Have you ever as an adult or a child had to "make" your Christmas?

Question

Ornaments, scratch up the meal, presents if any at all, and muster up cheer and joy for everyones sake?
My children and I had several like this when they were young. We had love and each other and it was okay by us.
We made phonebook trees and spray painted them gold. Paper garlands, popcorn and cranberry garlands, cotton ball snowmen, a borrowed silver tree that was old even then (it even came with the colored light wheel), and Christmas eve enough of a pay day for a chicken. Luckily we had plenty of corn syrup and tons of pecans to shell for pies.
My older kids bought the youngest dollar store baby buggy. I think one child got a pair of sweat pants and the other a sweat shirt.
I was pregnant and working one of these times with a cord running to my neighbors for electricity. But it was all good.

Answer 1

I can remember having a silver tree with the colored wheel.....made me laugh thinking of it.......but we as a family were happy......my mother did all she could for us, you could tell she wasn't always satisfied with what she gave us, but we were..........till this day I still think I appreciate all I get, unlike my siblings they are a little more greedy then I am........my youngest sister isn't too bad about being greedy she understands what it was like to be happy with what you got...........

Answer 2

You are on of the amazing surviving women!! I didn't have it that bad but one Christmas after the Divorce, I had no money for presents or a tree. My sister-in-laws friends had a tree farm and they brought me and 31/2 year old boy and my girl 2, the most beautiful 7' tree I have ever had on Christmas Eve. Then while we were trimming it the front door rang and I went out and found a bag on the front porch with a gift wrapped present for each of us from Santa. Have no idea who did it, I think it was my Principal at my new teaching job. We had corn, and hamburger and potatoes (Shepperd's Pie) for dinner and it was really just fine for us. They were little enough that they didn't notice and of course their dad and his wife, my ex friend had the kids the next day and got all kinds of presents. So all went well and I will always be thankful for the blessings.
My first Christmas with my ex we didn't have any ornaments so we bought lites and some red string and tied acorns to the strings and trimmed the tree with those and make popcorn string, and crushed paper in wads and threw them at the tree and it looKed ok...we were in love, poor, and happy -That was then. lol!

Answer 3

you know i can remember making ornaments out of playing cards (they were actually very pretty) and chain garland and salt clay (those were very nice) my mom actually still uses them sometimes. My mom got pregnant when she was 15 and neither one of my parents were very financially secure but some how my mom just had this touch. It was like Christmas magic (I wish I had it). She had a very hard child hood and I imagine they never got much at all even though her father had an excellent job her mother was a shopping addict and spent all of the families money on things for herself. When we woke up on Christmas morning you had to believe that Santa had been there. I have no idea how she did it still to this day. But we had tons of presents and the table was always full of Santa Claus cakes, cookies, jello molds... etc... and everything just had that touch. She really is an amazing woman and I wish that I can eventually be as great as she is. She can do just about anything by herself. I know I've heard stories of my dad's Christmases when he was a child they were also very poor and their parents telling them that Santa Claus had to cut down on presents because there were so many good kids that year. Then his Aunt showed up with tons of things that Santa had accidently left at her house for them. Now that his parents are more financially sound I can remember when I was a young girl them dressing up as Santa and Mrs. Claus and knocking on random doors (on Christmas Day) in a very poor area asking if there were Children in the house. Giving the Children presents and candy and stockings. I wish more people would do things like that. I am lucky that I have family because they have pulled me through by loaning me a tree and buying decorations.

Answer 4

My first thought was a Christmas I spent with a married sister. If anything, they had less money than my parents, but I never felt poor. Her husband went out and came back with a tree the church had donated to us. We filled up the empty branches with anything we could find. We re-wrapped gifts and put them under the tree. If I remember correctly, we had meat loaf for dinner and relished every bite. There's something about not having a lot of money that makes a Christmas all that more special. That sister ended up with 8 children over the years, at which time the husband walked away. She made do and every child ended up graduating from college. She died 2 years ago and I would give anything to be able to spend just one more Christmas with her, puny tree or not. God bless you and a very Merry Christmas.

Answer 5

We were broke but we had the riches Christmas

My husband lost his job with no warning (later got it back because it was illegal the what was done and worked there for another 18 years.)

We had always had a real tree( very next year we had a little money I bought a fake tree just in case!). It was Christmas Eve and I had a man's pride. I did not tell anyone we were not going to have a Christmas.No Christmas, no tree.No Christmas Eve tamales or chocolate..

