setting the table with all the best plates and cutlery. The smell of Mum’s Christmas lilies wafting in the warm nor’west breeze throughout the house.  Christmas always seemed to be a time to overeat, then rest, then walk and then overeat again.  There was always lots of yummy things, such as lamb from our farm, ham on the bone, lovely salads, cold stuffed chicken, trifle, pavlova, Christmas pudding with custard and cream.  Being in the southern hemisphere we have hot Christmas weather nearly every year, although one Christmas I remember we had snow falling, which was most unusual and it looked amazing.  What were your favourite foods for Christmas, were you always the family with the Christmas Turkey, the port, or the beers?

We were always very excited when Dad finally got the Christmas tree in for us, so that we could decorate it.  We didn’t have lots of lovely new decorations each year, but we had Mum’s treasured family decorations, that we enjoyed puttting up on the tree.  When it came to the Christmas presents, we always used to try to find where Mum had hidden them away and get a sneak look. (To be perfectly honest though, it did ruin the thrill of not knowing).  My brother and older sister seemed best at this.  There was one time on a trip home from town when we had these boxes on the back of the trailer and we wondered what was in them.  As we were travelling down the road, my brother looked out the back window and said “There’s one of those boxes, with a pram in it has fallen off the trailer”.  So that year’s secret was out!  I remember Mum buying us three girls, beautiful walkie talkie dolls, which she spent hours sewing clothes for them all.  We didn’t have lots of money to spend on Christmas presents but Mum and Dad always managed to make it a magic experience for both us children and their Grandchildren.  They would sit up at 2am or 4am opening presents with them, even though they would rather have been in bed sleeping.  How early do you remember waking up after Santa had been with your parcels?  Did you put out any food and drinks for him?

On Christmas morning, we would rush to open our Christmas presents, have breakfast and then it was off to church for the Christmas Day service.  Race back home to get the potatoes cooking, the peas on and the salads made.  All the time there were fresh cherries, and nuts to nibble on. 

In between organizing, shopping and arranging all of the Christmas activities, Mum spent many, many hours sitting handwriting out her family Christmas cards.  These weren’t just a photocopied letter that she sent to each one, but they were lengthy notes to many of their family and friends right around the globe.  They were school friends, people that had worked for them on the farm, church families whom they had met with, as well as family.  Her lists numbered close to two hundred.  Mum loved to pour over their cards and read all their news from other people as they arrived in the mailbox.

On Christmas day we always went to one of Dad’s family for one of the meals, and to Mum’s family for the other, about an hour and a half driving one way, so it was lots of driving in the car or they would come to our place.  Those were my early memories, but as I had my own family, it was then driving half the night with tired young children to get to Grandma and Grandad’s house, with the children always saying about 1 hour down the road, “How much further”, with another 3 hours travel to go!  It was all worth it, but the cousins all got to play and share their toys with one another.

Our last Christmas with my parents was very precious as it was spent at the rest home, where they were both living at the time.  We were given the run of the kitchen and dining room to prepare and finish off our foods and serve our last ever family Christmas dinner.  My family had to fit Christmas dinner around milking cows that year, so we only managed 2 hours together as a family, before we had to drive back and complete our farm work.  However I am so grateful that we have that very special memory to treasure.  Christmas is so different now, but we still make time to get together as a family and celebrate and enjoy our families being together.  We have a lot of laughs and jokes and that is great. .

Family Christmas Gifts