I figured the OB would be a good place for this topic. What are some of your favorite Christmas memories from the old days? One of mine is from my Grandma's house. She always had the hard rock candy in a small candy dish on a table where the phone was. That, picking up pecans there, and staring into her Dearborn propane heater. Just curious on what others remember. Merry Christmas!

Lots! We always opened our gifts on eve at home, so in the evening we would all pile in the car to "go look at christmas lights" all except for mom. And of course Santa came while we were gone. The next day was at granny's house. She was old german, and made pastries that she called haben coogans ( spelling is probably all wrong). Looked alot like the czech kolachi, but slightly different bread part. Soo good. Could live on them.

Granny's on Christmas Eve was the highlight of my year

Christmas day at home

Granny lived next door so we didn't travel far

I miss my Granny, and I am afraid Mom and Dad aren't far behind

They have been married 58 years and Dad is almost 80 and has dementia.

My maternal grandparents lived in Cut-n-Shoot. Papaw would always walk in the woods and cut 2 pine trees down. He would bring them to his house and place both of them in the den by the fireplace. He placed them together. He then had a way of intertwining the branches that made it look like one tree. I would sleep on a pallet in front of the fireplace. Went to sleep smelling the fire and looking at the tree.

My paternal grandparents lived in Louise. Grandpa always set up a plywood cut out of Santa in sleigh pulled by the 8 reindeer. He set them to where the sleigh was almost on the ground with the lead reindeer were almost 6' in the air. At night it was lit up by some spot lights. Looked like it was flying. He tied it all together barbed wire and t-posts. It was great being a farmers (on both sides) grandkid!

I grew up with both sets of grandparents in the same neighborhood 3 blocks apart on the north end of town. We lived in town. Christmas Eve was with extended family on the south side of town. Christmas morning at home. Lunch at maternal grandparents. Dinner at paternal grandparents. Didn't get out much, had no need! Christmas was just 2 days a year. All events 15 minutes apart at most.

Christmas events now last for 3 weekends plus the Eve and Christmas day events. My wife and I attend family events in 4 different counties.

The only specific memory I have is a Christmas countdown calendar. I started doing that same countdown calendar with my (almost) 4 year old this year.

My grandparents on my dad's side lived out in the country and were big fans of the Schwann's truck, ordered several times a month from them. One year my grandmother threw in some chicken wings from schwanns in with the traditional turkey/ham/etc. for Christmas dinner and the 4 grandkids devoured them, so for the next probably 10+ years, every Christmas meal included Schwanns frozen wings for us grandkids.

My grandparents on my mom's side was like watching the McCalisters house from Home Alone. They had 5 kids, 4 are married with kids, so just lots of activity and energy with so many people in one house. Everybody got multiple gifts so on Christmas Eve when the whole family was over there, the living room was piled high with presents. Not exaggerating to say there probably were some years with 100+ presents/bag/boxes that took up over half the floor space in there. It was a sight to see.

At both sets of grandparents the adults would often play 42 after the meal (and on other major holidays like Easter and Thanksgiving), so that's where my love for the game was born. I know many people pick it up while at A&M but I was playing before I got to college after watching my family play it so much during the holidays.

Kinda my default growing up house between Oilton and Bruni on 359 where my mother was raised. Christmas Eve service at Bruni Methodist church as Grampa was layman. Not sure how Santa got stuff for 7 young kids there but he always pulled it off.
Christmas baking and homemade tamales and especially the ribbon candy only around for Christmas. Oh and the rum with eggnog in it. Got sick a few times.

The colored water lights on my Nanny's Christmas tree were absolutely mesmerizing to five year old me. Me and my brother couldn't sit still while my dad, uncle, and PawPaw watched football so we'd go climb the hill and throw rocks into the stock tank below followed by jumping row to row on the round bales.

jagsdad said:

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Lots! We always opened our gifts on eve at home, so in the evening we would all pile in the car to "go look at christmas lights" all except for mom. And of course Santa came while we were gone. The next day was at granny's house. She was old german, and made pastries that she called haben coogans ( spelling is probably all wrong). Looked alot like the czech kolachi, but slightly different bread part. Soo good. Could live on them.

