Christian Forums

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

My Favorite Christmas Memory

th1b.taylor

Member
What is your favorite
Christmas memory?

You are about to know for certain that I should be certified something by one of the VAs Head Shrinkers. Of all the insane days and I spent nine hundred and fifteen days in South Vietnam but the most memorable Christmas I recall was at Camp Evans, I Corps on Christmas of nineteen sixty-eight.

I was sick to death from having been stationed, after my first year long tour at Ft. Mead, just outside DC. I was P.Oed. at the general population from the day I took a taxi from Receiving out to the San Francisco Airport.

In a 'Frisco Bar I and a few other men ikn uniform were refused service and when we asked why, the Bar Back extended his hand up to the, penned, sign reading No Service for Sailors, Marines, Dog Faces nor to any other Baby Killers.

This was happening in June of 1967 and when I arrived home, only my closest two friends would e seen with me in public. On the Braniff flight home a very sick man in a suit with a Brief Case he was working out of was seated next to me and after take-off he asks me, "How many Gooks did you kill?" Him I told to go join the (blank) Army and to volunteer for Vietnam Service and the he could slaughter all the damned Gooks he wanted to and I took my cover off my lap, pulled over my face and sat back as far as I could.

Paul had been killed November of sixty-six, along with others and I was still wrestling with why did I survive?

And then they send me to DC where all the roits and demonstrations were on going. But there I was, December the twenty-forth, drinking hot Black Label Beer and chasing it down with shots of one hundred and ninety proof Rum. I wanted to die so the torment would stop and as bad as I was, my dad was having issues with sobriety because he knew I had volunteered to return so the NVA or Victor Charles could kill me. I was a little depressed!

Then, as I sat on my webbed Lawn Chair, outside my tent I, faitly, heard Silent night playing some place far off. (I still cry at this memory, every Christmas.) I looked and it Bappear there was a Helicopter, invisible except for his Search Light the idiot had turned on. He was, I discovered later, flying over Camps Betty and Sharon, just south of the Marine Base Camp at Khe Sahn and about thirty clicks (30km) north of us. It was at that moment I recalled God speaking to me after cleaning Paul up from inside the tent where he died.

I no longer wanted to die but I had no idea what God wanted with me but a new life is one awesome gift and God's ways cannot be beaten.

Merry Christmas poeoples!
 
I have an issue, folks. I know Christmas was highjacked by Christians and I'm sure it is not Jesus' birthday but it is one of the two holidays the world should pay attention to us as we worship the One God. But really, ten people have viewed this string, read the opening question and have zero fond memories? None of you even received their first bike on Christmas Day?
 
I believe it was Christmas of 52 some how some way mom & dad got us each a bike..... little brother got a trike ...my was maybe 18 inch 2 wheeler and big sister'w was full size... before that day was over i had sorta stolen the big bike...

She still remembers :biggrin2
 
Last edited:
I have many fond Christmas memories. They are fond to me because a lot of the family members I shared them with are now gone, and I still miss them deeply of course. Friends too.

So, I'm busy making memories with my grandchildren. Today I'll be putting my oldest grandson's first peddle bike together with training wheels on it after he opens the gift wrap. It's a nice 18"er black Darth Vader model, will probably leave the big plastic Darth Vader emblem off the front. And will put him on it, with a helmet, after feeding him lots and lots of organic ice cream, which his parents never give him. And hopefully watch him rip up and down the street a bit. He's not even 3 yet. But he's a huge kid already. As big as many five year olds. I didn't get my first bike til I was 6, and that after a lot of complaining to my parents. Never got a bike for Xmas either.

He'll have some fond memories too. And so will grandpa.

When my dad was a kid, they used to get an apple for Xmas. No kidding. Salt of the earth peasant farmer stock. They never had Xmas gifts. Couldn't afford them. Thought they were an extravagance anyway, even if they could afford them.
 
Grandma was blind.. so Grandpa had to take care of presents for the grandkids.. Like clock work we ( 4 kids) would each get $5.00 a couple weeks before Christmas.. we used that 5 bucks to buy gifts for each other... shopping for those very simple gifts was the best part.. Planing on how to get something for every one.. and not be the same as last year.. those were the fun years.. the smile years.. We have been returning to simplicity ..
 
I believe it was Christmas of 52 some how some way mom & dad got us each a bike..... little brother got a trike ...my was maybe 18 inch 2 wheeler and big sister'w was full size... before that day was over i had sorta stolen the big bike...

She still remembers :biggrin2
LOL! That's a Christmas to remember, you were to young to be a felon.
 
Can I say, all of them? :wink
LOL! Being a person that loves Logical Extension, be careful there, for each to be greater there must be some form of acceleration and that can break a person at some point. I say that because we no longer live in a world that celebrates our LORD's birth and have sold out to commercialism.
 
