  Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 4304 Registered: 02-2007 |
It's that time again.... Hudson's Downtown: the whole floor devoted to the new toys....the diorama's three mile drive and my mother's baking,the smells of cookies, popcorn balls, baklava etc. as your opened the back door.. my dad's insistence that the tree will fit into our living room and who can forget the big bulb lights twinkling through the fresh snow... your turn. | ||
7andkelly Member Username: 7andkelly Post Number: 1743 Registered: 04-2008 |
Santa Claus at Eastland Shopping Center Hudson's. Opening up my Johnny Seven One Man Army Gun. | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 4945 Registered: 04-2005 |
Walking down to St. Jude with Dad and my sister on Christmas Eve to look at the Nativity scene, and when we got home, Santa had been there and everything was under the tree. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 6974 Registered: 12-2005 |
 A Charlie Brown Christmas - Christmas Time is Here Song | ||
Blueidone Member Username: Blueidone Post Number: 434 Registered: 03-2007 |
Marathon cookie-baking with my mom, sisters and aunts. Hours and hours of baking, dozens and dozens of different kinds of cookies. The whole family (25 or so at the peak) around the dinner table and the rest of the house enjoying Mom's cooking. This is the time of year I miss her the most. Thanks for teaching me how to cook and bake, Mom!! | ||
Switchmanjim Member Username: Switchmanjim Post Number: 6 Registered: 10-2008 |
Midnight mass at St.Gabriel's | ||
Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 4309 Registered: 02-2007 |
seeing the mangers when they could still be outside... | ||
Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 1047 Registered: 05-2008 |
I was teeny-tiny... Woke up to activity in the living room. Pop had one of those bright lights used for making home movies. (Back then, you could always tell when someone was making home movies, the house would light up as bright as the sun.) I walk into the living room, and before that bright, bright light caught my eyes, I remember seeing all these brightly-wrapped packages. It was so beautiful. My parents were there, my sisters, and my brother. It doesn't get much happier than that. I wasn't old enough to know about worries, everyone was still alive, and there were PRESENTS to open! | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1735 Registered: 11-2006 |
So many things. Here's one: The feel of silver tinsel between my fingers while decorating the tree. Three strands was the most allowed and seriously counted and placed......ahhhhh, so many memories  | ||
Ragtoplover59 Member Username: Ragtoplover59 Post Number: 402 Registered: 09-2006 |
I like to remember when the tree lights were c-7 and not the little twinkle lights that became popular in the 70's. And real trees! oh the smell of real trees in the house! and of course when toy's looked like this,   and my last "Best" memory was buying this little cardboard fireplace with my own $1.74 at Kresge's  I could sit and watch the spinner above the bulb create flames in the fireplace for hours | ||
Flanders_field Member Username: Flanders_field Post Number: 1358 Registered: 01-2008 |
Decorating almost the entire 11th floor office in the MCS by myself, on my own time one early December evening in 1975, after everyone else had left. Our department manager was Scrooge personified, and many of my co-workers had mentioned how our department was always the only floor in the building that never had Christmas decorations put up each year. Just the big smiles on the faces of my co-workers the next morning alone made the hours that I spent putting them up worthwhile, and many came over to my desk that day to thank me for doing it. Of course the department manager wanted to know if it was done on company time, and my boss told him that I did it on my own time. The only drawback is that he decided to get "in the holiday spirit' himself, and brought his reel to reel tape recorder in on Christmas week, and it played Christmas music in opera every day..eww!! | ||
Jcole Member Username: Jcole Post Number: 4946 Registered: 04-2005 |
Ragtop, I swear we had the exact same two little kids hanging on the wall, as well as that mini grandfather clock on the 'mantle' | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1737 Registered: 11-2006 |
Yay Flanders! You were Buddy the Elf! Ragtop, I have been wondering if I would see your pictures of Christmas again. Has it been a year? Man, time flies. My mom has an electric fireplace log in her real fireplace in SCS. I turned it on a couple of years ago when I was visiting and she thought I was silly imagining that it was real fire. Now she has turned it on herself a couple of times and loves it. Yahoo for imagination! | ||
Ragtoplover59 Member Username: Ragtoplover59 Post Number: 403 Registered: 09-2006 |
Looked to see if I had a pic of the perfect tree, well, not yet lol. 1969, Hotwheels, Walkie-Talkies and the most "Charlie Brown" looking tree I NEVER remembered? LOL  oh well, it smelled good | ||
Rickinatlanta Member Username: Rickinatlanta Post Number: 212 Registered: 07-2006 |
Switchmanjim, I went to St. Gabe's as well. What years did you go and where did you live? I was an alter boy there and loved the midnight Christmas Eve mass. My wife and I are trying to make a short weekend trip up before Christmas and want to go to mass at St. Gabe's while there. | ||
