christmas time

well it is almost christmas time and it is my favorite time of the year. if you celebrate christmas tell us what your christmasses use to be like when you were a child. when i was a child back in the 40's and 50's you would not get a lot of toys or any thing bought from a store when you were a child. so you always looked forward to christmas and what you might get. i was born in massachusetts and back then there was always snow on the ground well before xmas. in most households people had maybe one t.v. and a radio or two. radios were very popular. the t.v. was usually in the den or in the living room. my father would always go out and get the tree and my brother and sister and i would some times helped set it up . the tinsel that hung on the tree ,when stringed popcorn was not used, was hung by my mother. she had to make sure each strand was hanging perfect . there was no tossing tinsel at the tree. my parents would ask me what i wanted for xmas and my list was always long. i always knew what i wanted and desired even when i was a kid. christmas night we kids would go to bed about 9 to 10 p.m. we would go to bed but there would be not to much sleeping going on. we would wait till about 4 a.m. and try and sneak out to look at the presents. we didn't dare move the presents because we knew better. that was my fathers job. we would get up about 7 a.m. and run to wake up my parents. my father and mother would come out which seemed like hours to me but it was only minutes. my father would take the toys one by one and hand them out to me and my brother and sister. he would hand out one each to us and say who the present was from and we would open them. then he would hand out three more. some times my father would hide a toy that i really wanted and act like santa had forgot. he would say,' i think there might be one more for you some where. "" santa doesn't always put every thing under the tree, you know." after we opened the toys mom would make breakfast and after we ate that at the dinner table, we all sat together, we could then go out and play. it was december in new england so it was always cold and there was always plenty of snow on the ground. mom would always tell us when lunch was and we dare not be gone when that time came around. the rest of the day relatives always dropped by and they brought presents. before the day was over we would get in the car and go to my grandparents house which was in the city. when we got there we would walk up 3 floors to there apartment and there were kisses all around and there we got some more presents. at xmas we always had more fruit in the house and my dad always had some whiskey for him and any adults that might drop by. at my grandparents house they had the same thing plus they always had plenty of candy and also peanut brittle that my grandmother use to make. it was winter so every one served hot chocolate and the grownups always had coffee. my grandfather use to drink old granddad, which is a whiskey. some times he would pour some in a shot glass and drop it in a mug of beer. when he wasn't looking i would sneak a sip. my grandfather always had at least one horse that he kept at a friends barn in the country. he lived in the city himself. i use to go with him and his son, my uncle, and go to the barn to see the horse and play in the snow with my uncle who was only 2 years older than i was. christmas time was the only time i would go to my grandparents house that my uncle and i would not get to see a movie. they were closed on that day. christmas to me back then was a very magical day. so what was it like when you were a child?