Back to researching tips next week! Sandi White Christmas: "Early in November 1944 I boarded a troop ship (a converted luxury liner) in San Francisco headed to the war in the Pacific. There were 4,000 other U.S. troops (including 500 WACs and 500 Aussie and New Zealand troops, who were returning home from the war in North Africa). The ship, the Monterey, followed the southern route far south of the Hawaiian Islands. Since we were unescorted, the ship zig-zaged all the way to New Caldonia dodging submarines. Therefore, the journey took about 30 days. I ate Thanksgiving dinner standing up shoulder to shoulder in the cramped mess hall as the ship pitched back and forth. The one pleasant thing about the trip was that there were about 15 USO units on board heading to the Pacific area to entertain the troops. Nearly every day one or another of the units would use the aft cargo hatch cover for a stage to practice their act. That was a great break in the boredom. This was the year that the movie "Holiday Inn" came out. It featured the song "White Christmas," which has since become a Christmas standard. The troop commander on the ship forbade any of the USO people to sing "White Christmas." He figured it would be bad for morale for troops heading into the unknown to hear a song that focused on home. Along about the last day out at sea, the Special Services Officer in charge of the USO group took the microphone to say a few words. His name was Capt. Lanny Ross. He identified himself as the same Lanny Ross who sang on the popular radio show of the time, "Showboat." It was a weekly show about life on a Mississippi riverboat. There was a Captain Willie, and singers Lulabelle and Skyland Scottie, a couple of comedians called Molasses and January and some other regulars on the show. Maybe, some of you remember it from the time before television. Capt. Ross told us to just sit back and pretend that we were kids back home sitting on the living room floor in front of the old Philco console radio. You know, that big wooden piece of furniture with the big glass dial, and knobs and a big cloth-covered speaker? He said we would turn on one of the knobs and we would hear "Moonlight and Roses," which was his theme song. He sang a couple of other songs for us and then the band struck up "White Christmas." He sang it all the way through and then led us while we all sang it. The colonel troop commander didn't say a word. All too quickly it was over. Instead of being demoralized, as the colonel had feared, we realized we were headed to action that would protect what we left back home. Although the future was uncertain for us, we knew what we had to do. I finally arrived at my post in New Guinea just before Christmas Day. It was almost comical. The guys who were already there had fashioned a scrawny Christmas Tree out of a scrap of broken lumber with a bunch of bent coat hangers for branches. They had tied colored toilet paper and cloth scraps on it for decorations. Of course, I didn't get any presents that year because my family did not know where I was. It was a pretty bleak Christmas but we all survived it. Some of my buddies did not survive events that happened later. They made it possible for me to have many, many "White Christmas" memories later. Christmas in Brazil: "There are three Christmases that stand out in my memory. I'd like to share them with you. As a child, we moved to Brazil when I was 5. We arrived the end of September, just before school started. The arrival of our household goods, however, was another matter. I vividly remember that first Christmas in Recife for two reasons - first, because our things hadn't arrived and at the time you couldn't find a Christmas tree for sale, so our tree that year was a well developed tree limb that we'd spray painted white, and the decorations were home made. The second reason that this Christmas was memorable is because the seasons in the Southern Hemosphere are the exact opposite of ours... Christmas fell in the middle of the summer. Going swimming at the beach which was only a couple of blocks from our house on that first Christmas day we'd spent in Brazil is something I'll never forget. Moving forward a couple of years, we'd returned "home" to the US to spend Christmas with our family. That year we spent Christmas day at my grandparent's home in Cumberland County. I'll never forget waking up that morning to falling snow. The temperatures were in the upper 30s, but we had about 8 inches of snow on the ground by the time the day was over. We kids had been outside all day sledding and building snowmen - something unheard of coming from the tropics, and that I didn't remember ever experiencing before. One of my most treasured memories, however, are the first couple of Christmases we were home to stay. Mom had 6 brothers and sisters. At the time, we still were able to get everyone (and their kids) together to celebrate a family Christmas. Because there were so many of us we always drew names. Those first couple of years, however, there was a special visitor to our celebration each year. Mom and I played "Santa Claus" and bought and wrapped gag gifts for everyone there. We managed to sneak them into the garage and leave them, then a note stuck on the tree instructed someone to go out to the garage and retrieve "a special surprise". A few of those gifts that I remember were a jump rope for my grandmother, a coloring book and crayons for "Grannie", an aunt's mother, a matchbox car for that cousin that was just turning old enough to get their driver's license, and one of the little boxes that had a cow painted on it and would "moo" when you turned it over. To this day, I'm not sure that anyone ever figured out who was "Santa". Christmas in Sweden: "thought you might like to see this little story my husband, Kenneth (from his life