Favorite Christmas Memories, Please Share......Carole Tonigan

The winter holiday season is upon us and it may trigger some memories of our seasonal holiday traditions during our childhood. So we want to have you get a little nostalgic and recall those early childhood years and your favorite memories or traditions, favorite gifts, toys or games, favorite meals, favorite outdoor activities, etc. that you enjoyed (or perhaps did NOT enjoy) during the holiday season.

Please join us in sharing your memories and traditions those years when life was simpler.

Carole Tonigan and Renee Milbandt 1966

 Carole Tonigan......My Dad had an old sleigh. He would use his old Ford tractor to pull it down Lincoln street, ringing a bell to call out our neighbors to join us. We had bales of hay to sit on, there was singing and laughing, etc. We also recall getting the Sears catalogue with the toy section and making our list for Santa. 

Cookies & Milk for Santa at Schreiner's

Tim Schreiner......While some families opened gifts on Christmas morning, our family had a strict Christmas Eve ritual that went along with opening gifts that night. We always had oyster stew for dinner (not a favorite among the younger members), after which the six Schreiner children all went upstairs to building anxiety and excitement while Santa visited our home. We always left out a glass of milk and two chocolate chip cookies for the great one.

Rawstern's Christmas Wrapping Paper from Sears

Terry Rawstern......My dad was the Receiving Manager of the Sears store in Aberdeen.  At the end of the Christmas season each year he would gather up all of the Christmas wrapping paper.  Rather than throwing it away, he brought it home and all of the presents wrapped under our tree the next Christmas were wrapped with the leftover Sears paper from the previous year. As I look back, this was a special tradition we had in our house.







Rory King......It was our first Christmas together.  Susie and I were poorer than church mice.  I was just starting the law practice, and it was slow--mostly criminal appointments.   Susie was still in college.  We lived in a small lake cabin at Richmond with one floor furnace and a fireplace to keep us warm.  We bought a four-foot reject of a Christmas tree with a bent spine and not many needles.  Susie made all of our ornaments out of hardened and painted bread dough.   Needless to say, our presents to one another were inexpensive and functional--I bought her a pair of shoes, and she bought me some slippers, if I recall. Straight out of O'Henry's "Gift of the Magi"!  But it was the best, most memorable Christmas ever.  We had each other.  And that was enough.

Susie & Rory Living Poorly

 

Cowboy Bob Couser

Bob Couser......My most memorable Christmas occurred in kindergarten at the Roosevelt school. I wanted a gun and holster badly. When I found wrapped gifts under the tree before Christmas, I carefully opened a gift with my name on it. I discovered that my mother did indeed get me my cowboy gun and holster. I carefully rewrapped it, placed it back under the tree, and pretended I was very surprised on Christmas day.