I was working on my website last night and watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I began to let my mush of a brain wander to how I celebrated Christmas with my family.

I remember my mother putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving and making the house a holiday haven. Christmas villages, garland hung everywhere and Mr. & Mrs. Santa Claus's Everywhere. We even had a Mickey Mouse that danced and sang Jingle Bell Rock. We would put up the lights outside with a Nativity Scene and Christmas had officially been kicked off.

Night after night I would come home from school to the smell of cookies in the oven and the sounds of the Statler Brothers Christmas Album playing on the record player . Christmas Eve would arrive and my parents would throw my birthday party. I was born on Christmas Day, so they didn't want my birthday to be melded into Christmas. My friends would come over and we'd eat a themed cake my Mom baked and I would open presents with "Birthday" written on them(ha ha).

Christmas would start in the morning when I inevitably would wake up to see what Santa brought into our chimney-less house. I never understood how that guy got in, but it just added to the absolute magic this man possessed! I would tear into remote controlled cars, a bike, clothes... (stupid) and the seemingly tallest Voltron robot EVER!

Then my family would arrive in spurts, a grandparent set or two, aunts and Uncles, then close friends of my parents, The Mies's, The Stroka's and The Carkner's. Usually My parents would plan dinner at about 7pm, and whoever was still at our house could join us and our dog for the meal, and of course coffee and the cookies my mother made over the previous couple of days. It really was a great Christmas/Birth Day.

I have included a slideshow below of old pictures my mother took and such, so you can get the feel of being in my house during the holidays.

What was your childhood Christmas like? How did you celebrate Christmas? Send over some comments!

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