Christmas Through The Years

Christmas With My Grandparents

Christmas '85: My cat George loves being at Grandma & Grandpa's for Christmas

During my childhood and teenage years, Christmas was always one of the highlights of the year for me, that, and going to Cystic Fibrosis summer camp from 1988-1996. It wasn't just the gifts I was excited to receive, but visiting both sets of my grandparents who lived in Missouri as well. My grandparents (Mom's parents) were born and raised and lived in Missouri until the 1960's and moved to Michigan. They returned to Missouri in 1983. My Dad's parents were also born and raised in Missouri.

@ Grandparents, Christmas Time '83

@ Aunt's House, Christmas '83: My Cousin's w/ our Great Grandmother (Dad's Grandmother)

Check out my cousin's long sleeve shirt. The A-Team!!! I'm on the far right.

@Home, Christmas Eve '84: Masters of The Universe- Point Dread & Talon Fighter

Gift I opened on Christmas Eve

@ Home, Christmas '84: Candy Land was my favorite board game as a child

@ Home, Christmas Time '84: I wonder what this present could be? (next image below)

@ Home, Christmas '84: A reason why the 80's were so great! 

Masters of The Universe- Skeletor's Snake Mountain

I spent my Christmas vacation (with my family) visiting both sets of grandparents from 1984-1993. Christmas vacation usually started on or around December 18th. I opened my gifts from my parents early, around December 20th or 21st. We usually left December 22nd to beat the holiday traffic. Thankfully, Santa knew my location on December 25th. My parents let me bring along three of my gifts so I could open them at my grandparents' house. Santa brought me a gift or two as well.

Christmas was different in Dexter, MO, because I can count on one hand how many times it snowed. Where they lived (boot hill) it never snowed, maybe flurries and that was it. One year there were Charlie Brown flakes flowing from the sky and the snow was actually sticking to the ground. Dexter received about an inch or two. It seemed as though we always brought the snow from Michigan. That time of year the residents had to worry about ice.

@ Home, Christmas '84: 1985 E.T. Calendar

@ Home, Christmas '84: Lego Set

The 12-hour drive to Dexter, MO was a long one, especially bringing along two mid-sized dogs. My grandparents were always happy to see our dogs, as they didn't have one until 1994/1995.

My Dad's parents lived in Malden, MO, which was about 45 minutes south from my Mom's parents in Dexter. Sometimes we spent Christmas morning at my grandparents in Dexter and some years we spent Christmas morning at my other grandparents in Malden. I think we did that every other year.

1993 my older cousin and I would travel to visit our grandparents during Christmas vacation and continued to do so until 2000. We spent Christmas up here and left to travel down there on December 26th. We stayed with our grandparents from December 26th - January 2nd or around that time period.

Christmas 1985

My favorite Christmas was in 1985, and between the years 1984-1987, I received Masters of The Universe toys and those were my favorite gifts. Anything to do with He-Man I loved! The toys weren't expensive back then. Mom purchased them from Big Wheel, which was a store like K-Mart. I had all the original characters, including both Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain.

One of the most unique characters was Stinkor, which was an evil action figure that stunk like a skunk. Peeww! He did stink. I'm surprised Skeletor could be around him. That was his defense, his bad odor spray. During the later years in the world of He-Man, newer characters were introduced left and right, which I didn't have all those characters, but I had a ton.

Another wonderful gift I received that year was the newly released (10/18/85) Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). When the NES came out, Super Mario Bros. was the only item included. Duck Hunt or the NES Zapper gun wasn't included. I had my NES system for 7 years.

Favorite Christmas Movie

My favorite Christmas film is It's A Wonderful Life (1946), followed by National Lampoon's Christmas (1989) and then my favorite Christmas movie as a child, Santa Clause: The Movie (1985), which to me is an underrated Christmas film, which stars both the late Dudley Moore (Patch the Elf) and David Huddleston as Santa Claus. David played a wonderful Santa in the film. John Lithgow plays B.Z. an evil executive of a toy company. The late Burgess Meredith makes a cameo as the Ancient One, the oldest and wisest of the elves.

The two children who star in the film are Carrie Kei Heim as Cornelia (Corny), whom is B.Z.'s 9 year old step-niece and orphan. Cornelia befriends a homeless boy named Joe living on the streets of New York. Both befriend Santa Claus.

The film tells the story of how Santa Claus came about, along with the plot venturing into the (then) current 20th century and how Christmas and the meaning had changed through the centuries. It's a good children's film.

The film came out on November 27th 1985 and flopped and received a lot of negative reviews. Its become more popular in recent years with a cult following. It's one of those movies that's hard to find on the tube around Christmas, but in recent years its been on digital over the air (free TV) channel This! and AMC has been airing the film quite a bit lately. This marks the first year the film has been aired on TV in HD.

I'll always remember those long trips to Missouri, the dinner's with my grandparents, and the times I spent with my relatives/grandparents on my Dad's side. I saw both sets of my grandparents twice a year and that was it. If you're reading this and see your grandparents around the holidays or in between time, please be thankful for the time you have with them, because one day they won't be around. I was lucky to make great memories with both sets.