Christmas Memories (Gifts) Part I

Christmas when I was growing up was always a big event.

I don't remember when I was real little and only bits and pieces of other years.

What I do remember is this:

We lived in Los Angeles, between Glendale and Eagle Rock. 

Those first Christmasses were during WW II years.

We (my younger sister and I) always got our presents on Christmas morning. No matter how early we awoke (very early) we couldn't go in the living room until our parents were ready for us to go. What excitement when we were first allowed in.

Christmas gifts I remember:

One of the early gifts was a Shirley Tempe doll with a china head and a wicker doll carriage. She got broken when I took the doll outside in the carriage after being told not to.

A two-story doll house my dad built and the furniture made by my aunt.

A two-wheel bicycle also made by my dad--during the war bicycles were not for sale for various reasons. I know he made the bicycle out of pipes (he was a plumber), where he got the other parts and tires I have no idea. He made a bike for my cousin too.

Story book dolls. A new one every year. Got one on my birthday too.

Nancy Drew mysteries.

An angora sweater that I wore Christmas Day even though it was about 80 degrees outside.

We always went to my maternal grandparents for Christmas Dinner and more presents. Grandmother wouldn't let us wash or dry her precious China. After dinner we loved to walk up Grand Avenue and peek in at all the mansions along the way.

Tomorrow I'll write about other Christmasses as an adult.

Marilyn

Comments

jrlindermuth said…
Family holiday gatherings were always at our house. Dad only had two siblings but Mom had eight, so you can imagine the crowd. My most vivid memory of Christmas is of my sister and I peeking down through the register (a grill in the floor which allowed heat of the coal furnace to rise into the bedrooms)to see what gifts our parents were placing around the tree on Christmas Eve when we were supposed to be in bed.
December 18, 2016 at 8:00 AM
Marilyn Meredith a.k.a. F. M. Meredith said…
It's so much fun to look back at those Christmasses.
December 19, 2016 at 6:19 AM
Radine said…
Thanks for the memories. My experiences are so similar to yours. Ah Story Book Dolls! I got them too. Wonder what happened to mine. I have not seen any mention of them since childhood.
December 19, 2016 at 6:42 AM
Jackie Houchin said…
I, of course, remember my first bicycle at age 9. A huge expense for my widow-mom, but an extreme pleasure for years and years in the trailer park we lived in.
December 19, 2016 at 9:40 AM
Anne Louise Bannon said…
Fun stuff. And you were in a part of L.A. that I've been getting to know, thanks to friends there. I'd say you wouldn't recognize it, but there are a lot of really old houses in those neighborhoods.
December 19, 2016 at 12:24 PM
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