Advent Calendar Day 05 - Christmas Past

[emberwishes]

DAY 5: Best Christmas Memories!

Christmas is well on its way, and some of us will be busy preparing for another happy holiday! Today, tell me about your best Christmas-related memories! Do you have a Christmas from the past that is hard to beat? Or a best gift given or received, or a funny story to share? Whatever it is, I want to know about your favourite Christmas memories!

Answering this will be rewarded with three random character cards.
Like all Advent Calendar days, this post is open till December 31st!

Comments

[radria]

I kind of look at each new year as something fun to look forward to. There's always been some poorer Christmas' than others, normally just due to random circumstances overall. I just kind of like to see the reactions of family being together and getting to spend time with each other instead of being far apart or busy or the like.

So I guess that's kinda a memory in itself? Just seeing what each new year brings and treasuring the moments each new Christmas brings as well.

[emberwishes]

[canute]

I'm very fond of last year's Christmas... My family and I were up at the cottage, pretty isolated from the world and with no guests, and basically spent a few straight days drinking wine, eating lots of good food, playing dominoes and card games, and marathoning Lovejoy, a random BBC show from the 80's about an antiques dealer that manages to ruin everyone's lives... Bless his soul. It was such a relaxing few days and it was great to spend time with my family. Hopefully Christmas this year will be just as lovely~

[emberwishes]

[scblakdrgon]

In the past two years, We've always had an all day hot pot going on for Christmas. Hot pots are one of the thing I enjoy a lot since everyone can hang around all day and play games and talk. Usually everyone's too busy with work and their own stuff so we don't see each other often at all. I hope we have it this year as well.

[emberwishes]

[empanadas]

The only Christmas-related memory I remember is from way back in 2011, I think... mom and I were in Ecuador to party at my uncle's house and I was dancing with my cousins. It was the typical "eat-pork-and-rice" dinner but I had fun all the same. I remember receiving a nice pair of classy earrings for Christmas! That was nice.

[emberwishes]

[kues]

Iiiiiii think I may have talked about this last year, actually? I can't recall :|a but either way I distinctly remember one particular Xmas a few years ago when we only had two cats and thus were able to put our big tree up instead of the table-top tree we have to rely on now ;; THAT WAS ALSO WHEN I GOT MY FIRST PVC FIGURINE ah my start of pretty plastic darkness

[emberwishes]

[onyxdotexe]

I used to have great memories when I was younger. My family would all gather together, we'd put up this huge tree, fill it with tinsel and ornaments, and enjoy music and tons of food and talking to each other.

The presents were nice, but it was the time around with family that was the best.

[emberwishes]

[sal]

This year is definitely going to be a very memorable Christmas, because... I kind of.. went way overboard and ordered $$$ of Haikyuu!! merchandise for my father to give to me for Christmas. @_@

Other than exchanging presents, I never really do much of anything special for Christmas anymore. Years back I used to have gift exchanges with more family members, but as years went by and I started to have to cope with more and more mentally it has become too difficult for me to be surrounded by that many people at once, even if they are family.

[emberwishes]

[harukami]

I'm going to be a huge sap and just say that every Christmas I've spent with my girlfriend are the best ones of my life. Just staying up late on Christmas Eve and laughing and playing board games, opening one present at night, getting up in the morning to open more together... it's the life.

Of course, this one time, our gaming group got us a present but we needed to solve three cyphers to get the final cypher, which was triple-encrypted and we ended up basically saying WE GIVE UP WE WON'T GET OUR PRESENT haha (they took pity on us).

[emberwishes]

[beezebeora]

The best Christmas I had was when I was like 9, because it was the one where I got the most stuff (in numbers) with the best related things. It was the year I got a gameboy color with pokemon games and a few other things for it. I also ended up getting a lot of sailor moon things and just a few cool things. The room was literally filled with stuff you couldn't find the floor. Like I guess I was very spoiled that year, but for a kid, that is the best feeling, yes? hahaha I don't do Christmas anymore (for us, its a children's holiday almost, at least for huge gift giving part.) but I still remember how cool it was, I guess because of that, its one of the reasons I always think so highly of the 90s, because I guess I just had it good in the 90s or something. Christmas wise.