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I was the youngest of five. My mom was the church organist. When I was young, I would go to bed around 10:00. Everyone but my dad would go to midnight mass and dad would put out all the "Santa" presents and fill the stockings. When the family came back from mass they would wake me up and all the presents would be opened.

We would go to bed and wake up the next morning and continue the celebration.

When I was older, I would go to mm with the rest of the family. Then come home and open presents.

I was watching a football game on the couch with my girlfriend holding hands one day. We were at Nana's house. She was probably in her mid-80s at the time but was still manning the kitchen. She came in the living room and saw us sitting there on the couch too close for her liking so she pulled up a chair and sat down in between us and the TV and asked what we were doing. I told her watching football and she proceeded to give us the sex talk for the next 10 minutes. When she was done she wouldn't move until we got up and grabbed some fishing poles and went out back and went fishing. That girlfriend is now my wife and we have a picture of us fishing together that day on our fridge.

This was my favorite Christmas music when I was a kid. I still listen to it repeatedly today starting right after Thanksgiving

Christmas is my favorite, and I hope it always will be.

I am an only child, and had the biggest stocking in Texas growing up. Of course, I never appreciated it properly; however, I now realize it must have cost a small fortune to fill that thing up. Mostly had candy, nuts and various other wonders of kiddom.

One year I was given the Mattel Electronic Football game and it probably still rates as the finest gift of my childhood. That year Christmas was on a Sunday, so off to Church we go (I am glad for that now) but on that day, I was painfully wishing Church would end so I could go back to handheld bliss.

NOTE: my mom waited hours for the Target to open at Bay Area Blvd so I could have that white little device.

Damn. Just too many good memories to list. We always had everybody over at our home farm on the Guadalupe River in the hill country. Grandparents lived on their place next door. All German family…. Would sing Christmas Carols in German.
Would go play football outside after dinner or the guys would all shoot .22's at cans and bottles.
I proposed to my wife now of 47 years by the Christmas tree at my Grandparents…. Seems like yesterday.
Only my wife, myself and two cousins left from our entire family….. but they will all be with us again Christmas night….. if only in spirit and memory.
Thanks to all who posted…. All you guys brought back lots of memories with your stories.

We'd go to my grandparents house for a big Christmas celebration. I remember playing tackle football with all my cousins for hours. I can't imagine how bad we smelled when we finally came inside to eat and open presents.

Breakfast Christmas Mornings and Granny and Papaws.

We always opened gifts at our house EARLY am on Christmas morning then went next door to granny's to open some gifts over there. Following gift, was breakfast, home made, every breakfast food we ever could have asked for. My papaw could fry an egg over easy like no other!

To this day, I always make a huge breakfast Christmas morning. I'm taking some time off ahead of the holidays this year so I may break out the family recipe for Kolaches (yes, the fruit kind).

Christmas every year at my grandparents house on lake Whitney with all the cousins. Even though I was the second youngest I'd make them all help me set trot lines. I fell in the lake one year when it was so cold there was ice on the banks. We thought we'd all be in trouble so they snuck me in the side door so no parents would see.

And my first fishing pole.

Gunny456 said:

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Damn. Just too many good memories to list. We always had everybody over at our home farm on the Guadalupe River in the hill country. Grandparents lived on their place next door. All German family…. Would sing Christmas Carols in German.
Would go play football outside after dinner or the guys would all shoot .22's at cans and bottles.
I proposed to my wife now of 47 years by the Christmas tree at my Grandparents…. Seems like yesterday.
Only my wife, myself and two cousins left from our entire family….. but they will all be with us again Christmas night….. if only in spirit and memory.
Thanks to all who posted…. All you guys brought back lots of memories with your stories.

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The Lutheran church in Priddy still sings Silent Night n German. Is beautiful IMO

One of my favorite A&M memories was in December 1985. We made it to the Cotton Bowl so my roommate and I had a cotton stalk in a coffee can decorated like a Christmas Tree. Love that memory.

