Hi All, I am just taking a minute or two from my crazies- this moving across the pond is something else. I thought about the Christmas memories everyone has shared and at first thought oh! mines not that interesting but then I think it is a bit different. So here goes. We had the usual Christmas's in Aynhoe hanging our pillowcases at the foot of the bed (representing Father Christmas's sack). In the morning finding gifts in it in the morning along with nuts and apples, after the war there were also oranges. I am sure we played with them until dinner was ready & showed them to our grandparents. It was after we moved to Oxford Dec 27th 1948 that Christmas was different. By the time the next Christmas came around we had got to know the Boys (patients) up at the hospital very well, they were our friends. It was really a rehab hospital for head & spinal injuries from WWII. There were about 50 men getting rehab ranging in age from late teens to late middle aged. None of them were able to go to their homes for Christmas so the celebration was made as home like as possible with lots of good food. The only thing missing was children. It was decided the 3 children in my family would do just nicely. We were told the Boys would really like to see us open all our gifts from Father Christmas. We were told that if we opened our gifts before going up to the hospital we had to open them carefully and rewrap them so we could open them in front of the Boys. We would always wake up very early around 4am and meticulously open our gifts & rewrapped them put them back into the pillowcase. We would be up at the hospital by 8am sacks in toe. The hospital was what is now the Brooks University at Headington Hill Hall. The main entrance hall where the wide sweeping staircase enters was about 40 x 40 feet they had at least a 20 ft high Xmas tree in there. We would sit in front of the tree and open our gifts. The Boys would sit on the stairs or in the hall in chairs or wheelchairs and exclaim with excitement as we opened each gift. When all was done then they gave us gifts they had made for us. They were things like leather cases with combs in them, purses, or wooden things that had made in shop. One of the things I got one year was a wooden pot with a lid that Jimmy Brennan had turned on a lathe for me; I still have it. Off of the main entrance hall was two very large rooms one was for TV in the evenings the other was a game room. After all the gifts were exchanged then the Boys and we 3 children went into these rooms to play with our toys. Of course my brothers toys were usually much more interest to them than my sister and mine were but it didn't make any difference they played with us all. There was hot drinks and little mince pies to snack on in the rooms until dinner was served about 1pm after the King's and later the Queen's speech had been heard on the wireless. Then we all went into the Boys dining room for dinner. We stayed at the hospital all day, only going home before it got too dark to walk home and after we had had the Christmas Tea. Boxing Day we stayed at home and Mum usually cooked a cockerel she had raised all year for the dinner. In reality we had 2 Christmas Days. This is the way we spent our Christmas's from 1949 to 1955, it was different but it was fun. I started nursing in March 1956, by that time most of the original Boys had gone home and the others were able to get home for the holidays. The hospital closed in 1959. Merry Christmas to you all & Happy New Year. We will be flying to England Jan 18th I start my new job in Cheltenham 24th. Dawn