In more recent memories, I guess two years ago around New Years was really cool. I ended up buying like a life time supplies of uncooked mochi just because they were all with different snake related items, and the store was doing raffles, and I wanted free things. (In the end, I got a lot of free snacks I don't normally eat, but I'm not gonna waste free things!) We ended up thinking of different ways to cook the mochi, it because pretty silly and fun! In my room now, I have a whole shelf of different snake bells and charms and plastic toys from all those mochi cases hahaha. Just another 10 or so years till I can do that again!

[emberwishes]

[estamir]

I think I mentioned this one last year, too, but a couple of Christmases ago, my brother and his wife (who at the time he'd just married) came home to spend the holiday with us - they both work in foreign aid, so they're rarely in the country at all and we hardly ever get to see them. It was also the first holiday we'd had the entire immediate family together in a while, since when he was in the country, I was living in a different state and working a job that wouldn't let me get away. I don't remember much of anything about presents or anything from that year - what made it so great was just having everyone there, because these days I really can't take it for granted.

(And my sister-in-law is amazing. She fits in with our family like a glove! c: )

[emberwishes]

[dieneces]

I think my best Christmas memory was when I was twelve and my older cousins took me out to go snowboarding for the first time in my life- I have never faceplanted so much in one day- but it was still one of my favourite memories. I still go snowboarding or other trips elsewhere with the family during the wintertime, but the first time learning was always the most special for me.

[emberwishes]

[ravengown]

I don't celebrate Christmas so I don't have ... Christmas memories, specifically, but I liked eating Chinese food with my family on Christmas day '~'!

[emberwishes]

[kuranosuke]

I don't have that many good memories of Christmas. I guess my favorite ones tend to be those where nothing significant happens. Like just hanging around in peace with family, watching silly shows on tv and doing whatever I want.

Well, there was a Christmas which we spend with my late grandma, but I can't remember a lot about that, unfortunately.

[emberwishes]

[zettaimuri]

Haha, my memory is kind of bad so questions like this are always difficult. The only Christmases I can remember are the ones that maybe weren't so great.

The last few Christmases our cat has come to join us by sitting in boxes and tearing up wrapping paper for us. Oh, I guess last Christmas counts as a good memory too since I actually managed to get my Dad a decent present! Honestly he's the hardest person to get gifts for...

[emberwishes]

[netbug009]

The banner reminds me of a year I go SO. MUCH. POKEMON. STUFF. when I was a kid. so much. *_*

[emberwishes]

[eclair]

My family doesn't really celebrate Christmas. But one year (a long, long time ago) my Dad's side of the family decided to do a last minute party at my Aunt's small apartment and it was a blast. We just spent the night eating and talking. I can't remember much about it other than that it was crowded and warm.

[emberwishes]

[tonko]

A looooooong time ago, when I was still very little, my sister and I got woken up by our parents, and I suspect this is because THEY really wanted us to see what was there by the tree, and for good reason, cause there were wrapped up presents, and our stockings, but under each of our stockings was a doll house!!

There was a different model for each of us, and now that I'm not nine, and seeing what large toys cost, I feel like that was a darn expensive year, though it's likely the other stuff under the tree was smaller stuff. Though one wrapped present for each of us was a family to live in the doll house. Not people dolls either, but rather "Sylvanian Families", which is a line of animal doll families, they look like this, aren't they cute? I got bears and my sister got rabbits :D

[emberwishes]

[eyvindur]

I think last year was something rememberable. With the last few years, the family hasn't really done the Christmas thing so hardcore like we used to. On Christmas Eve, my mother discovered that a particular channel was broadcasting The Yule Log and she got excited as she hadn't seen it in years. So we just sat in front of a television until, like, midnight and eagerly just watched and chatted and got all excited when the fireplace was tended to. It was pretty silly but it was nice to relax a bit.