I've posted this a couple of times over the years but not on the OB so some of ya'll might have missed it.

https://texags.com/forums/12/topics/3260872/replies/61110022

Growing up, we had a routine where we'd have our family gift exchange on Christmas eve and then "Santa" would come -- additional gifts -- on Christmas morning. After that, we'd get in the car and go to my grandparents' house -- my dad's parents. My dad was an only child, so my sisters and I had his folks all to ourselves. I always thought that was kinda cool. The day after that, we'd go to my mom's family for their deal, but that involved a bigger family. While I liked seeing my cousins, that was less of a "what am I going to get" kind of thing. It bothers me now that I thought of it as that, but I'm thankful for the memories that I do have. I honestly have few if any recollections of any gifts I received, but since all of the folks involved in this part of the story have passed except my sisters and many of my cousins, I can say I do think often of those times -- and not necessarily only at Christmas.

But one memory I will always cherish of Christmas took place my Sr. year in HS and didn't much involve my family at all, except my dad in a small way. We had what we called "Project Adoption" at my school where we'd take in a kid that was somewhat less fortunate -- foster home, etc. -- and give him or her a "Christmas." My senior year, my homeroom (the assigned class for this) was Physics and made up of all Jr. and Sr. students. We went all out. My initial assignment was to go to a sporting goods place and get the kid a personalized sweat suit. Back in those days, sporting goods places were mom and pop shops that did team jerseys, sold sweats, shoes, etc. Otherwise, there was Oshmans and maybe Academy in some places but that was it. Anyway, I took care of that and we compiled everything in class the day before the big day, which was to be on Friday, the last day of school before Christmas break.

So, on Thursday night, I get a call from a couple of guys in my class. It went something like this:

Them: Hey, we're going to Walmart and get the kid a bike.
Me: OK. But don't we have enough stuff?
Them: Yeah, but we decided to do it up right.
Me: Cool. I'll see you tomorrow.
Them: Wait, we need you to come get us.
Me: What? Why?
Them: You've got the biggest car/trunk. Oh, and do you or your dad have any tools to put it together?
Me: (begrudgingly) OK. Let me check with him on the tools.
Them: yeah, and bring some cash.

So I hang up the phone calling those two guys dumb_____ (with the most Christmas spirit, of course) and then go talk to my dad fearing the worst. He says, "wait here." He comes back with a $20 bill. I almost faint. Then he tells me to follow him out to the garage and shows me what I'll likely need to put it together and shows me what to do. He tells me if he doesn't get his tools back my butt is you know what.

We get the bike that night and put it together over 3 class periods the next day. I don't remember how I talked other teachers into letting me out of their class to work on that stupid bike (or why it took the three of us idiots that long to put it together) but seeing that kid ride that bike up and down the hallway of my school was something I'll NEVER forget. We were high-fiving. That kid made out like a bandit (not only stuff for him, but his siblings as well) and I loved every second of it.

My dad had a big family. He had 3 brothers and a sister, and all of them had kids. We'd all get together for Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter every year for an early lunch. Greens Sausage House sausage, Westphalia noodles, everyone brought a dessert, then everyone tried to find a seat in this 1500ish sq ft house to eat.

I remember those lunches with vivid detail. We all got my grandpa a new TV and a cable subscription one year for Christmas solely so it could be used only for those lunches. He'd probably never turn it on any other day. He was pissed we were getting rid of his aluminum foil covered rabbit ears. We just wanted to watch the football games in color.

The last year I can remember, some of my older cousins brought dominoes. My brother and I had just learned to play 42, but we knew enough to enjoy a game against my older cousin and his wife. He told us he had some whiskey in his truck so we got it out and had some whiskey and diet Dr. Pepper because he claimed you wouldn't get hungover drinking it with diet, and it was the first time I could remember anyone drinking alcohol at these lunches. We decided we were going to make this 42 game a new tradition.

My grandma died of ALS shortly after and those lunches faded away. All those kids have kids and trying to get everyone together on the same day became impossible. I imagine the next time I see most of those cousins we'll be celebrating my currently 92 year old grandpa's life.

jagsdad said:

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Lots! We always opened our gifts on eve at home, so in the evening we would all pile in the car to "go look at christmas lights" all except for mom. And of course Santa came while we were gone. The next day was at granny's house. She was old german, and made pastries that she called haben coogans ( spelling is probably all wrong). Looked alot like the czech kolachi, but slightly different bread part. Soo good. Could live on them.

