MomDot Day 6- Favorite Holiday Memory

November 19, 2008 by Mommy Zabs
Filed under Holidays

This one is hard.

We would like to know what is your favorite holiday memory from your childhood.

There are so many memories that I absolutely love and cherish. I’ll choose one to focus on. It is perhaps one of my earliest memories of Christmas.

When I was little Downtown Columbus was abuzz. I remember people would drive and walk down there just to see all the pretty decorations and store windows. There was a huge Lazarus department store there (pretty comparable to what Macy’s has become, in fact, I believe they all became Macy’s) It was 5 stories and the street level windows were absolutely beautiful to little wide-eyed children like me. We would make a day out of going down there and visiting THE REAL santa.

To see santa there was of course a long line. To ease the difficulty of the line the store would make it more of a maze where kids could sit at different stations and draw crafts, like paper ornaments. The Santa would be in a room at the end of the line and when you got close enough you could see him through the window. I always thought it strange that there were 2 Santas in 2 different rooms that people would funnel in. The challenge was simply to pick THE REAL one, which of course we always did.

After we finally saw Santa and gave him our many Christmas requests we would go to a part in the store that only little kids had access too. The doors were half the height of normal doors and we would go in without our parents. My parents would give us each money to buy the a Christmas present and we would go in and ask which row we could choose a present from (depending on the amount of money we had). I remember distinctly picking out cologne in the shape of an old fashioned figure (maybe english army man?) for my dad. We would go pay for the item and then they would wrap it for us so that our parents would not see.

The year my we got the cologne my brother ruined the surprise by giving my dad a big hint. He said, “It starts with Old Sp—”. Dad pretended not to know.

I wonder why there aren’t more of these type of situations anymore. At least not where we live. It would be such a wonderful thing to take my children too. Oh well.

Tags: christmas, gift-giving, Holidays, memory, santa

Comments

15 Comments on "MomDot Day 6- Favorite Holiday Memory"

Michelle @ Don't Lick The Walls on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 1:25 pm

That’s such a cool idea, about going to the special kids section and pick out presents for the parents (although I’m laughing at your brother and the “It starts with Old sp -”) haha. Gotta love brothers!

Michelle on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 1:26 pm

We had a kids-only shopping area too. I forgot all about this. How fun was this. Thanks for the reminder.

Melissa on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 1:44 pm

Oh, I’m so jealous! I never got to shop in a store with short little doors! What a great memory though!!!

meridith on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 2:19 pm

What a neat memory! I wish I could have gone to that. I’m always fascinated with things like that where kids get to pick out gifts, that is so special. All the Lazarus stores did become Macy’s and everytime I drive by City Center and the old Lazarus I get sad.

erin on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 3:24 pm

Those are all such wonderful ideas that should still be in place today. I love the coloring and crafts stations for kids while they wait for Santa. And a special, safe place for kids to buy presents for their parents is awesome!

Tena on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 3:30 pm

I love this memory!!! Great post today!!

Amanda on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 4:04 pm

My son’s former school did something like that. They sent home a sheet divided up by family member and you could designate how much they could spend on each person at the Christmas Shop. The local stores had donated things for the kids to buy and all proceeds went to the PTO. You sent the money in an envelope, they helped the kids shop, wrapped their gifts for them, and then we put them under the tree when my son got home.

Staci A on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 6:41 pm

What a wonderful memory! My son made a huge deal out of seeing the real Santa last year. He told me which ones were pretend and pointed out the real one to me (the one he visited at my work). I’m not sure how he picked which was real and which wasn’t.

Beth on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 9:57 pm

This post was a walk down memory lane! We did this every year too - I especially remember the talking tree - and always got our parents pointless gifts at the end. But it was so fun! Thanks for the memory.

Tracye on Wed, 19th Nov 2008 11:35 pm