LOL! Being a person that loves Logical Extension, be careful there, for each to be greater there must be some form of acceleration and that can break a person at some point. I say that because we no longer live in a world that celebrates our LORD's birth and have sold out to commercialism.
Yes, I agree.
I always get a Bible and lay it under the tree, opened to Luke 1:, the story of Him dwelling amongst us.
Along with the gifts of course, :thumbsup
 
Yes, I agree.
I always get a Bible and lay it under the tree, opened to Luke 1:, the story of Him dwelling amongst us.
Along with the gifts of course, :thumbsup
My daughter has a fatal disease because of a transfusion in the Eighties that has already killed her husband and my MS is in it's final stage so my wife, Barb and I did only for people under 18 this year except for Fruit Cake they ordered for me. My grandchildren were all here and we had a very, very, good Christmas. I don't know yet but this could be a good year to go to Heaven and for that I am excited. That would, liikely put me there to greet my wife, kids and grandkids.

Praying that God also blesses you and yours.
 
Ours was pretty good this year. My immediate maternal family (mom, stepdad, brother and I) had a falling out a couple years ago with her sister's family (my aunt, uncle-in-law, and her son and daughter) -- but this Christmas most of us patched it all up. My Aunt and uncle Jim came over and we all loved on one another. My cousin Chris is still harboring grudges. My other cousin Angel sent all her love though, she's a busy nurse out in Ohio. Good times. I'm thankful.
 
For years I somewhat detested Christmas because it meant a $2000-3000 bill or more to satiate the consumerist drivel fill the home with plastic and electronic junk from china gifts. Was always glad to get it over and get it behind me. As the kids got older we transitioned to no gifting, period, for all adults. Give to people in need. We are not in need. Grandkids get gifts. If my kids want to lie to them about Santa that's their prerogative, but don't expect me to lie to them, ever. They'll hear about Jesus but they'll never hear about Santa from me, or if they do, it won't be a lying fantasy. Guess that might make me a mean grandpa, but whatever. I didn't lie to my kids about it either. They have no disappointing memories of there being no Santa from their youth. They were told about Jesus.

We celebrate Living Jesus. The holiday is what it is to whatever people want to make of it. For me it was always just a day off work.
 
QD, my dad, my stepfather, was all that ever made Christmas bearable when I was young because my mother was a nonviolent psychopath that, to this day, I love but the repo people always came after the New Years celebration to pick up their goods.

Blake, I can imagine no finer day to set healing into motion than during the celebration of the Great Physician's birthdate as a human sacrifice for our sins.

Smaller, my grandchildren, my Little People will not hear Santa from me either. People either forget or they never realize that their children are not goats but that they are Small People and that they need truth above all else from the people senior to them.

And now, as we prepare for people to do what people do best, to sin, not just this week end but for the rest of their lives, let us prepare to stay out of the bottles this week end and all year for that matter. And this from a proven drunk but honestly, since I was moved by Jesus to dump the Coke and all the other drugs and to never do one more shot of Wild Turkey, I have enjoyed every single New Year and have not hugged a sing-l-e toilet yelling or screaming B-u-i-c-k.

Happy New Year, oh, and is this the year our LORD returns for us?
 
Smaller, my grandchildren, my Little People will not hear Santa from me either. People either forget or they never realize that their children are not goats but that they are Small People and that they need truth above all else from the people senior to them.

Amen brutha! And when they get older I'll knock the consumerist out of them too, reminding them, as a reality, that my dad got ONE APPLE for his christmas present. So be thankful for what you have, and maybe even for what you don't have.

You can be happy either way, on any day, regardless if the world isn't filling yer stockings.
 
Amen brutha! And when they get older I'll knock the consumerist out of them too, reminding them, as a reality, that my dad got ONE APPLE for his christmas present. So be thankful for what you have, and maybe even for what you don't have.

You can be happy either way, on any day, regardless if the world isn't filling yer stockings.
:)
 
One of my kids most vivid christmas memories was taking them to Disneyland many years ago. It was a big family trip. And they remember little of Disneyland. We went to Tiajuana from San Diego a day or 2 b4. Gave my kids plenty of coins and directed them to give them to the begging women. They'll never ever forget putting a few coins in the cups of adult women totting their babies, dressed in rags and begging/pleading on the street for money, literally on their knees before my children. They were stunned by the experience of seeing poverty.

That's what they remember Christmas to really be about. So do I.
 
It's also nice to take in a re-run of "It's A Wonderful Life" or a good rendition of "Scrooge" at christmas time. We've done that as a family quite often as a reminder of "the real good life" to seek after.

We were kind of in Christmas mourning this year as one of my children and her husband and our grandchild relocated out of state a couple weeks before. So, we were all a bit sad over that. It wasn't the same without them at all. And my oldest and his family couldn't make it over Christmas eve cause he worked late and would put the grandkids too far past bedtime.

So, minimal gathering this year. Glad it's over. Still sad.
 
Back
Top