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.

1984

Events of 1984 include movies, music, home video, sports (NFL, NHL, NBA, MLB), Television, TV Show debuts, and big events of 1984.

Note: Not all events of the categories above are noted.
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** 1984 ***

Movies:
Top grossing film- ($234,760,478 - domestic)
Beverly Hills Cop

Picture Of The Year-
Amadeus

Notes: 

The Walt Disney Studios establishes Touchstone Pictures to release films with more mature subject matter than the traditional Walt Disney Pictures banner.

Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film.

Michael Eisner becomes head of The Walt Disney Company

Prince's first film Purple Rain is released.

The Motion Picture Association of America institutes the PG-13 rating, as a response to violent movies such as Gremlinsand Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
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Home Video News:

January 17- In Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc., popularly known as the "Betamax case", the Supreme Court of the United States rules that the practice of "time shifting" constitutes fair use and that the manufacturers of home video recording devices cannot be held liable for copyright infringement by consumers.

Music: 

(Recognized artists from 1984 at the 27th annual Grammy awards, Feb 6th 1985)

Song Of The Year: "What's Love Got To Do With It" by Tina Turner

Record Of The Year- "What's Love Got To Do With It" by Tina Turner

Album Of The Year- "Can't Slow Down" by Lionel Richie

Best New Artist: Cyndi Lauper



Note:
January 27- Michael Jackson's scalp is burned during the filming of a Pepsi commercial and he is admitted to the hospital.

February 28 – Recovering from the scalp burns sustained a month earlier, Michael Jackson wins eight Grammy Awards out of twelve nominations, breaking the record for the most Grammys won in a single year. He wins seven for the critically acclaimed album Thriller and the other for his work on the audiobook for the film E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.

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Sports: 

College Basketball-
NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championship:
Georgetown wins 84-75 over Houston

NBA-
NBA Finals:
Boston Celtics won 4 games to 3 over the Los Angeles Lakers

(Score: 111-102)

NFL-
Super Bowl XVIII – Los Angeles Raiders won 38-9 over the Washington Redskins

NHL-
Stanley Cup Finals:
Stanley Cup – Edmonton Oilers won 4 games to 1 over the New York Islanders

(Score: 5-2)

MLB-

World Series – Detroit Tigers win 4 games to 1 over the San Diego Padres

(Score: 8-4)

Television Notes: (Not all major events are included)

January 22- During CBS's broadcast of Super Bowl XVIII, Apple Computer Company heralds the introduction of its Apple Macintosh personal computer with the famous advertisement "1984", the only time it is broadcast on national television.

January 23- Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan defeats The Iron Sheik to win his first World Wrestling Federation (WWF) championship at Madison Square Garden; the match is televised by the MSG Network.

January 27- Michael Jackson's hair catches fire during the filming of a Pepsi commercial.

February 28- At the 26th Grammy Awards telecast by CBS, Michael Jackson wins a record-breaking eight Grammy Awards.

May 18- Character Bobby Ewing finds himself in the crossfire as a rival tries to gun down his brother J.R. on the season finale of the series Dallas.

July 14- In what became known as Black Saturday, Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation (WWF) takes over Superstation WTBS' Saturday evening time period once occupied by Georgia Championship Wrestling. National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) wrestling fans and viewers are stunned.

September 10- The game show Jeopardy! returns to television by daily syndication with new host Alex Trebek.

September 14- Dan Aykroyd and Bette Midler host the first MTV Video Music Awards at New York City's Radio City Music Hall, an event which included Madonna's performance of the song "Like a Virgin".

October 8- NBC broadcasts The Burning Bed, which features Farrah Fawcett as a woman who kills her abusive husband. The fact-based film is the highest-rated entertainment event of the 1984–1985 season.

December 27th- ABC purchases a majority stake of ESPN from Getty Oil Corp.