Maof2 Member Username: Maof2 Post Number: 1162 Registered: 06-2008 |
Raggtop - We also had one of those fancy/schmancy fireplaces....it was just sooo cool. One of my favorite memories was when my dad and mom would drive my 3 sisters and I to Grosse Pte (i think it was the farms) to see those huge Christmas displays that the "rich" people would set up every year. The traffic would be lined up for blocks on several streets. Also, my sister and I swear to this day that we heard the sleigh bells on our roof which was just outside our bedroom window. Really....we did hear it Also, seeing Santa at Eastland. They had quite a set-up. | ||
Switchmanjim Member Username: Switchmanjim Post Number: 8 Registered: 10-2008 |
Hello Rickinatlanta, I was also an altar boy. I was a junior in '70 when the HS closed. Sammys Pizza was down the street from me. I'm not sure, but I think the mass at Gabe's is in Spanish now... | ||
Reddog289 Member Username: Reddog289 Post Number: 750 Registered: 08-2007 |
The strangest/saddest yet one of the best Christmas times I,ve ever had was back in 1982.My father had died in Apr of that year and that was sad , yet knowing he was not in pain any longer me being a 13yr old I still looked forward to Christmas to see my cousins. My Mom had decided to have the family deal over our house that year. The basement was cleaned along with the rest of the house and the decorations put up in the basement, there by the bar was a fireplace just like Ragtops, My Aunt and cousin came over Christmas Eve.I had to show her the "hockey rink" and the fireplace with the hockey posters over it.I thought it was cool,we even had the silver tree in the corner. But for some reason the party got moved to another Aunts and why I ended up spending the night at my Grandparents in Detroit instead of Garden City is beyond me.If anyone remembers I think the temp on Dec25,1982 was up in the 70,s.I,ve been Bah Humbugin this week,yet to think back the early 80,s are like now, I made it through them and I think I,ll stop being Scrooge. | ||
Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 4310 Registered: 02-2007 |
Rag got that same set ..same year...I too was born in 1959... keep this thread alive... PS Gi Joe's, Mattel or Marx Knights and Vikings...major Matt mason, trains, dinosaur, plastic soldiers, those were the days; some great diorama's...play sets wow ..wish I could find them now | ||
Jimb Member Username: Jimb Post Number: 41 Registered: 09-2008 |
Getting home from the last day of school and putting up the Christmas decorations. Going to the tree lot down by Cook Park with dad to pick out the tree. Taking the bus downtown with dad, going by the Federal Building and seeing his office and co-workers, then going to Cobo Hall to see the Christmas displays there, then going to Hudsons to see the displays there, and of course Santa. Seeing the giant Christmas tree downtown. Me and my sisters standing by the living room window looking up in the sky to see if we could see Santa's sleigh coming. Going up into the attic to get the ornaments and lights and tinsel, etc. Plugging all the lights in to make sure they were working. Bringing the tree into the house, putting on the lights, followed by the ornaments, then tossing the tinsel on last of all. Sometimes starting a fire in the fireplace, turning on the tree lights and turning off the house lights. Me and my 2 youngest sisters waking up at about 6:00 AM Christmas morning, seeing what was in our stockings, and being allowed to open one present before everyone else was up. Then impatiently waiting for everyone else to get up, not understanding why they weren't already up with us. | ||
Miketoronto Member Username: Miketoronto Post Number: 934 Registered: 07-2004 |
It is not from Detroit, but one of my greatest Christmas memories is Christmas Eve at my grandparents house when they were alive. My family is a big Italian family, so when the family gets together, it is like 60-70 people. My grandfather loved Christmas, and when my family immigrated to Canada, my grandfather had a custom made Italian Nativity built. It is huge, and is basically the whole town of Bethlehem. On each side of this town he would put two huge christmas trees. And in addition since he loved Christmas so much, he had all these little christmas things like a ball that sings music. Anyway on Christmas Eve my grandmother would cook dinner for everyone, and we would all have dinner down there, and then at midnight, we would all line up holding candles, and we would parade through the house singing this Italian Christmas song, while the youngest child there carried Jesus into the Nativity scene. My grandfather would be at the front with insense burning, etc. And then my uncle dressed as Santa would come down the stairs and hand out gifts. I use to help my grandfather put up the Christmas decorations each year, and that was also a fond memory for me. My grandmother would make me her amazing pasta, and we would have dinner and then decorate all evening. When my grandparents died, I recieved the Christmas nativity(it was the only thing I wanted) and all my grandfathers decorations. I set up the scene in my house now. I don't do the procession with 70 people, but I still set it up (Message edited by miketoronto on December 05, 2008) | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 174 Registered: 06-2008 |
