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With the pace of today we were talking tonight about the 1st Christmas we were married.
We were poor & the decorations were hand made. I cut a tree from the woods. We remember the decorations & making them but cant remember what gift if any. Cant remember being no gift though. We do remember the nuts & some fruit in a stocking.
I do remember gifts the 2nd yr. I got her a chime clock & she got me a Buck hunting knife. Still have it.
Those really were the good old days.
I will trade todays stress for yesterdays poor any time.
Merry Christmas.
LT

longtooth wrote:With the pace of today we were talking tonight about the 1st Christmas we were married.
We were poor & the decorations were hand made. I cut a tree from the woods. We remember the decorations & making them but cant remember what gift if any. Cant remember being no gift though. We do remember the nuts & some fruit in a stocking.
I do remember gifts the 2nd yr. I got her a chime clock & she got me a Buck hunting knife. Still have it.
Those really were the good old days.
I will trade todays stress for yesterdays poor any time.
Merry Christmas.
LT

I'm with you LT. This Sunday (12/19) we will be married 40 years. On our wedding day, the church was decorated for Christmas. I was a 2nd year school teacher and having to go to Grad. school to get my permanent certification so I didn't have two nickles to rub together.
I don't remember what gifts that we gave to either that Christmas but I know it wasn't much because we had to cover wedding expenses. Our honeymoon waited 5 years. I had to start teaching again in after New Years.

Even with all of that, the stress was a lot less than today. Perhaps it was ignorance but it was blissful. Merry Christmas

LT, you are correct. Those were the good old days. Traditionin our family is to gather on Christmas eve and tell sories about past Chrismas.This way our past will carry on. Still remember my grandmother telling about her childhood. She got a wooden doll her dad made her.

If only life was this simple today

Our first Christmas together we were not married yet. I was in the Navy and it looked like I wouldn't get leave. Due to a kindly and understanding Command Duty Officer I was able to leave the ship in time for a quick stop at the exchange for some gifts for my future bride and her two small daughters, and beat feet for the bus for a four hour ride.

The cab pulled up in front of her apartment just after she got home from work and she and the girls were looking out the window when I jumped out with my seabag loaded with gifts yelling "Ho, Ho, Ho" at the top of my lungs. For the life of me I can't remember the gifts we gave each other except she gave me a cat's eye ring, and I gave her a perfect 3/4 carat pear shaped diamond as an engagement gift, and she and the girls and I had a magical evening complete with midnight mass.

Christmas 1969 brings tears to my eyes, I lost her in 1993.

To get the diamond, BTW, we had to drive downtown to the jewelry store, which stayed open late on Christmas Eve just for us, in a snowstorm in her old clunker of a car with bald tires. The store was owned by a long time family friend, just try to get a chain jeweler to do that, and he sold it to me on time payments with nothing down, recalling his service days.

Thank you Fellas for sharing your Christmas memories. I only have to think back to 2008 for memories of my first Christmas with my wife. Thinking back to when I was a child and the presents my parents gave me and my sister only now do I realize the sacrifice my parents made for us. I think I'll let them know this year how much I appreciate what they did for us.

jimlongley wrote:Our first Christmas together we were not married yet. I was in the Navy and it looked like I wouldn't get leave. Due to a kindly and understanding Command Duty Officer I was able to leave the ship in time for a quick stop at the exchange for some gifts for my future bride and her two small daughters, and beat feet for the bus for a four hour ride.

The cab pulled up in front of her apartment just after she got home from work and she and the girls were looking out the window when I jumped out with my seabag loaded with gifts yelling "Ho, Ho, Ho" at the top of my lungs. For the life of me I can't remember the gifts we gave each other except she gave me a cat's eye ring, and I gave her a perfect 3/4 carat pear shaped diamond as an engagement gift, and she and the girls and I had a magical evening complete with midnight mass.

Christmas 1969 brings tears to my eyes, I lost her in 1993.

To get the diamond, BTW, we had to drive downtown to the jewelry store, which stayed open late on Christmas Eve just for us, in a snowstorm in her old clunker of a car with bald tires. The store was owned by a long time family friend, just try to get a chain jeweler to do that, and he sold it to me on time payments with nothing down, recalling his service days.

That is a really neat story. It is easy to lose the Christmas spirit in between buying gifts and keeping social engagements. This story helps remind me of what's important. Thanks!