What are your earliest memories of Christmas?

I remember getting a big plastic Tonka toy one year that I could ride around in the back of, and I got a Rowlf the Dog from a blind friend of my dad's another year. My earliest non-present related memory is quite late, I'm not sure why. Perhaps nothing particularly interesting happened until my 10th Christmas.

Christmas 1972, when I was two months off four years old. Got some Meccano, which I found utterly awesome, and have vague memories of it spread out all over the living room floor. It snowed quite heavily and I made a big snowball in the garden.

I have lots of snippets of memory which were probably not all from the same Christmas.

The earlierst snapshot is of coming down stairs in Christmas Eve and looking around the bannister to see my Mum and Dad in the kitchen. My memory says they were stuffing the turkey but more likely they were doing that *prod* "Do you think it will defrost by morning?" *prod* Christams Eve ritual.

My other early memory is of my broither having woken up early and raided his stocking, looking green around the gills and throwing up. He drank the content of one of those pots of bubble blowing liquid. He made a full recovery.

ETA Oh and come to think of it I remember one earlier than that because my brother was born just before Christmas. I remember a neighbour saying to my Dad you should call him Nicolas because he was born at Christmas and my Dad saying we should call him Nicolas because he was born without any knickers. I was 3 and thought this was hilarious.

I don't remember a particular year, but my mum always did something very clever on the Santa front. In the 60s and 70s wrapping paper was generally very thin - if you smoothed it against the side of a book or boxed board game, you could read what was inside it very easily.

Presents from Santa, though, were wrapped in thick, shiny paper that we would never see on any other present in any house. Mum must have spent a fortune. It certainly convinced me that it must be from Santa because nobody else used it.

Smart lady, my mum.

My earliest Christmas memory is of Christmas in Freetown, so very hot/humid. I remember clearly the day my older brother came into the bedroom (a very large room we all 3 shared) and told me that he'd seen Dad putting the presents under the tree and that Santa didn't exist

We would go to the golf club, our social hub, for Christmas lunch, which consisted of an African curry - rice, meat in curry sauce with many bowls of different items - nuts, fruit, dried fruit, dessicated coconut, all sorts. Yummy!

I remember Christmas in Mexico - my parents would put all the gifts into a trunk and keep the key, which we weren't allowed to go and get until 8am. They obviously had had enough of 5am wake-up calls One present I remember is a Petite Typewriter, which they had ordered all the way from the UK.

Here we would have a traditional English Christmas meal, often inviting American and Mexican friends over. The Xmas pudding didn't go down well with most of their kids though!

So is mine !

Free Town, Bury, Lancashire...............

I lived there until about aged 10 but I can only remember one Christmas memory which was a home made present made by my dad.........me and my brother both got a home made garage which was a wooden box open on one side and attached to a piece of board

God knows why I remember it ..........apart from the fact that it hung around for decades as a box for putting things like screws and nails in

I have lots of other memories of those early years, but not Christmas ones

Tonka...big tough toys for big tough boys!

The earliest one or two I remember would be around 5/6/7. I got a Tiny Tears one years which thrilled me no end even though I wasn't really a girlie girl. Another year which must have been 69/70 I got some red boots which I proudly wore out for our Christmas morning walk in the snow on the only white Christmas I have known in my 53 years.

Having to sleep on a camp bed because we had relations to stay and they got my bed.

Haha!

Perhaps they are twinned

Before the space Lego and the Buzz Off, I remember a battery operated Mickley mouse on a bike that ran out of batteries.

Also a steam powered car which nearly took the skin off my fingers.

when Father Christmas forgot where my bedroom was and my Dad found the presents in the garden shed the next morning, still at least my Dad must have a good drink on Christmas Eve

I can remember when I was around 6 years old that I had to pick one toy to take with me when we wents to gran's for Christmas dinner. Hated doing that every year.
I'm old now and wish I wasn't such a brat about it.

Similarly waking up and my pillow left out for Santa had vanished. My screams woke my parents and my father said "Oh bugger, I left it downstairs". That sickening realisation that all those older children at school were right
With my own children, Santa always left their presents under the Christmas tree and they were not allowed to go downstairs until we were awake otherwise they would have been down there at 2 am "
This articular year I had donned a pair of wellies and sprayed artificial snow around them on a path from the front door towards the front room. When the children saw these "footprints" they refused to go downstairs in case "he" was still there
The best one we ever had was when I had been made redundant and was between jobs so money was very tight. We bough lots of very cheap stuff including a compendium of games. Playing Ludo and Snakes and Ladders etc was just wonderful

i dont think any kid would want to leave their presents on Christmas Day. I have my parents over for dinner now but when we went there, they were not in a rush.

Sounds like a good typical family.

I remember spending many Christmases in Acton with all my dad's side relations, doing the conga in the street (not me, I was just being so embarrassed inside), them playing forfeits, getting merry and my aunt playing Winifred Atwell type piano all night. Very fond memories.

when I was 5, I refused to go a christmas party as I wanted to stay home and watch the snowman.

When I was about four my mother had recently converted to the Jehovah's Witnesses but my dad still got me a few toys anyway. There was a massive row on Christmas Day and the toys and games were gone the next day. Try getting your four-year-old head around that! I never bothered looking to see if Santa had been after that.

I always felt sorry for the children going into school in the new year, and having to confess to not having any presents because their parents were JWs
My barber has just told me that she is a JW when I asked her what she was doing for Christmas. I mentioned the peer group problem for JWs children and she told me that they now have a "Presents Day"

Getting Action Man's Training Tower in the late 70's, plus some Evel Knievel toys and lots of vintage space LEGO. We used to have to go to my Aunt's on Christmas Day evening for a family buffet, which I generally hated, but I do remember walking up to her house in the village one year in thick snow.

My first scalextric was a good year... Dukes of Hazzard the General Lee did a jump and everything!! haha

The Salvation Army choir singing carols outside our house every Christmas morning. Lovely.
The lass across from us was in the Sally Army. Also, the Jim Reeves LP 12 Songs Of Christmas. Really great album so bought the CD a few years ago. The Merry Christmas Polka!!

Coming down the stair with my brothers with my mum and dad following behind shouting "he's been, he's been" as we spotted the 3 sacks of presents.

https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB18u9jK...mas-b-font.jpg

Me and my Sister blowing these in my Mum and Dads faces at like 4 am Christmas day.. Mum took it well... Dad not so much...

I can't remember how young i was, but i know i was no older than 6. I had an asthma attack not long before Christmas and was released from hospital a few days before the day. I didn't have much energy to open my presents and play with my toys.

1952 when I was four. I got a large trike something like this with a boot.