Reddog...I remember that Christmas! It was indeed very warm that year. I was pregnant and really uncomfortable, and had a house full of people and a blazing fire in the fireplace. It must have been what the temperature in HELL is like, it was so hot in my house! | ||
Detroitbred Member Username: Detroitbred Post Number: 175 Registered: 06-2008 |
I always get sad this time of year, thinking about and missing the loved ones I have lost over the years. I remember the tree my grandparents had...always a Douglas Fir, rather sparse looking. And my grandmother ( from England ) always made mincemeat pie. I thought that was gross and didn't understand why anyone would eat it! My father bought one of those aluminum christmas trees with the light wheel. He thought it was beautiful. Looking back, an aluminum tree seems really wierd. | ||
Wanderinglady Member Username: Wanderinglady Post Number: 220 Registered: 10-2007 |
Detroitbred, We had one of those aluminum trees with the color wheel as well. Coincidentally, that's connected to my biggest memory. In 1973, my brother was in the Marines and came home to visit. He, I (at 8 years old) and my sisters took the Dexter bus downtown for shopping. We went to Cobo Hall, Hudson's, etc. Anyway, for years we had that aluminum tree, and I guess my brother was tired of it. While my sisters and I were shopping, he bought another artificial tree, but this one was green and "more lifelike". My brother ended up taking that big box home on a bus crowded with shoppers loaded down with bags. I remember the bus going very slowly down the street as it snowed. It took forever to get home (which is a long time when you're eight). | ||
Gibran Member Username: Gibran Post Number: 4311 Registered: 02-2007 |
great memories keep it up... visiting my grandparents farm in Maple City , coming home from Midnight mass...driving very slowly since it had snow a bucket, and the roads had not been plowed...especially up and down each hill...it was a bright Christmas night with all the stars shining after a new fallen snow...the church service was crowded with friends and third cousins.etc( had a real manger scene with a baby Jesus that cried very little...the whole night seemed like a postcard...but the biggest memory was coming over the hill (and through the woods...no kidding) and seeing my grandparents lights (old timer) in the distance; around their simple wood framed house shimming bright...with snow draped around the base of the house...looked like a gingerbread house. I will never forget the real first time I had the true spirit of christmas..didn't get many presents since they were back at home in Detroit, but had the one of the best memories ever.....not to mention staying up really late staring at the fresh cut tree and the bulbs that were already fifty years old...not to mention the nativity ...listening to Christmas music on an old radio...now that's a Christmas... | ||
Dtctygrl Member Username: Dtctygrl Post Number: 66 Registered: 03-2007 |
Always surprises me when I see a picture of myself posted on here thanks to Ragtoplover! As I recall I was quite ill that Christmas and wasn't really up to having pics taken. Anyway, I do share lots of fond memories of Christmas and childhood in the D with Ragtop. The cardboard fireplace was amazing - finally a fireplace on which to hang the stockings. First memory of Christmas was watching Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer on a black and white tv. We lived on Rademacher then. Too many great memories: a special trip downtown by bus to shop, shopping the dime-stores on Vernor, driving around to see all the lights, vaguely remember a great display at a park somewhere River Rouge way (help Ragtop), watching the Christmas shows: Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, The House Without a Christmas Tree, the Thanksgiving Day Parade, Christmas Pageant at Waterman United Methodist, NO SCHOOL and Mom making lots of great things to eat. | ||
Carolcb Member Username: Carolcb Post Number: 4849 Registered: 11-2006 |
I found a slide this week of me sitting on Santa's lap at the Rotunda. Next to Santa were 3 big boxes that said "Santa at Rotunda 19??", there was another kid waiting in line with a face that said hurry up....... I can't remember right now what year it said. | ||
Rickinatlanta Member Username: Rickinatlanta Post Number: 214 Registered: 07-2006 |
Switchmanjim, I was in the last Senior Class that graduated from Gabe's in 1970. Lived on Wendell and played on the baseball team that went to the "Big House" Tiger Stadium to play for the championship in 1969. Sounds like we know each other? | ||
Janesback Member Username: Janesback Post Number: 508 Registered: 08-2006 |
I have one of the nativity statues and the actual stable that my grandfather built in his garage. Wow, this stables been used, lol, but I wouldn't take anything for it It reminds me of the times we had at our house during the holidays. Just great wonderful times with the cousins and grand parents.... Some are gone, but by having my stable, it puts a warm spot in my heart....Happy Holidays Jane | ||
Kathinozarks Member Username: Kathinozarks Post Number: 1739 Registered: 11-2006 |
Mike, I love your grandpa! your story made me got me all vaklempt. What a lovely memory. |