Anyway, we went to see my mother in law in San Francisco. We had taken the kids to the park to play football. My husband handed me $8.00 to get stocking stuffs and told me his mother had some candy to add. She had got each of are children and our grandson a small gift. ( did not know her son was out of work) also she is (was) Chinese did not do Christmas.After the football game I was in a good mood a exercise high as we were walking back to Grandma's house a beggar asked me for money and without thinking I but my hand in my pocket and gave him our last eight dollars. I did not think what I had done til I saw my husbands eyes and I started to cry. I looked at him ,for a second he looked mad at me and said we needed some of that to get over the Vallejo bridge with that I started to cry more what will the kids think.
He said they will think they have the most beautiful mother inside and out.....and that is who their mother is he said he had to get use to it now it is their turn I think I cryed louder
.That did not help
I sat in the front seat of the car soflty crying and so embrassed when he told the bridge people we did not have the toll
prayed all the way home and asking GOD why was I sooo stupid.
Now my Children will only have some Chinese candy for Christmas morning not even enough to put in a socking.
When we got home it was dark which was good I wanted just to run to my bed and hide...
As I got to the front door sitting outside was a Christmas Tree,Presents for my family, Cookies,Nuts,Fruit,small toys for the sockings.
A turkey, ham, TAMALES, 25lbs of beans and rice....
All night long the front door bell would ring and we would open the door to find friends we did not even know we had and more food and gifts.......We were RICH. Our pooriest Christmas was our Riches

Answer 6

Once. Christmas of 1973. I was with the 3rd Medical Battalion in Okinawa, Japan during what is called a "remote" or "unaccompanied" tour in the military. That means you leave your family in the States for up to one year. So, it was quite different from the domestic bliss portrayed in the movies and on TV.
I managed to invest in a few cheap decorations at the Air Force Exchange down island to make my room look a little less dismal. And my wife sent a Norwegian Christmas cake (looks like those fruit cakes that make the rounds during the holidays). I don't know where she got the recipe, since she never met any of my Norwegian relatives. So, we had an impromptu party at my Battalion Commander's quarters which were a bit larger than the replicas of monastery friars' cells the rest of us lived in. We even invited the Marine officers from the battalion. Christmas egg nog (heavily spiked) was the beverage of the evening. Since we were a medical outfit, we had to have some symbol to designate that fact. So, we cut the cake with an autopsy knife from one of our medical kits. LOL!
Even after all these years, those who were there are still trying to find out the identity of the fiend who had Perry Como's "I'll Be Home For Christmas" playing over the camp's loudspeaker system. Grrrr!

Answer 7

Yes, when my daughter was small and I was a single parent we didn't have much. Most of the things we got came from my folks or my sister. My daughter made some darling little ornaments in Headstart and we made paper chains and strung popcorn for our little 4 ft artificial tree my Mom got us. We'd do fun things like make 'recipes' together, she loved to make sugar cookies. Those times together were better than all the presents. Today we still put many of the ornaments she made back then on our tree.

Answer 8

I've been "making" most of my own Christmases all my life, ornaments, decorations and all.Since I bead and do crafts and paint and sew and knit, most everybody gets a handmade gift from me. I very seldom buy into the commercial aspect of Christmas, I don't even look at the ads in the newspaper (which by the way has really gone too far when we get 2 separate bundles of newspaper per day, and one is all ads. What is up with that?) I do remember vividly one year when I was 14, my dad decided I was too old for a Christmas tree and refused to go cut one, so I took the saw and hiked a quarter of a mile to our woods in knee deep snow and cut one down myself and dragged it all the way back to the house. He never refused again. Merry Christmas to all, and Blessed Be.

Answer 9

Yes I do remember those days as a single parent and receiving gifts from the Salvation Army for the boys and a turkey from the boy scouts, but we were HAPPY and we had FUN making ornaments.! The kids were thrilled too. I have never ever forgotten the generosity from Salvation Army or the Boy Scouts, what a wonderful thing to do for a stranger! Unfortunately with television. kids see really big Christmases and anticipate such. Christmas can never live up to that when you are barely making ends meet.

Answer 10

I have had to make due several times. No matter how bad the situation is, I always try to make the best out of it. I like making my own decorations and most of the time I make the gifts that I am going to give.

As far as the electric goes, I am hooked up to my parents house right now. I am also hooked up to their water. You see I live in a little 8 X 30 travel trailer.

Answer 11

Wow......there have been such beautiful stories expressed here. (And here I was thinking I was the only one that had a Christmas like that.) As a kid we always had a good Christmas. Guess that's why it was so painful when I couldn't offer it to my own children. They never had anything close to the ones I had when it came to gifts. I made our tree a couple of years. Hangers with garland and lights. We did just make gifts for quite a few years. Thank heavens for dollar stores and imaginative children. Can't tell you how many things one can do with pine cones.......we had fun going out collecting them. Both girls loved testing their artistic ability to make something out of nothing.

I went to Wal-Mart today.....there was an adorable little girl with her mom and new baby brother behind me. She wanted a cell phone filled with gum so bad. Her mom was counting pennies for sure.....she asked the little girl if she could please just wait and ask Santa.....the little girl popped back with.....(hands on hips)....."now Mom....Santa simply can't afford to buy me all I want....you have to pay for something!" I had to laugh......sad but true for how things are today. Just the first time I ever heard concern from a child over Santas budget.