Just like all other family times, best holiday memories are what you choose make of them. This post recalls some of my best memories of holidays.
For me, my memories of best holidays are a bit age dependent.
For example, as an older child, I remember my first “real” bicycle, a red Columbia bike. I also remember that it was stolen from the school bike lot when I was in junior high school.
As an adult, Christmas and Thanksgiving are more about time with family. However, since I’m not a late-night person, New Year’s Eve has no special meaning for me.
Holidays as a Child
As a school-aged kid, I remember that in general, any time out of school was good. So, with that as a metric, all holidays or teacher work days were pleasant memories!
Growing up, we rarely traveled on holidays. That said, I remember one Thanksgiving when we went to see family in South Carolina. It was good to see members of our extended family. In that particular case, it was my mom’s family.
As a child, Christmas was usually anti-climatic. Lots of build-up and anticipation, followed by a few minutes of gift opening. Then – it was over! Similarly, Thanksgiving requires incredible amounts of preparation and planning. After that, one huge meal followed by collapse and a nap on the couch!
I grew up in Florida. So, there was never a white Christmas. No fire, and no fireplace! However, there were lots of other kids in the neighborhood because so many other families close by had kids my age. As such, there was always someone outside who was available to do something!
My father was occasionally melancholy around Christmas time. Although he was not directly involved in fighting related to the Battle of the Bulge in World War II, he remembered the high casualty counts associated with that December 1944 offensive. He was in the 83rd Infantry Division – the Thunderbolt Division. He remained in Germany after the War as part of the occupation by the Allied Forces.
Halloween
Halloween was an enjoyable holiday when I was a child. We could walk around the neighborhood, pile-on the candy, then enjoy it for a couple of weeks. When we lived in Ohio, we were in a neighborhood where our kids got lots of candy at Halloween. Once they were in bed we could raid their candy baskets looking for chocolate!
We moved to Oxford, Ohio in 1990, right out of graduate school, to start my academic career. The fraternities invited faculty to bring their children by the Frat Houses for Trick-or-Treat. Of note, I remember, was that they tended to be overly generous in giving out candy. More specifically, no small sized candy bars! It was great!
Holidays at a Toy Store
All the way through high school and college I worked in a toy store. I also worked in that same business for a few years early in our marriage. As expected, the Thanksgiving-to-Christmas time period meant lots of extra work hours. During those years, Christmas was about being really tired!
Occasionally, I would go to a Christmas Eve service with friends from the toy store. So, I would rush home after closing the store, take a quick shower and change, then off to church for a brief service.
Of interest, the owner of the toy store was Jewish. Thus, it was peak season for his business but the season was of no religious interest to his family. Nevertheless, he was very generous with donations when local charities came in looking for last-minute assistance.
The toy store owner’s young son was really into the gift-giving he observed at Christmas. So much so that he once told his dad he didn’t want to be Jewish!
As a young married couple, especially during the couple of years I was in the toy business, we decorated our home for Christmas at Thanksgiving. Why? Because the day after Thanksgiving, and the weeks that followed, were long days of work for me. So, Thanksgiving was our only chance to decorate the house. Also, come to think of it, we had a lot fewer Christmas decorations back then than we do now!
Holidays at the Adult Table
As an adult, for me it’s more fun to watch the reactions of our children and grandchildren to all the activities going on. Especially on Christmas morning. It’s also enjoyable to spend time with extended family at Thanksgiving.
I like Christmas Eve services when the music selection is mostly traditional hymns. It’s even more enjoyable when you get to hold a sleeping grandchild during the service.
One year we visited my wife’s family in Florida for Christmas. Our oldest son was a child at the time. The first gift he went to was a dump truck. He played with that truck for quite a while, without opening any of his other gifts!
When I was at the University of Georgia in the late 1980’s working on my Ph.D., we traveled as a family to see my wife’s brother and sister-in-law in Virginia. It was fun for our three (at the time) kids because they got to see some snow. They also got to visit the National Christmas Tree in Washington D.C.
Winter Snow Days
We lived in Ohio for twelve years, from 1990 to 2002. During that time we would occasionally have snow at Christmas. We had a steep hill in our back yard, which was great for sledding. Just watch out for the tree stumps beneath the snow!
When our youngest, our fourth child, was very small he could go down the sledding hill really well. But, he couldn’t get back up. So, I had to pull him in the sled back up to the top.
The Christmas he was a three-year old his older brothers and sisters arrived early that morning to watch him open gifts. The problem? He chose to sleep late so we all sat around waiting for him to wake up! However, by the time he woke up the fires were going well in both the fireplace and the wood-burning stove!
Once, when we were expecting a hard freeze over night, our oldest son ran the hose so the water would flow down the hill creating a sheet of ice for sledding. The problem? He picked up too much speed going down the hill, had no way to stop, and so he crashed into the fence on the back side of the lot. No worries, no serious injuries – just a few scratches on his face!
And, in case you are wondering, a 90-pound black lab will not stay in the sled with you all the way to the bottom of the hill! Once she bails out the sled ride is over!
More memorable, I think, was the one time while in Ohio when we had snow flurries Halloween night! Even more memorable was the multiple snows and a hard freeze in January one year when the kids missed most of that entire month of school.
Some Random Holiday Thoughts
I’m not a NASCAR fan, so stock car races associated with holidays are of no interest to me. Watching cars drive around in a circle never appealed to me!
Additionally, I’m not able to think of anything memorable about any Valentine’s Day!
And, I’ve already mentioned about my lack of interest in New Year’s Eve. However, post-New Years football is a totally different story!
Holiday movies, in the U.S. at least, seem to be focused on either July 4 or on Christmas.
The Hallmark Channel shows Christmas movies non-stop between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Or July through December. You know, Hallmark’s 365 Days of Christmas! All the movies have the same plot! And, the same actors and actresses! The only difference in the movies is that each story occurs in different geographic locations.
Some Takeaways
Just like all other family times, best holiday memories are what you choose make of them. Conversely, holidays are only too commercial or too rushed because we choose to make them that way.
Often, we remember holidays because of the pictures we have taken and saved. Other times, we remember the holiday because of a particular food, or a smell, or a place. What’s important is that we remember.
Like most other significant memories in life, holidays are memorable because we choose to make them about those around us, rather than make the holiday about us.