TV Show Debuts (Not all debuts are included)

January 22- Airwolf

March 31- Lifestyles of The Rich And Famous

April 14- My Little Pony

September 5- Heathcliff

September 7- Kids Incorporated

September 10- Voltron: Defender of The Universe

September 10- The Get Along Gang

September 10- Snorks

September 16- Punky Brewster

September 17- The Transformers

September 19- Highway To Heaven

September 19- The Cosby Show

September 20- Who’s The Boss?

September 25- Three’s A Crowd

September 28- Miami Vice

September 28- Tales From The Darkside

October 3- Charles In Charge

October 26- V (original series)

Big Events Of 1984: (not all events are posted)

January 1- Bell System in the United States is broken up.

January 24 – Apple Computer places the Macintosh personal computer on sale in the United States.

February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered space walk.

February 8–19 – The 1984 Winter Olympics are held in Sarajevo, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

February 26 – The United States Marine Corps pulls out of Beirut, Lebanon.

April 1 – Marvin Gaye is shot to death by his father, one day before his 45th birthday.

April 4 – U.S. President Ronald Reagan calls for an international ban on chemical weapons.

April 23 - United States researchers announce their discovery of the AIDS virus.

The Soviet Union announces that it will boycott the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

May 31 – Six inmates, including James and Linwood Briley, escape from a death row facility at Mecklenburg Correctional Center, the only occasion this has ever happened in the United States.

June 12 - In one of the greatest NBA Finals ever, The Boston Celtics beat the Los Angeles Lakers in 7 games to captured their 15th NBA Championship.

July 13 – Terry Wallis, a 19-year old living in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, falls into a deep coma after a severe automobile accident (he will eventually awaken 19 years later on June 13, 2003).

July 23 – Vanessa L. Williams becomes the first Miss America to resign when she surrenders her crown, after nude photos of her appear in Penthouse magazine.

July 25 – Salyut 7: cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya becomes the first woman to perform a space walk.

July 28–August 12 – The 1984 Summer Olympics are held in Los Angeles, California.

August 11- United States President Ronald Reagan, during a voice check for a radio broadcast remarks, "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes".

August 16 – John DeLorean is acquitted of all eight charges of possessing and distributing cocaine.

August 30 – STS-41-D: the Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

September 18 – Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to cross the Atlantic, solo, in a hot air balloon.

September 20 – Hezbollah car-bombs the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut, killing 24 people.

September 26 – The United Kingdom and the People's Republic of China sign the initial agreement to return Hong Kong to China in 1997.

October 5 – STS-41-G: Marc Garneau becomes the first Canadian in space, aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger.

October 11 – Aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger, astronaut Kathryn D. Sullivan becomes the first American woman to perform a space walk.

October 23 – The world learns from moving BBC News television reports presented by Michael Buerk of the famine in Ethiopia, where thousands of people have already died of starvation due to a famine, and as many as 10,000,000 more lives are at risk.

November 6 – United States presidential election, 1984: Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon's 61% popular vote victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states in the electoral college; Mondale wins only his home state of Minnesota by a mere 3,761 vote margin and the District of Columbia.

November 25- Band Aid (assembled by Bob Geldof) records the charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" in London to raise money to combat the famine in Ethiopia. It is released on December 3.

December 10 – Cisco Systems is founded.

December 22- Four African-American youths (Barry Allen, Troy Canty, James Ramseur, and Darrell Cabey) board an express train in the Bronx borough of New York City. They attempt to rob Bernhard Goetz, who shoots them. The event starts a national debate about urban crime in the United States.

Unknown Dates:

1983–85 famine in Ethiopia intensifies with renewed drought by mid-year, killing a million people by the end of this year. Date unknown.

Crack cocaine, a smokeable form of the drug, is first introduced into Los Angeles and soon spreads across the United States in what becomes known as the crack epidemic. Date unknown.

The Chrysler Corporation introduces the first vehicles to be officially labeled as "minivans". They are branded as the Chrysler Town & Country, Dodge Caravan, and Plymouth Voyager. Date unknown.