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interesting. Not sure what the first part is (how was haben pronounced?) but kuchen is German for cake and usually has fruit on it. Could it have been some slang like handekuchen (roughly would be hand cake)

redaszag99 said:

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Granny's on Christmas Eve was the highlight of my year

Christmas day at home

Granny lived next door so we didn't travel far

I miss my Granny, and I am afraid Mom and Dad aren't far behind

They have been married 58 years and Dad is almost 80 and has dementia.

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I miss my Mom and Dad daily. Dementia sucks!

My mom grew up in an orphanage from 11-18 yrs old (both her foster parents died within a year of each other.

So obviously she never wanted her children to feel neglected and every Christmas we'd be opening presents and a few would show up out of nowhere that my dad had no clue about and he'd exclaim "where did that come from" and my mom would just look at him and say "SANTA!"

I never realized until I had my own kids what she was doing and how much she loved us.

Sure do miss her. : (

Dementia does indeed suck.

Thisguy1 said:

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I was watching a football game on the couch with my girlfriend holding hands one day. We were at Nana's house. She was probably in her mid-80s at the time but was still manning the kitchen. She came in the living room and saw us sitting there on the couch too close for her liking so she pulled up a chair and sat down in between us and the TV and asked what we were doing. I told her watching football and she proceeded to give us the sex talk for the next 10 minutes. When she was done she wouldn't move until we got up and grabbed some fishing poles and went out back and went fishing. That girlfriend is now my wife and we have a picture of us fishing together that day on our fridge.

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Dude, that is awesome!!!

Gentlemen, reading these stories sure bring up some great memories in me.

My dad buying my mom "her" annual gun of his choosing.....

Wish I could find the story an older gentleman used to post every Christmas Eve on texags about Christmas in small town Texas in the 30's. I believe his story included his dad having to ride the rails from NY to get back to Texas in time, his family decorating the tree with popcorn, singing carols in Polish and a present of an apple. Every year he posted it until he passed away. It was so full of simple pleasures and thankfulness and such a contrast to our life today. I read it every year and each time it brought a tear.

Ok, I found it; as introduced by another texags poster:

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Blue Lapels or Bob Lang, was a much loved poster on another site. He shared many stories, all of them great, but this one was always my favorite. Bob passed away almost 10 years ago, but I (and many others) always think about him on Christmas Eve.

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It was the Christmas of 1933, the depression was in full swing, my Dad was an engineering officer on board a Texaco tanker which caried oil from Port Arthur to New York(was laid off when ship hit NY without pay for two mos work, he was given 10.00 and he was lucky to get that, he rode the rails and walked bach to Marlin, Texas..I did not recognize him when he came home) I was with my mom living back on the farm. It had snowed and ice was every where. My grandpa hitched up the small mule to a sled and my uncle Ted, went with us to cut a tree for Christmas...he had one staked out. It was real pretty and we cut it, placed it on the sled and brought it home. Pop corn was being made for tree ornaments and my aunts had to beat me to it because I was eating the pop corn. They made a stringer of pop corn and then cut strips of colored paper and made loops to add to the tree, some old ornaments were also put on the tree and it was beautuful. Well, my uncle always teased me and told me I was too young for Christmas and could not go into the living room....Although I was not allowed to speak or learn polish, I knew some cuss words and I used them, grandma was appaled and grandpa laughed. That night we gathered for Christmas, we sat around the tree and sang christmas songs in Polish, which I could not understand. Then sang in American, which I could understand. I was given a big red apple, which was the usual gift to children and it was the largest apple I have ever seen....It was a beauty. I put it on the kitchen table and just looked at it, touched it and held it occasionally, it was mine and I was going to keep it as long as I could. We had to go to church for mid night mass, and I really did not care to go to church, rather stay at home and look at my apple. Well, I lost out and went to church. We got back, went into the house and that apple had a slice taken out. When I saw that, the guvna (sh t) hit the latern and I was looking for unle Ted.....I knew he did it. and I was right....that rascal had another apple and had switched on me, I chased him around the house at 4 am, and it was cold, snowey and really bright. It was a beautiful night or morning. as I chased hin we went around the wood pile and holy guvna .....there it was, a beautiful wagon, he had made for me, I was stunned. my first toy or tool or whatever. Now I could pull the wagon full of fire wood to the house instead of having to carry it in. He became my favorite uncle again. I lived thru 81 Christmases, I guess that was the second best because the best was when I gave Patricia her engagement ring while she was visiting her Aunt in Schulenberg....I was wearing my senior boots and I thought I was the luckiest man in the world...I was in my boots engaged to the most beautiful girl from Teague, Texas...sixty years ago tonight. It will be a lonely Christmas tonight, but I have so many beautiful memories......Merry Christmas Ags, I am on my way to Hellotes to spend Christmas with my remaining family....I will say a prayer tonight for my beloved Aggieland and my extended family of Aggie everywhere.

