Well, I’ve just read, for at least the hundredth time, the Christmas stories from the Little House series. My heart melts each year as I read about the sacrifice of family from this delightful Ingalls clan. They had so little, but were all about their family.
Another tearjerker was a very old episode of Fury. Ask any baby boomer if you don’t know what this fifties series is about. In this particular one, Joey befriends two little boys who are very poor, and at Christmas, they exchange the same gifts they had the last few years, crayons and I think, a pocketknife. But each year, they exchange them again. It’s a great lesson for children about being grateful in all circumstances for what you have.
Most of my favorite book/shows are from the forties through the sixties. Each had a lesson, and each one was based on a strong story, not a bunch of cheap holiday laughs with sex at the center of the joke. Okay, okay, I’m really old-fashioned(as well as really old), and Christmas brings this out in me, but it also brings out the longing for family to be together.
I have one kiddo who lives close to home, but the other two are thousands of miles away. So Christmas, while my favorite time of year, holds bittersweet nostalgia as well as looking to the holidays’ joys and to the future.
As the days of eggnog and Christmas stockings approach, I read my favorites, watch my old standbys and on occasion, am known to shed a tear or twenty.
Take this opportunity to read or share some of your most cherished memories with those you love. What is your favorite book/show from your childhood?
5 comments:
We were really poor when I was growing up, but I didn't know it.(Dad was going through medical school~~Mom was good at pinching pennys.)
Every Christmas and Birthday a great aunt sent me and my two siblings books by Thronton W. Burges.
I still have The Adventures of Paddy The Beaver.
I have a 1903 edition of The Story of the Other Wise Man by Henry van Dyke. It is a favorite, along with the Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Love them.
You, old? HA! God is lauging with me at that one!
I love Gift of the Magi, Miracle on 34th St, and It's a Wonderful Life. Did you know it was a bomb at the box office? It only became popular in the 70's when they put it on TV.
Happy crying,
Jen
When I was a child and TV was "brand new," I think the Bell Telephone Co. would put on the same half hour show with marionettes every Christmas season. The one 15-minute show was Jesus' birth, and the other act was an enactment of "The Night Before Christmas." Both puppet shows were narrated by Alexander Scourby. I loved that half hour (and looked for it every year) and would give my eye teeth to see that show again.
My favorite Christmas movie is probably IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. In fact, hubby and I just adopted a doggie from the SPCA. I named him Bailey, as in George Bailey in the movie, because this poochie is so full of life and fun. Merry Christmas, everyone!
It's A Wonderful LIfe, one of my favorites.
Delightful article! Hugs!
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