It's a Christmas Miracle!

I'm putting up two posts for December 24 and 25. This one is going to be silly, and the other one is going to be a safe space to vent bad feelings. If you feel like you've got anything to give these two days, please stop over there and say something kind to someone who's feeling bad.

Over here, we can share some dopey stories. I know I've shared before about how my family has a tradition of calling things "Christmas miracles" and then telling the stories year after year. Here are the two we tell the most:

The Christmas Box of Socks Miracle: My grandfather was newly married to my grandmother, and it was Christmas Eve, and he'd had a bit too much to drink and had been sent out to go walk it off a bit and go to the store to get something. As he was walking, a car came speeding down the street and the window rolled down and he heard someone yell, "And all you got me was SOCKS!" and then a box flew out the window and landed at his feet as the car sped away. Of course my grandfather picked up the box, took it back home with him, and when he opened it there were pairs and pairs of new socks, all his size. IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

The Slivovitz Miracle: My dad likes to drink slivovitz (plum brandy) at Christmas. My brother had given him a big bottle the previous year, but after having only about two shots' worth out of the bottle, it had disappeared. So when my brother gave my dad a bottle of it the next year, we were hoping the same thing wouldn't happen. Not only did it not disappear, but when my dad went to the cabinet in which he keeps the shotglasses he only uses at Christmas time, he found the bottle of slivovitz from the previous year! It hadn't disappeared after all, and now he had TWO bottles of slivovitz. IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE.

Now you go: What ridiculous stories does your family tell or what crazy traditions do you have?

Comments

[MM]

My dad had Parkinson's disease and holiday things toward the last few years were just not his favorite and he wasn't too mobile. One year, one of my brothers said, "Dad, do you want to go out for ice cream?" He leaped up out of his chair and everyone was mighty surprised - especially him!" Using your language, "IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE."

[Kathy_B]

For some reason, it is tradition to have baked beans for Christmas dinner. I am still trying to figure that one out.

[Anon]

My family loves to re-tell the Christmas we played Trivial Pursuit with my grandma and invented a rule that if you tried for pie and missed the question you had to take a jello shot. Watching Grandma do jello shots was truly a Christmas miracle.

[Myla]

Our craziest tradition was probably going out on our land and cutting off the top of a tree and some extra branches and tying them all together to make a tree. There are some seriously spindly trees in the pictures of my childhood christmases.

We would also always watch It's a Wonderful Life and watch with fascination as my dad cried happy tears - atta boy Clarence! I was thrilled when my then two year old actually sat and watched the end with me last year - and watched with fascination as I cried happy tears.

[LivLaughEat]

Last year, even now (I'm 34), Santa made a stop at our house with small gifts in our stockings. I gave my stocking to my son so we (my husband and I) get a paper bag hung on our door knob. My parents are visiting so I suspect Santa will make a stop again this year! It's a Christmas miracle!

[Cordy]

Oh man. Moxie's Christmas Miracles made me laugh out loud. I will have to be on the lookout for any ridiculous things to add to a list of my own.

We watched QUEEN OF VERSAILLES earlier today (it's on Amazon Streaming and I think probably Netflix, too), and I would really recommend, especially if you're feeling a little poor around the holidays. It's a pretty glorious portrait of American capitalism run amok, and after you watch the scene where the wife buys carts and carts full of crap at WalMart, you are sure to feel pretty good about your own modest shopping style! (Not quite A Christmas Miracle, but it made us laugh.)

[Denise]

When I was about 10, I saved up my money and bought my mom a pair of delicate snowflake earrings for Christmas. Then I begged her to let me wear them to church for the Christmas Eve service, which she did. However, when we sat down, I realized that one of them had fallen out between the car and the church. I was so upset, I cried through the entire service.

We walked back to the car, my mom still trying (in vain) to make me feel better, and there, right in the middle of the road, completely unscathed, was the earring! It was A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!

[Jessie]

Moxie, I love the socks story! Hysterical!

My baby's first Christmas it snowed a good 12 inches overnight (in Oklahoma -- it never snows that much here!). She was 8 months old. I thought it was pretty magical even if she didn't.

We had already planned to just stay at home all day and not drive to visit anyone, so while everyone else was complaining that their plans were messed up, ours were blissfully intact. AND our power didn't go out! It was a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!

[Jenny F. Scientist, PhD]

I love the socks.

Not really a CHRISTMAS miracle, but my dad's family, who had a farm, was once driving waaaay out in the country when their car died on a bridge. They all looked at each other in silence and then my father (age 3) looked at his dad and said "Fwed, dis is one heww of a pwace to top." Which was exactly what my grandma was thinking!

[Latte]

My son was born last Christmas day and given to me in a big red stocking. Were going to take a picture of him this year and every year after in or with that stocking. Our own goofy tradition for our real life Christmas miracle

[hush]

We can't get enough of the movie "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation." The kids love the cartoon at the opening credits, and are obsessed with the Julia Louis-Dreyfus character, Margot the neighbor. They've been role-playing:

"Why is the floor all wet, Todd?"

"I DON'T KNOW, MARGOT!!" ;)

[Maria]

This is new but I think it will become a traditional story for us. The other night it was CRAZY WINDY here. I mean, somebody's siding ended up in my driveway, the road sign across the street was blown over, the power went out, branches everywhere. The town Christmas tree in the square was blown over, and store awnings were mangled. Hella windy.

But the next morning my daughter found her wallet, which is really just a fabric pouch, with her $50 of birthday money still in it, lying on the ground next to her car door, where she had apparently dropped it the day before.

IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!

[MrsHaley]

One Christmas when I was a teenager, we were reveling in our haul just after opening presents. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace, and everyone was starting to consider getting dressed ... When a live squirrel tumbled down the chimney, landed on a burning log, knocked over the fireplace screen, lept onto my HEAD, then proceeded to run circles around our house, digging scratches in the floor. The dog was completely overwhelmed with joy!! She didn't catch the squirrel, but it was the best Christmas she ever had!!

[Schwa de Vivre]

It's more my in-law's tradition, but one I have taken to heart: every year, after opening presents, they put on the Peggy Lee record and play "Is That All There Is?"

[Maria]

@ MrsHaley, I *love* that story! What a lucky, lucky dog! Not so much lucky for your head, though.

[Bethany]

So pissed right now. Last year, we started our own family tradition of staying home to do Christmas morning with our little family of 3. Now that my son is 3.5, he has been so cute and grateful for every gift he's opened so far. Because we both have divorced parents and living grandparents, we end up with 8 Christmases to celebrate. We had three before this morning and will have three today. It was a late night after Christmas Eve church. Little man slept in until about 8. I was able to stall him until 830. Mr. M couldn't be bothered to get out of bed to watch him open presents so we opened without him. Then he came out to let me know that he won't be joining us for the first place we need to be today because he "needs" to go in to work. This may be a deal breaker for me and that makes me really sad. But I have major issues with not being able to prioritize your family over work one day a year and giving up watching the magic of Christmas while Little Man still believes.

[Jessie]

I've been reading this stories to my family (so funny!). Last night we brought a pizza home since we were out late at the Christmas pageant. There was only one piece left today, and when my 3.5yo heard there was one piece left, she asked if she could have it for lunch. I told her she could, and she said, "Yay! It's a CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!" :-D

[Anon]

@Bethany - sounds like you might want to repost that on "Vent Here Safely" - but since you did not, may I offer you some perspective?

I urge you to consider giving your husband the benefit of the doubt. This is a tough economy, and I understand the need for some of us out here to work some holidays in order to keep our jobs that support our families and put those presents under the tree. If you're a true Christian, ask yourself WWJD? Some children of divorce who have painful Xmas memories to process sometimes have a hard time doing Xmas "right" in their partners' eyes. Sometimes they can't handle 8 Xmases. Go easy on him.

[the milliner]

@MrsHaley, Thank you for that fantastic story! Our dog would LOVE that to happen at our house. Maybe we'll have our own Christmas miracle...a dog can dream :)

[Blanche]

One year after Thanksgiving dinner, we were playing the Scattergories game as a family (grandparents, my parents, aunt/uncle, me & my cousins). The letter "H" came up with the prompt of "Things that are sticky."

Honey was easy for everyone, but then my very proper and soft-spoken gentleman of a grandfather comes out with "handkerchief." After a brief shocked silence we ALL dissolved into laughter. Not a Christmas Miracle, but a wonderful memory of a man I never really got to know very well before illness started to take him away.

[hedra]

One year we were very very thin for money. We had enough for food, electricity, and crayons all around (crayons and paper were a standard always gift), but tree? Notsomuch. My mom was really sad about contemplating Christmas that year. No tree. Tree vs. food, food wins.

She was driving home, and a big semi truck pulled onto the road coming down from the mountains. It was stacked with pine trees headed out to who knows where, to be sold for Christmas trees. Salt in the wound. She was stuck behind it for a few miles. Just before her turn off, a tree on the top of the stack started to slide and then rolled off the top and landed on the side of the road.

Mom pulled over and waited to see if the truck would stop to collect the lost cargo. Truck drove out of sight. She loaded the tree on the car and headed home. It was a much bigger tree than we usually got, too. Christmas miracle!

There's another one about another year when she'd saved up to buy a bottle of scotch for my step-dad. It was an okay bottle, not too pricey, but a splurge gift nonetheless. It was in the trunk of the car when they dropped the car off at the mechanic's (I think for snow tires, something simple). When mom picked up the car, the scotch was gone. My mom told the owner what exactly was missing (cheap bottle of scotch), with of course no hard evidence that it had been there to start with... he replaced the scotch with a Very Nice bottle of scotch, much more expensive than she'd have been able to afford. Christmas Miracle! :)

[Claudia]

It's a bit after Christmas now, but we just had a "Christmas miracle."

We'd been at the inlaws for two nights for Christmas, and I usually get thoroughly maxed out on the Danish Experience after that long (we live in Denmark, DH is Danish, but he and I speak English to each other). And I really miss having Christmas American style.
Anyway, the inlaws usually have a party to go to near us in the time between Christmas and New Year's, and they stay at our house afterwards. We still have a house semi-exploded from coming home with gifts, bedding, bags, etc. Yesterday DH and his friend spent all day brewing beer while I cleaned and cooked and entertained DD6. I wasn't looking forward to getting everything perfectly tidy today before they come at noon. Then they just called and realized they have the wrong date- they aren't coming until tomorrow. So happy that today will be much more chill. "It's a Christmas Miracle!"

[cheap jersey]

One year after Thanksgiving dinner, we were playing the Scattergories game as a family (grandparents, my parents, aunt/uncle, me & my cousins). The letter "H" came up with the prompt of "Things that are sticky."

[Sell Runescape Gold]

I think it would. But I'm also just realizing that I maybe already have enough fun in my life!

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[AntereStercon]

When I originally commented I clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get four emails using the same comment. Is there any way you possibly can remove me from that service? Thanks!


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