Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since Christmas is just around the corner, I thought it'd be nice if we all would share a favorite Christmas memory of ours with each other. We've become a rather close community so what better way to share a nice memory than at this time of year?

I'll start because mine is very simple. It still plays out in my head.

In about 1981, when I was just 6, that was when the toyline, the Masters of the Universe was first hitting store shelves. And at that age, I thought it was just the coolest thing ever! I remember those weeks before Christmas, walking thru the department store toy aisles and seeing an entire lane of those MOTU action figures, vehicles and playsets and just BEGGING mom and dad for just one!

But of course, they said what all parents say at that time of year;

"Wait and maybe Santa will bring you some for Christmas." (don't you hate it when parents say that? <_< )

The thing I wanted most of all was Castle Grayskull, because the art on the box just made it so damn appealing!

The commercial for the Castle didn't help either!

Castle Grayskull commercial

For some reason, I had a fascination with trap doors and the fact the Castle had one made it all the more appealing. I begged and begged for the Castle for Chrostmas, even writing a late letter to Santa. I swore in the days before Christmas that I would play with it every day if I got just it.

Well the days passed (SLOWLY) and Christmas Eve arrived. I saw no big boxes under the tree so that wasn't a good sign. My brother spent the night at my Grandma's and I finally went to bed (barely). The morning came and I was not allowed out of my bedroom to see the tree until my dad went and got my brother. Talk about torture!

Anyway, after he left to go get him, my mom told me I could come out for a little peek. I snuck out and looked around the corner, and lo and behold, there was Castle Grayskull right in front of the tree, in that glorious box, unwrapped! (My folks reckoned I'd get that sucker tore open in record time so why bother wrapping it?) I wanted to dive right at it then and there but mom made me go back to my room. Few minutes later, my dad pulled into the drive and I got the call to come on out. I bolted from my room and let out the biggest holler as I went right after that box, and me and my brother dug into the presents!

And I was not without something to play with the Castle, as my aunt had went to the store for my mom and selected my first two MOTU figures for her;


Stratos and


Teela

I also got some great stuff like a stuffed Papa Smurf toy, and I believe that was the year my brother and I got the Atari and a few games to go along with it.

All I can say is that particular Christmas, it was just magical and has been my favorite Christmas morning by far.

I was about ten years old. I woke up at about 3 a.m. Christmas morning. I got down from my bunk bed (I always slept on the top bunk, even though I was the only one sleeping in it) and there was a fishtank on my dresser. It was dark and I didn't want to turn on the light in fear of waking up my parents, so I couldn't really tell what was in it. All I could tell was that it wasn't full of water and that it looked like there was some kind of large rock in it.

I went downstairs (quietly) and saw that there were twice the amount of presents under the tree as when I went to bed! Santa really came through that year!

After checking the empty plate of cookies and the empty cup of milk, I went back upstairs and lay in bed awake until sunrise. That's when I found out that the rock in the fishtank was actually a turtle, something that I had really wanted that year.

And oh man, the toys. I think that must have been my most bountiful Christmas ever. And after I got my presents from my parents, we went to my grandparents' house for the family get-together and got a bunch more presents.

I have so very many, this one sticks out right now and is convenient to type out. I may have more later.

My Great Aunt Mira (grandfather's sister) traveled much in the last 25 years of her life. She had a house in Florida but I don't recall her ever staying there more than a week or two at a time to do laundry. So generally, she mailed our gifts to us and we kept them until Christmas to open. I wish she'd been there when this happened. Until the day she died, ever since this incident, we've been weary of her gifts.
About 8 years ago, we were celebrating Christmas Eve (ours is a Bavarian tradition, so tree gifts on the Eve). It was myself, my parents, my aunt (father's sister) and my grandparents (aged in their mid-late seventies).
My grandmother opens her gift, and it's lots of tissue paper before she gets down to the meat of the package. Wave after wave of frothing white tissue, folded ever so delicately around...
She gets a wide eyed expression and pulls up for display what may well have been another blow in their eternal war. A skimpy pink nighty that will barely cover all essential parts, constructed of utterly transparent charmousse with braided silk spaghetti straps, of a length that would just barely brush the top of the thigh when wore. And it's got feathers on it.

The real kicker? Elizabeth, my aunt, opened hers next and Mira got her the same one in red. Why my mother was spared this indignity we do not know.