As a very young military wife my first Christmas away from home was spent with my husband and our baby boy overseas in The Netherlands. I was so homesick, cried and ruined our first Christmas together. As I laid our baby in his crib that night, God spoke to me in these clear, simple words “My child you are home”. I hugged my husband with a calmness and the voice of God in my heart. As the years passed there were many Christmases spent away from my parents and siblings, in many different places. Our joy was felt in inviting military people who were away from home to our home on Christmas Day. I never knew how many would come, I just cooked a lot of food. The words God spoke to me as a young adult, “my child you are home” remained in my heart and in every hug I gave as they entered our home. Thank you, Graham. Continued blessings in 2026!
When I and my sister, were very young and still believed in Santa, my parents would bring the tree into the house on Christmas eve and left it for Santa to decorate. We woke in the morning to a beautifully decorated tree and all the great presents from Santa. So amazed that Santa did all this. This was a tradition for a few years, until of course we no longer believed in Santa.
When my daughters were very small, on Christmas morning before they got up, my husband would get behind the tree with his movie camera to capture their joy and excitement and first reaction to see what Santa brought them. This was a very nice keepsake for us. Now of course in this modern day of technology all you would need is a phone with a good camera!!
Thanks, Graham, for all the fun stories you shared with us in this chat.
Wishing you and Paola a very happy New Year. Sending my love and blessings!!
Graham. I remember as a child that I had asked for an electric train from Santa. Christmas Eve I woke up I guess because of noise around the tree. I got up and walked in the living room only to find Santa…my Dad… putting my beautiful electric train on the track he that he had just put together. Wow was I excited. I was blessed that Christmas and that memory of 70 years ago has stayed with me. I was a lucky little boy!!! Definitely a very special Christmas!!!
Thank you Graham for sharing the replay so quickly as I missed most of it as we were out. Love this festive topic .
One of my favorite Christmas memories is from when my daughter was little. Every year we would gather with friends and family, and each Christmas a different person would dress up as Santa to hand out the gifts to the children, It was such a joyful tradition.
One year it was my husband’s turn , Jimmy is very tall , stands out and forgot to wear the fake tummy! My daughter started to recognise him and kept asking where Daddy was, so I quickly had to make up a story to save the magic. It still makes me smile to this day.🎄♥️🌟
My favorite childhood memory was after church my Dad would have us stay in the car with our mom, so he could check to see if Santa had come. He would come back and say that yes Santa had come and he left presents for us.
We also would get a lot of snow during the winter. And we would build tunnels in the backyard and we would crawl through them it was so much fun.
One of my favorite Christmas memories was in 2008 when a "Snowpocalypse" hit our area and we had 3 feet of snowfall in a short time on top of the foot or so that was already on the ground. We managed to get our daughter and son-in-law to our house before the city shut down. Our son was with us as well and since we were all housebound together we started a Settlers of Catan tournament that spanned over three days. We had plenty of food and nowhere to go so we just kept playing. We also watched a lot of Christmas movies and told funny family stories. It was almost a little sad when the snowplows finally came through. That Christmas remains one of my favorites as we had no choice but to just make the best of things and we had so much fun!
My favorite memory was when I was probably only 8 years old. A local grocery store had a contest where you could enter to win a life size stuffed Santa. It was on top of a cardboard chimney that was an advertisement for the 7up bottling company. My sister entered all 5 of us to win it. I couldn't believe it that I won it. You would've thought I won a million $$..lol. My Grandpa and I went and picked it up. We were inseparable as he lived with us. Every year I couldn't wait for my Mom to get it out of the attic and display it. I loved my Santa and still have but but it is really showing his age. I would love to have him redone and display it again someday. Awesome memory!! ❤️ 🥰🙏🎄🎅🤶
When I was six I wanted a bike but we were quite poor so I knew that it would not happen. My dad was was coming home from work one night and he spotted an bike in a trash pile. He brought it home and fixed it up and painted it. I got my brand new bike. Years later my mom told me the story about that bike and I cried because I knew that my dad truly was an amazing man.