[emberwishes]

[shinsengumi]

Christmas has usually seen me crying in the past and I don't think this year will see that changed much since family is now much farther than it ever was before, but Christmas is about me and my partner enjoying time together and relaxing with tasty food and Spartacus. It's simple, but it's nice.

[emberwishes]

[totling]

I don't know how funny it is now, but at the time it was kind of hilarious.

We always have two Christmases, one with my mom and grandparents, and another with dad and his side of the family. When we were young and I think I would have been tttten, my little sister and I had just gotten a computer! One of those enormous boxy things with Oregon Trail as the only entertainment. We were preeeetty psyched, since this was our first way to play any kind of video game at all, ever.

For some reason, we had Dad's Christmas before mom's - usually mom's was Christmas day, and dad's was on New Year's, because that's when my uncle could get off work (and my grandmother has in fact canceled multiple Christmases because Uncle S could not make it, but that's ... well that's its own story). It was Christmas Eve for the first and only time!

Anyway! As it happens, we unwrapped a bunch of Playstation games.

We did not (yet) own a Playstation.

We tried to console our horrified looking aunts and uncles by saying we could just exchange the games for computer games. I will never forget the wave of sheer "OH GOD WE EFFED UP" in that room. Neither sister nor I realized we were at that point in time, a mere 12 hours away from an actual video game console. But everyone else knew :'D

[emberwishes]

[vethica]

Aha ahaha HELLA JEW HERE... I will say, though, I am looking forward to Christmas this year. The movie of Into the Woods is coming out, and my dad and I are going to go see it and then get traditional Jewish Chinese food. So that's like the opposite of a memory? But it'll be fun and I'm stoked. c:

[emberwishes]

[mori]

There was one year that my brother stayed with us while he was having (and recovering) from a knee surgery. And it snowed really hard, so our electric ended up going out, but we had a fireplace that mom and I took turns to keep going. And we were so bored without electric that the three of us just took turns making up dumb stories and singing messed up versions of Christmas carols. It was was really silly and not at all anything special, but it was hilarious to us at the time, and it's still something that I look back on with a smile. (Although to be fair I don't think it was exactly Christmas, but it was close enough that I'll forever associate them together.)

In general, though, things like that tend to be the Christmases that stick out more, I guess? When I was little, it was nice to see Christmas be a big deal, but getting older, just having fun and not stressing over the holiday is a lot more enjoyable I've found.

[emberwishes]

[skybuns]

Hm. I have terrible memory when it comes to the past, so I don't remember anything in particular about the various Christmases I've spent with family. Last year though, my brother and I got a nice wallet for my dad for Christmas (which is also his birthday!) and recently, I saw him actually using said wallet. That made me really happy, especially since I have a bad tendency to forget to buy gifts for people.

[emberwishes]

[tentacular]

Many hundreds of years ago when I was a little boy... okay, joking aside.

My favourite memories were definitely when I was a kid. My dad used to shock me every year because I'd go to bed with only the decorations up, nothing out, but when I woke up the living room would be full of tiny presents. See, my dad shopped smart, and picked up things from charity shops and sales instead of buying one big present I might not like, so I would get all these little books and these grab bags of action figures and stuff like that. I could never figure out where he hid that stuff because our apartment wasn't all that big, and yet he seemed to have a secret workshop or something where he stashed shit.

When I was little, my siblings used to drop in for christmas too, and we'd play with stuff together. It was the only time of the year I got to play with them because they were all adults when I was just a bitty wee thing, knee-high to a grasshopper.

Sadly, once my father passed away, my siblings drifted away from us, so christmas hasn't been the same ever since, but I'll always fondly remember the christmasses of my youth.

[emberwishes]

[admiral]

I have an awful memory oops but the one present I vividly remember getting was the year we got a PS1 haha. I wanted one SO BADLY and that year we went through all the gifts under the tree and NO PS1??? But my dad had hidden it somewhere else so it was saved for last and I was so excited after I unwrapped it that I ran around the house with the box. I'm pretty sure it came bundled with Crash Bandicoot: Warped? That was such a good game too, what a good Christmas for like 8-9 year old me haha.

[emberwishes]