What family traditions did you/do you have for Christmas? Do you remember any special foods or decorations around the house at that time of year?

well you should know this but.....

on christmas eve they would make me dress up like mary and my baby doll was jesus and joseph jacob and jared where the wise men the house looked the same exept for the room with the christmas tree was FULL of christmas crap some times we would buy egg nog for the heck of it. --Bubba Terry

We always opened one gift before bed after reading the Birth of Christ in Luke. I do not recall any special foods—just that there was always plenty --James Terry

I remember for Christmas that mom didn't cook and that you couldn't be the first up or you had to do the dishes. Mom wasn't big on baking or making candies so much but we always had bridge mix and hard tack throughout the holidays. Mom didn't care what you ate on Christmas as long as you ate some fruit or something healthy first thing before any candy or extra stuff. We had a relative that always sent us fruit cake - the only one that ate it was mom, she loved it. It was mom's Christmas too, so I don't remember seeing her do a lot of chores or clean up - just remember her in her house coat, than sweats when she got dressed. She called family and friends, wrote letters and allowed herself a day of rest. --Kathee Zenger

I think my most memorable Christmas' s were inGermany. I was 7, 8, and 9 years old. I remember specifically the year we got our sled. We always had to make our beds before we came into the living room and we had to wait till 8 in the morning. It was torture for us kids. I think mom and dad loved torturing us. It was fun for them to lay there cozy inbed, probably smiling to themselves just thinking how we agonized over having to wait so long before we could leave our bedrooms Christmas morning. We were all standing around mom and dad as mom read Santa's letter to us, and she showed us Santa's letter. She said, "See how shakey Santa's writing is. He must have been very cold outside as he was writing this letter to all of you." We looked at it, and then I think mom read on as the letter revealed what was waiting for us outside on the balcony--our brand new snow sled! We rushed to see it, and how happy we all were. We couldn't wait to get it outside and slide down the hill with all the other kids in the neighborhood. We had to take turns with only two of us on at a time. I remember waiting my turn as Jerry and George went down first, and then I would ride down with Jerry probably. He was the boss of us. :) That sled was never ending fun for us. Of course, I loved my Barbie doll too,and then I got Midge, Barbie's friend. I don't remember if it was that same Christmas, but I've always loved my Barbie doll and dreamed of having more Barbie clothes as I looked through the miniature Barbie clothes catalog. Mom was so nice to make my Barbie clothes. They were made so much better than the factory made Barbie clothes, and lasted much longer. I also remember being enchanted by seeing little elf figurines in Christmas displays. I love little elf figurines to this day. I don't remember what types of food we ate, but I think we did have turkey and similar feast as during Thanksgiving time as most American families seem to do. New Years we always had Japanese food though. We always had sushi, miso soup, and many other Japanese dishes. We've lived in so many different homes since dad was a career Army man. In Germany we lived on the Army post in an apartment building at a place called Perlacher Forst in Munich, Germany, and walked to school where all grades first through twelvth were held. We lived on the 2nd floor of our apartment building, and used to trade comic books all the time when another child would come around with his asking if we wanted to trade. Jerry would bring out all our comics and spread them out, and the other child had his he would let us look through. I remember I was sad when Jerry traded away a comic book I really liked called, "The Happy Hedgehog." --Mary Terry


A cedar tree was our choice for a Christmas tree. We went out to a hillside where many were growing and selected the nicest we could find, took it home to the living room, decorated it
garland, icicles, etc. Under the tree one Christmas morning we would find a small toy, fruit (such as oranges) and a few fancy candies we did not have other times of the year. Mother always made 3 large layer cakes, 1 w/chocolate frosting, 1 w/coconut, 1 w/ vanilla frosting. and we
would have a special dinner. We were poor but we always ate well. I remember when we had 2 cows (Milk and butter), chickens for eggs & meat. He trapped, hunted and fished, and worked for another large farmer during slaughter time for pork and beef. We had bee hives for honey, apple, peach and plum trees, grape vines. Grew all manner of vegetables etc. --Frank Tucker