My favorite Christmas memory was when I was 4 or 5, dad had dressed up as Santa to see me when I had gone to bed (just). Just prior, I think it was mum had asked me if I could hear the sleigh bells, I tried to listen for them, before stating ‘no?!’. Santa comes in and I ask ‘is that you dad?’, which he replies with ‘no, ho ho ho, im not your dad, I'm Santa Clause’. I have seen the home videos, had it been a movie, I think my remark would have been ‘yeh! And I'm the Easter bunny!’. My brother is in the corners of video near splitting his sides in laughter.
What made it special also, was said Santa suit (and beard) was hand made by my Great Grandma, she has since passed but I only ever met her once when I was 2. ❤️❤️
My favorite Christmas gift was a boom box. I kept asking for the boom box and my parents always told me no because we couldn’t afford it. I opened the boom box and started crying because it was very much believable we didn’t have much money growing up
When I was young, but old enough to know better, myself and some cousins of all ages jumped in a canoe and rode it down the snowy hill. I was directly in the front of the canoe and I was about 30 yo and the youngest was about four. Anyway a couple cousins pushed the canoe down the hill and we were headed for one of the smallest trees in the whole grove at the bottom of the hill. I ended up jumping out of the canoe ended up getting kicked in the face by another cousin who bailed the same time I did. It was a traumatic event at the time but now every time we get together we talk and laugh about that.
Enjoyed watching the replay. Your Christmas Tree is lovely. Thanks for the memories contest invitation. Tough to decide which Christmas memory to share. I have so many wonderful memories spanning my life. So I'll turn to this Christmas. We discovered on social media that my niece and great niece had a booth at the Tsuut'ina Nation Christmas Market. I hadn't seen them in awhile so decided to go see them at the market. That in itself was wonderful. I hadn't seen them since their Dad / Grandfather passed away a few months ago, so we shared tender hugs and tears. Later that day, a young man who has been discerning Baptism off and on for 3 years sent me a text saying he saw me on the news at Tsuut'ina. He went on to say he wanted to reconnect and get baptized this coming Easter. I felt God's intervention and am grateful for the opportunity opportunity provided (or guided?) to reconnect with this wonderful young man.
And by the way, I had no idea we were captured by the local news and he is the only I know who saw it. Blessings
As I shared on the live, one of my favorite Christmas memories is attending a midnight mass services . I was raised Methodist, but my parents let me attend the Christmas Eve Catholic midnight mass service with my best friend in high school. I was allowed to drive the 6 miles to my friends house, then go with her family to the church. It was a beautiful service, the best part was as we exited the church, snow was quietly falling, the big fluffy flakes, creating a world of white and stillness. It was such a warm, peaceful feeling walking outside, I remember just standing there taking in the calm and peace. My heart was filled with wonder, peace and felt God's love. I still remember that wonderful feeling, Christmas Eve services today take me back to that memory and the peace of the night. Whenever it snows here in Colorado I embrace the stillness and quiet it brings.
The live this evening was a wonderful way to end this Christmas Day, sharing special memories by you and members of Time Has Come community. May continue blessings come to you and Paola in the coming New Year.
Thanks to my dear friend, Jane, who acknowledged the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas. As a Jew, that would include me. Nevertheless I have always had opportunities to share the joy and share some of the traditions of my friends who do celebrate Christmas.
Last year while visiting Elaine Hamilton, who lives in New Jersey, I paid my very first visit to a Christmas tree farm. I was just like a 5 year old, darting from one tree to another, inhaling the varied and delicious aromas of each species. The vast variety of wreaths was amazing, each one more beautiful than the next. Later that night, we drove around her town enjoying the beautifully decorated homes decorated and lit up for both Christmas and Hanukkah.
I had the chance be in New Jersey once again during this holiday season and naturally it was "rinse and repeat" for us. It is my fondest hope that this tradition will continue for us for many years to come.
"Merry Everything and Happy Always" to everyone in our THC family!
As a very young military wife my first Christmas away from home was spent with my husband and our baby boy overseas in The Netherlands. I was so homesick, cried and ruined our first Christmas together. As I laid our baby in his crib that night, God spoke to me in these clear, simple words “My child you are home”. I hugged my husband with a calmness and the voice of God in my heart. As the years passed there were many Christmases spent away from my parents and siblings, in many different places. Our joy was felt in inviting military people who were away from home to our home on Christmas Day. I never knew how many would come, I just cooked a lot of food. The words God spoke to me as a young adult, “my child you are home” remained in my heart and in every hug I gave as they entered our home. Thank you, Graham. Continued blessings in 2026!
Graham, thanks for this l lovely chat!!!
When I and my sister, were very young and still believed in Santa, my parents would bring the tree into the house on Christmas eve and left it for Santa to decorate. We woke in the morning to a beautifully decorated tree and all the great presents from Santa. So amazed that Santa did all this. This was a tradition for a few years, until of course we no longer believed in Santa.
When my daughters were very small, on Christmas morning before they got up, my husband would get behind the tree with his movie camera to capture their joy and excitement and first reaction to see what Santa brought them. This was a very nice keepsake for us. Now of course in this modern day of technology all you would need is a phone with a good camera!!
Thanks, Graham, for all the fun stories you shared with us in this chat.
Wishing you and Paola a very happy New Year. Sending my love and blessings!!
Graham. I remember as a child that I had asked for an electric train from Santa. Christmas Eve I woke up I guess because of noise around the tree. I got up and walked in the living room only to find Santa…my Dad… putting my beautiful electric train on the track he that he had just put together. Wow was I excited. I was blessed that Christmas and that memory of 70 years ago has stayed with me. I was a lucky little boy!!! Definitely a very special Christmas!!!
Thank you Graham for sharing the replay so quickly as I missed most of it as we were out. Love this festive topic .
One of my favorite Christmas memories is from when my daughter was little. Every year we would gather with friends and family, and each Christmas a different person would dress up as Santa to hand out the gifts to the children, It was such a joyful tradition.
One year it was my husband’s turn , Jimmy is very tall , stands out and forgot to wear the fake tummy! My daughter started to recognise him and kept asking where Daddy was, so I quickly had to make up a story to save the magic. It still makes me smile to this day.🎄♥️🌟
My favorite childhood memory was after church my Dad would have us stay in the car with our mom, so he could check to see if Santa had come. He would come back and say that yes Santa had come and he left presents for us.
We also would get a lot of snow during the winter. And we would build tunnels in the backyard and we would crawl through them it was so much fun.
One of my favorite Christmas memories was in 2008 when a "Snowpocalypse" hit our area and we had 3 feet of snowfall in a short time on top of the foot or so that was already on the ground. We managed to get our daughter and son-in-law to our house before the city shut down. Our son was with us as well and since we were all housebound together we started a Settlers of Catan tournament that spanned over three days. We had plenty of food and nowhere to go so we just kept playing. We also watched a lot of Christmas movies and told funny family stories. It was almost a little sad when the snowplows finally came through. That Christmas remains one of my favorites as we had no choice but to just make the best of things and we had so much fun!
My favorite memory was when I was probably only 8 years old. A local grocery store had a contest where you could enter to win a life size stuffed Santa. It was on top of a cardboard chimney that was an advertisement for the 7up bottling company. My sister entered all 5 of us to win it. I couldn't believe it that I won it. You would've thought I won a million $$..lol. My Grandpa and I went and picked it up. We were inseparable as he lived with us. Every year I couldn't wait for my Mom to get it out of the attic and display it. I loved my Santa and still have but but it is really showing his age. I would love to have him redone and display it again someday. Awesome memory!! ❤️ 🥰🙏🎄🎅🤶
Obrigada Graham, por compartilhar sua lembrança favorita de Natal!
Ótima live! 🤗
Desejo a você e a Paola um Ano Novo repleto de alegrias, saúde e paz! 🙏🏻✨
Merry Christmas Graham,i remember waking up and there were 7 dolls around the tree. I was the youngest of 6 girls and one boy. He wanted a doll also.
When I was six I wanted a bike but we were quite poor so I knew that it would not happen. My dad was was coming home from work one night and he spotted an bike in a trash pile. He brought it home and fixed it up and painted it. I got my brand new bike. Years later my mom told me the story about that bike and I cried because I knew that my dad truly was an amazing man.
