I put a Christmas pic of my Dad as my cover photo on Face Book during Christmas because I think of him a lot during the Christmas season. He dearly loved Christmas and especially as he got older -he certainly enjoyed his grandchildren; buying gifts for them and watching them open their gifts. My Mom and Dad ran a retail business for almost 40 years in BaieVerte and a store in Burlington. They sold just about everything you needed which included -clothes, hardware items, wallpaper, wool, groceries, yards and yards of material, sewing supplies, toys, footwear, groceries, paint, etc. I clearly remember the Christmases as a teenager when I worked in my Dad's store. I remember the day leading up to Christmas when Dad would start giving away turkeys to his loyal and faithful customers. Then on Christmas Eve he would always give away a turkey and a box of chocolates to the last customers of the day as he closed up the store early.I loved working in my parent’s store- I started there when I was 12 years old. I learned to do cash, cut off material, weigh up produce, price the products, take stock, do up the daily cash, make bank deposits etc. It was during Christmas that I loved to work there, I loved it when you would ask the customer –“Do you want that gift- wrapped?” I really loved to gift- wrap things for the customers and feel like I done an okay job as a teenager. It was great to meet the different people from all over the peninsula who would come to shop at the store. My mom would have all these beautiful dishes come from S.O Steel in St. John’s. These dishes would arrive in boxes in wire crates of packed straw shipped via the many boats that would land at the Government wharf. Dad would go to the wharf- and pick up these large crates of dishes, use wire cutters to open them up and then we would price them to pack on the shelves.It was great to play with those wire cages, get in them and pretend we were animals—lol. What I really like about working in the store was I got paid for it as I got older. It was great to be a teenager and to have a nice healthy bank account at such a young age. I remember one Christmas when the store was closed for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and a man had passed away-in a nearby community---- the wife of the man called and asked if she could come and look for a suit of clothes to bury her husband in. It must have been a real sad Christmas for that family. Looking back now -we were certainly blessed to have such great parents who tried to be there for people in need. Waking up Christmas morning was exciting –as we got older- there were 8 of us ranging in age from 4 months to 17 years old. Stockings were hung up and down the door facings and they were filled to the brim. In our stockings we had lots of fruit, like apples, oranges, bananas, and even grapes. There were always a few pieces of chocolate wrapped up in coloured foil shaped like a bell or a Santa and there were those peanuts in the shell. There were always some Avon products in there as our grandmother always purchased these products just for Christmas giving. Not sure who the Avon lady was at that time but she must have done quite well by my Nan Roberts. I remember when I was about 15-16- I got the one thing I really wanted for Christmas and that was a hair dryer- my first one. I remember receiving craft kits, Nancy Drew mystery books, stationary (that’s for writing letters-do people still use that?)-LOL. I remember one year getting a jewelry box, not like the one I got when I was younger and had a ballerina in it, this one was bigger-taller and had drawers in it. The Avon lady also sold lots of Avon jewelry and over the years my Mom and Nan must have given me every item they had in their little catalogue. I still have most of that jewellery and still wear some of it. I remember one year receiving a watch and you could change over the face and the straps to different colours. Do you remember those Spirograph sets where you would take those plastic shapes and different colour pensand make these shapes on nice clear white sheets of paper? I saw some of those sets in Ottawa a couple of weeks ago- I didn’t know they were still made. I do remember receiving one of them one year. I remember new flannel pyjamas and even as a teen getting a one-piece set- of red and white fleece ones.LOL. I remember getting a chord organ, a typewriter –plastic- but you could type on it and we would take turns typing notes back and forth to each other. I remember getting a little sewing machine and I could use it to sew clothes for my dolls. (I still have that that sewing machine). It wouldn’t be Christmas without receiving a doll and with 4 girls in the family- we had our share of dolls. My favourite after the cuddly dolls you could dress up and my Nan made clothes for -were the Barbie dolls. I loved my Barbie! We would spend hours playing Barbie’s, dressing them up-undressing them, getting them ready to go to work, to go to balls and fancy parties, getting them ready to go to the beach. Then along came Ken and whoa that was so cool to have a boyfriend for Barbie. Then along came Skipper- I believe she was Barbie’s younger sister, not sure about that. Then one Christmas there was a “black Barbie- she came with a beautiful white Nurse’s uniform on. I am sure that my friend Tana and I and my sisters played with our Barbie dolls until we were 11 or 12. I just can’t see that happening today, maybe I am wrong. Tell me if you know of even a 10 year old playing with Barbies. One year for Christmas, Santa gave me a beautiful Barbie Doll trunk. There was a place for storing the Barbie’s and their clothes and all the little accessories that they needed. What would Christmas be like as a child if we didn’t get some home knit wool socks and mittens and caps from our Grandmother Roberts? She would spend that whole year knitting for just this occasion. She had to- because with 8 grandchildren, a husband, a daughter, a son-in-law, and I am sure she donated enough of that stuff to the church sale-plus what she gave to other family members -that she had to be at it all year long. What I loved about the Christmas holidays was we would all play with each other’s gifts, especially the dolls my sisters and I received from Santa. One year my younger brothers had a race track all spread out in theupstairs hallway, even the sisters loved playing with that. My brothers had chemistry sets, microscopes, dinkies, and other cars and trucks. I remember spending a whole day in my roomduring Christmas break reading my new Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden mystery novels, just hoping that I would not be interrupted. I remember going to my friend Tana’s house and she would show me her gifts and then I would see what her sisters Toby and Trudy got as well. Then Tana would drop over to my house and we would do the same thing with my gifts and my sister’s gifts. After we had our Christmas gifts opened we had to get ready and go to church –the turkey would be in the oven, the pot turned off for an hour and off the Green clan would go to fill up a one and half church pews as we listened to the Christmas message and the real meaning of Christmas. Of course this changed as time went by- my younger siblings’ would probably not even remember doing that. After a while the Christmas morning church service was no longer a ritual as the church changed to meet the different needs of its church people. