December 9 – Grab Bag
Author’s choice. Please post from a topic that helps you remember Christmases past!
Christmas Vacations are what I remember readily from my childhood. I don't mean traveling to visit relatives or to go someplace for a vacation, I mean the time off of school! It seemed like it took forever to get here, and we counted down the days in school until Christmas Vacation. And that's what we called it, too, not "Holiday Break" or "winter Break". We spent the weeks ahead of it making decorations for the classrooms, stringing rings of colored construction paper together, and dreaming with our buddies what we might get for presents.
And it seems in my memory that Christmas Vacation was longer than it is for kids today. It seems like they barely get a week now, when we got two weeks. I'll admit my memory might be faulty on the exact length, but it was longer than today's breaks.
We loved that time, too, because it was time we could play outside when it was still light out. I live far enough north that days are rather short near the Winter Solstice, so we enjoy every minute of daylight that we get. We would go out and dig tunnels in the piled snow at the edge of nearby cleared parking lots, or make snowmen if the snow was sticky enough. Frequently, it was cold enough that the snow wouldn't pack well for snowmen or snowballs. Sometimes we would walk to nearby hills for sledding. Back then, I had the energy to walk back up the hills all day. I found that much more tiring when I accompanied my own kids on sledding trips!
There was always the dread toward the end of vacation, only a few days left until school again... Then only a couple of days... Then, back to school tomorrow! Well, at least we had presents we could take for Show & Tell. But it always seemed like a long dreary time until the next break from school.
This and all other articles on this blog are © copyright 2012 by Daniel G. Dillman
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