as a child in Sweden) wrote: "FOODS and SMELLS - MEMORIES of CHRISTMASES PAST." Christmas in the north of Sweden in the 1930s and 1940s was filled with memories of foods and smells that began several weeks before Christmas. Mother began baking about the 1st of December, first, cookies that could be preserved in sealed tin containers; but only after we, the eleven children, had tasted each of the 20 different kinds of cookies. Coffee breads came later, and closer to Christmas. The smells of baked goods were the smells I remember of Christmas. During this time Mother and "Mormor" (grandmother in America) also prepared sausage, head cheese, ham and lutfisk, and these foods had a certain associated aroma as did the newly cut Christmas tree that was brought in from the snowy woods on Christmas Eve. And, as the snow fell softly on trees and fields, we sat down by candle light for Christmas dinner, but we could not begin to eat until we had properly asked God for His blessing and thanked Him for the abundance of His gifts and his love. God Jul to all! (Evelyn) "There Goes Santa!" It was Christmas Eve, 1968 or '69. We had been to my in-laws home in Cleveland and were heading back home to Maple Heights, a Cleveland suburb. It was late and we were tired and we still had presents to assemble. Our two girls were in the back seat. I said something about getting home so they could get to bed so Santa would come. "No! I'm not sleepy!" came the response from both of them, so excited about Santa they couldn't sit still... or be quiet. I knew it would be several hours before they would wind down and fall asleep so we could put together that doll house and whatever else had to be assembled. Suddenly, in front of us, high in the sky, was the red flashing light of an airplane heading to the airport for landing. It was dark enough and the plane was still high enough that the girls didn't know it was just a plane. I let out a squeal, pointing to the light -- "Look, there's Santa... see Rudolph's nose flashing? Hurry Daddy and get us home so they can get to sleep quick or he won't stop and leave them any presents!" My husband played along with me and sped up just a bit. The two of us acted very excited and the excitement in the back seat could almost be cut with a knife. A few minutes later, we pulled into our driveway. Their father jumped out and ran to unlock the door, two little girls telling him "Hurry up Daddy... hurry up!!!" By the time I got in the house with the baby, got him settled in his crib and had my coat off, they were both in bed and sound asleep. I never saw two little girls move so fast or hit the bed so fast. Santa got the things assembled and we fell into bed about 2 or 3 in the morning. Of course, the girls were up just a couple of hours later so we didn't get much sleep. Would have been even less though if it hadn't been for Rudolph's nose being spotted by me. #2 It was about a month before Christmas. I had put up the tree and had things decorated. The tree looked so forlorn though with nothing under it yet, so I emptied several boxes...shoe boxes, cereal boxes, macaroni boxes, cookie boxes, margarine boxes, soap boxes, .. you name it and if I could empty it into something else I did it so I could have the boxes to wrap to put under the tree just for a little decoration until I got the presents home and wrapped. When the girls came in from school and saw all the "presents" they were so excited... "Who are they for Mommy?" "Never mind" said I. Now these 2 girls were always fighting. They fought from the time they got up until the time they went to bed. If one said it was day time the other said she was wrong. If one did if they didn't he was going to start burning the presents. Well... the girls knew that wouldn't happen... Daddy wouldn't throw them away or throw them into the fire roaring in the fireplace. Oh no... their Daddy wouldn't do that. Uh huh... <evil grin> A little while later they came into the living room, one tattling on the other about something and the other one denying it. Daddy didn't say a word. He went to the tree, picked up a "present", walked across the room to the fireplace, and in it went. He walked back over to his recliner, sat down, looked at them with their mouths hanging to the floor and tears welling up in their eyes and told them... "I warned you what I was going to do. Any more fighting and I'll burn another one." The girls didn't say a word. They went back to their room and we heard no more fighting until after Christmas that year. Every once in awhile for the next couple of weeks one of them would ask one of us whose present it was. "Doesn't matter... it's gone now." Those 2 little girls who were about 7 and 8 at that time, are grown women in their 40s today. A couple of years ago, at Christmas time, we were all sitting around and talking, me telling the story to new members of the family and friends, and everyone laughing. My oldest daughter looked at me and said, "Mom, you never did tell us who that present was for." We all had another good laugh when I confessed that it had been an empty box for decoration. My girls had been stewing about that burned "present" for over 30 years. A Special Christmas Gift: "I apologize for this being so late, but I had to wait to send my memory because she wasn't due until Dec 16 :) Last year my oldest son was serving on the U.S.S. Enterprise at Christmas on the other side of the world, his first Christmas away from home, also his daughters first Christmas. Thankfully he made it home and my best Christmas memory will be this one, my newest granddaughter, Emily Lynn, was born Dec 16, all my children are home and safe and they say it's gonna snow this week :) Have a Merry Christmas everyone :)" (Rena) Merry Christmas everyone from the Gorin house to yours! (c) 23 Dec 2004, All Rights Reserved