Bob Lang

Thanks all for posting. Those are all great stories and brought back some good memories for me just reading through them.

Both of my parents were only children so me and my brother had all four grandparents to ourselves. They lived a few streets apart in Orange, so that was where we went. Maybe it was just being with my grandparents but that town seemed to really come alive around Christmas. Lots of older residents that went all out with light displays., life size manger scenes, church functions, etc.

One tradition that we loved as young boys, my grandma always made sure our stockings had three things- fruit, nuts, and plenty of fireworks. We'd always get to shoot them once it got dark Christmas night. I must have been 20yo before I realized that the fireworks stands weren't open to sell Christmas fireworks.

I think I was about 12. Living on our little farm on the Guadalupe River. We were pretty poor and had an old 12 ft. Semi V aluminum boat that was made by a company called Arkansas Traveller. It had a1947 7.5 HP Wizard on it. Hard as hell to start.
Well that Christmas my dad gave me a used 9.5 Johnson.
It was wrapped up and sitting under the tree. I was so excited I almost pissed my pants…. wow what a gift.
After we all had opened all the other presents the family walked across the road to my grandparents house for breakfast. Everyone was hanging out over there so I went back to our house to eye my " new" used outboard.
I was just admiring it and decided to just give a little pull on the start rope….,well…. You guessed it…. It had, I guess,?just enough fuel left in the cylinders that it fired off for about 1-2 seconds! Filling the living room with a light haze of old 2-stroke outboard motor smoke. Scared the crap out of me!!!
About that time my dad walked in…. I quickly sat on the couch…. He asked what I was doin…. I said " Oh nutthin"
He just started laughing and went to the kitchen.
He told that story every Christmas from then on.

For many years every time I smelled 2-Stroke Outboard smoke it would take me back to that Christmas morning long ago.

Best gift ever and that old motor took me up and down the Guadalupe for many, many years.

Cool story.

It all started with the cutting of our Christmas tree. Dad had quit school and run away from home when he was 11 years old, so we never had any excess money. For that reason, we didn't have an artificial tree, nor one bought off a lot where they sell those very nice trees. The place he worked was about 4,000 acres, lots of it wooded, and we would go cut a pine every December. Of course, they have gaps in them, but you turn the bad side to the wall or put the tree in the corner to hide the imperfections. We still hunt that property, but don't cut our Christmas tree there.

All my grandparents had died before I was born, so we never had to go anywhere on Christmas Day, didn't have to open presents on Christmas Eve to accommodate having to be at several places on Christmas Day. Was always envious of everyone with grandparents though. We opened presents Christmas morning, and the day was spent with my parents and two younger brothers. Despite a less than stellar income, we had the best Christmases in terms of presents. The company my dad worked for gave a bonus, every year, something like $100 plus $5 or $10 per year of service. That was a lot of money in the late 50s and the 60s. He grew up getting little or nothing and that caused him to spend every dime of his bonus on we three boys.

After the initial excitement had died down, around 10am or so on Christmas morn, a friend of my dad's (who was the Pearl beer distributor) would show up with a paper bag with several of every size of battery in it. His son and daughter were grown, past the age of toys for Christmas, and evidently, he missed it. So, he would come over, sit on the floor and play with our toys with us, providing any needed batteries for them.

It's funny how things early in life impact you for all your life. I was in my teens when I found out from my mom why we got so much stuff on Christmas morn. She told me that some years daddy would get pecans his father had picked up, then other years he would get a lot of things (more of the pecan type years though). And that because of his childhood, how it turned out, he wanted us to have more than he had, and the bonus allowed them to do so. I owned my own businesses for 35 or so years. Every Christmas everyone who worked for me got a bonus. Some of those years there was not enough funds for me to get one, but I made sure the others did. I remembered the role they played in my childhood and wanted the same for our employees' children.