It is being made in this moment. The story is -
Kati and I moved from the Baltic to Bavaria over the weekend, to check out a Workaway volunteer situation. It was a great learning experience, making a hub-able story, and we chose yesterday morning to return to central Germany to be closer to our son.
On the way back, road weary and driving at night through a snowstorm, we stopped in Rothenburg an der Tauber, an authentic medieval village. The innkeeper suggested we walk into the old village for the Christmas market.
It was a very crisp night, and the village Christmas lights were homey and sparkling. Ordinarily we are vegetarian and non-alcohol, but it just felt right to have cups of hot gluhwein and a bratwurst. The market booths were filled with German charm. Our bratwurst booth had a mission to send relief funds to Tanzania. The memory of our walk through the old village still warms me this morning and I am sure will as long as any memory remains.
Those days when I was dressed up like Santa and went for carol with friends.
Those days when I used to cut down branches of cyprus trees to make the Xmas tree.
Those days when I went in search of 'Straw' and 'dry grass' to make the crib meaningful.
Those days when I made stars out of bamboo sticks.
Those days when I used to get greeting cards from all my friends.
Those days when I used to wonder about my secret Santa.
Oh Time! Make me a kid again in your flight. Missing my golden memories about Xmas.
When I was a small child I remember tobogganing/sledging down a snow filled sloping field on the farm where my gran lived. It was near Christmas Eve, the night sky was dark and packed with stars and it was freezing and bitter but this didn't stop us having what seemed like an endless night of red cheeked fun.
How we sped over that crusty snow, often ending up sprawled and battered at the end of a long run.
Once the sledging was over a gang of us spent more hours trying to build giant snow chairs complete with sitting snowman! In my mind those chairs were perfect - complete with sculpted arms and all..plus a primitive snowman enjoying a well earned rest.
Magical nights close to Gran's cottage, the Top Wood and the still white farmland stretching away under that sky.
My 2 brothers and I would take turns being "Santa": the one who would take out the presents out from under Mom and Daddy's Christmas tree and would go around the room and hand the presents individually to everyone. Reading gift labels was fun, and by the time the designated "Santa" was done, there would be a huge pile on the floor waiting to be opened- the presents that were meant for the one giving out the presents. (There were usually about ten people to receive gifts, so you can imagine how long the gift giving time would take!)
When I was of grade school age we had Christmas with my aunt and uncle who had children ranging from about 18 to my age. It was during the second World War. My oldest brother was in the Navy and two of my cousins were also in the in the military. I got my exposure to GI humor in the papers and magazines around, such as the "Willie and Joe" cartoons of the day. I also learned that my father and my aunt loved to play practical jokes. It was a side of life I had not seen before. Some of this I have reflected in hubs.
Perhaps my favorite Christmas memory was having Christmas in Japan with all of the family together, wife and three kids as a benchmark of celebrating our first half of a year in Japan where we had slowly learned to speak Japanese and get used to being in another country. That little Christmas tree next to a large window overlooking orange-tiled roofs of homes and the distant Inland Sea of Japan brought us such cheer. Christmas indeed brought us together in ways that we have not yet fully appreciated.
I think the best Christmas I ever experienced was the one I spent with my soon-to-be husband. It was our first Christmas together, and on our own. We just got engaged, didn't set the date yet, but we already felt like a husband and wife. We picked the most beautiful (real) Christmas tree... I will never forget that!
Too many to pick from. What I love now that I am older and wiser, is the memories from pictures and film. That is so important. We can show all our family time together and laugh all over again, because nothing beats pictures or film.
by AJ Long 7 years ago
What is your favorite Christmas memory?Share the story around the memory!
by Sue Pratt 11 years ago
What s your favorite Christmas memory of all times?Mine is Christmas 2004 when we had snow here in New Orleans.
by Breannapeterson2 13 years ago
What is your FAVORITE Christmas memory?
by Susan Reid 12 years ago
Not a topic I ever thought I'd be bringing up, but...This qualifies for me as the oddest holiday experience ever.I hesitate to use the word trailer trash because Brenda will come and berate me. But if the behavior fits....Here's my candidate for Mr. and Mrs. Scrooge 2011:My sister-in-law the prima...
by Mohan Kumar 11 years ago
What is your best Christmas Memory?Christmas is a time for families and friends, reunions and remembrances, gifts of joy. What is your best Christmas memory thus far?
by Michele Kelsey 8 years ago
What is your best Christmas memory?
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |