Remember when I said there were more memories where the last one came from in this article right here? Well, here's more!

*I couldn’t find the exact image so here is something similar. Image stolen from THE PEOPLE HISTORY*

Way back in the early 90s, I can remember Christmas officially starting in our house when out came the box that contained our tree, ornaments and all the festive decorations. The tree was in a huge box which use to contain a grill; It was strange seeing the essence of Christmas reside in a box that portrayed grilling corn on the cob in the blistering summer heat but it was big enough to house everything so perfectly that we'd be insane not to keep it just for this purpose. Between old plastic popcorn Santa faces, Christmas ornaments and string lights this thing was a tank to us little ones and we got fucking hyped for it every single time.

The ornaments ranged from old hand made school ornaments (you know... the kid hand print and the paper Christmas bulb with the school picture plastered with a glue stick and covered in glitter), about a dozen babies first Christmas ornaments by Precious Moments, gas station mementos and plenty of random store bought ornaments. There were enough ornaments to cover every inch of tree and still have plenty left over but we made them fit. One of my favorite ornaments was the random Mickey Mouse one we had. He was at a computer which had a hole in the back to jam a light from the string lights in to light up the screen... so legit.

We never had a pre lit tree, but we managed to pile on the Christmas lights like they were going out of style. Multicolored lights were the ticket; the ones we had also had a button the beginning of the strand to choose different patterns. They could be blinking or pulsing or any variation of the two or just sit on "still." Mom was always the "still" choice whereas my dad wanted them to have the ability to cause seizures. So, naturally, we went with a seizure inducing light scheme. I also, remember having these kick ass M&M lights on the tree. Years later, my girlfriend rescued a random bag of them at a Goodwill for me.

Regardless of how the tree was decked out, what lights and ornaments were hung and what garlands were used... one thing always remained the same; once that tree was fully dressed, the siblings and I were underneath it looking up not even a second later. I don't know who started this pastime but I know a lot of kids do it. Like... when a sea turtle hatches, it knows to run towards water; that's how instinctual getting under that damn tree was to us without so much as a few words or a quick look at each other. I can remember spending what seemed like a countless amount of hours underneath the glow of the Christmas tree but was surely only a 10 min session. It was our own personal holly Jolly light show that I never in a million years would've guessed I'd be nostalgic for in my early 30s but, here we are!

I think that'll wrap up "Christmas Memories" for the season. I hope you all enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed oozing about it! We also hope you're home with the ones you love and are having a great holiday so far. And, as always, thanks for reading!

MORE XMAS MEMORIES TO GET YOU IN THE SPIRIT!

XMAS MEMORIES VOL. 1 PART 2!

Grimey