Day Twenty Three of Blogging Challenge

     When my WOW group met last Saturday, one of the things we did was to share Christmas memories! Now we are all of a generation to have some pretty old memories, which increased the value of them in my mind!

      The memory I shared was when I must have seven or eight years old. Each Chrisrmtas my mom made sure we appreciated what we had and to instil in us a sense of caring for those less fortunate. So on Christmas Eve, we would load up the car  with food and toys and go visit a family who had much less than we did. On this Christmas Eve, I remember it well, we unloaded the car....they were so happy to receive what we had brought. One of the kids was a little girl my age that I knew from school.

      On the way home I, very seriously, asked why didn't Santa Claus come to their house like he did to ours???  My sister and mom broke out in laughter....thinking I was being cute! I asked what was so funny and my sister, two years older, replied something like, oh, don't be silly; you know there really isn't such a thing as Santa Claus!!!  And that is how I discovered the truth about Santa Claus....on Christmas Eve no less! I promptly broke  out in tears...my mom and sister both just felt terrible when they realized I was still a believer! But it was a little too late to change that story around!

      Maybe that is why I started collecting Santa Claus stuff for Christmas .....to keep that jolly old elf alive in my heart!  I have had quite a few more than I have now...I don't have quite the space to display them all!

A Santa Wall Hanging I did several years ago

My Santas on the shelf (no Elf!)

Some of my Santa trays, candy dishes etc. The Santa plate in the front is from my Dad...one of the few times he shopped himself!!  He got all the women in his life one!

I got this Santa when my first grandchild was born so he is 21 years old! On the stand behind him are two ceramic Santas made by a dear neighbor,Vicki, when we lived in Independence, Missouri for my two girls.  I'll let them have the Santas someday!

And a few of my collection that I have gotten and others have given to me.

And lastly...my oldest Santa...I won him at an office party given by Dick's office on Elmendorf AFB when I was pregnant with my first baby!  So he is over 50 years old!