Per my live comment…
My favorite Christmas memory was when I was 4 or 5, dad had dressed up as Santa to see me when I had gone to bed (just). Just prior, I think it was mum had asked me if I could hear the sleigh bells, I tried to listen for them, before stating ‘no?!’. Santa comes in and I ask ‘is that you dad?’, which he replies with ‘no, ho ho ho, im not your dad, I'm Santa Clause’. I have seen the home videos, had it been a movie, I think my remark would have been ‘yeh! And I'm the Easter bunny!’. My brother is in the corners of video near splitting his sides in laughter.
What made it special also, was said Santa suit (and beard) was hand made by my Great Grandma, she has since passed but I only ever met her once when I was 2. ❤️❤️
My favorite Christmas gift was a boom box. I kept asking for the boom box and my parents always told me no because we couldn’t afford it. I opened the boom box and started crying because it was very much believable we didn’t have much money growing up
When I was young, but old enough to know better, myself and some cousins of all ages jumped in a canoe and rode it down the snowy hill. I was directly in the front of the canoe and I was about 30 yo and the youngest was about four. Anyway a couple cousins pushed the canoe down the hill and we were headed for one of the smallest trees in the whole grove at the bottom of the hill. I ended up jumping out of the canoe ended up getting kicked in the face by another cousin who bailed the same time I did. It was a traumatic event at the time but now every time we get together we talk and laugh about that.
There is an exotic farm and has camels in Nebraska
Enjoyed watching the replay. Your Christmas Tree is lovely. Thanks for the memories contest invitation. Tough to decide which Christmas memory to share. I have so many wonderful memories spanning my life. So I'll turn to this Christmas. We discovered on social media that my niece and great niece had a booth at the Tsuut'ina Nation Christmas Market. I hadn't seen them in awhile so decided to go see them at the market. That in itself was wonderful. I hadn't seen them since their Dad / Grandfather passed away a few months ago, so we shared tender hugs and tears. Later that day, a young man who has been discerning Baptism off and on for 3 years sent me a text saying he saw me on the news at Tsuut'ina. He went on to say he wanted to reconnect and get baptized this coming Easter. I felt God's intervention and am grateful for the opportunity opportunity provided (or guided?) to reconnect with this wonderful young man.
And by the way, I had no idea we were captured by the local news and he is the only I know who saw it. Blessings
As I shared on the live, one of my favorite Christmas memories is attending a midnight mass services . I was raised Methodist, but my parents let me attend the Christmas Eve Catholic midnight mass service with my best friend in high school. I was allowed to drive the 6 miles to my friends house, then go with her family to the church. It was a beautiful service, the best part was as we exited the church, snow was quietly falling, the big fluffy flakes, creating a world of white and stillness. It was such a warm, peaceful feeling walking outside, I remember just standing there taking in the calm and peace. My heart was filled with wonder, peace and felt God's love. I still remember that wonderful feeling, Christmas Eve services today take me back to that memory and the peace of the night. Whenever it snows here in Colorado I embrace the stillness and quiet it brings.
The live this evening was a wonderful way to end this Christmas Day, sharing special memories by you and members of Time Has Come community. May continue blessings come to you and Paola in the coming New Year.
Thanks to my dear friend, Jane, who acknowledged the fact that not everyone celebrates Christmas. As a Jew, that would include me. Nevertheless I have always had opportunities to share the joy and share some of the traditions of my friends who do celebrate Christmas.
Last year while visiting Elaine Hamilton, who lives in New Jersey, I paid my very first visit to a Christmas tree farm. I was just like a 5 year old, darting from one tree to another, inhaling the varied and delicious aromas of each species. The vast variety of wreaths was amazing, each one more beautiful than the next. Later that night, we drove around her town enjoying the beautifully decorated homes decorated and lit up for both Christmas and Hanukkah.
I had the chance be in New Jersey once again during this holiday season and naturally it was "rinse and repeat" for us. It is my fondest hope that this tradition will continue for us for many years to come.
"Merry Everything and Happy Always" to everyone in our THC family!
Much love,
Barbara Pack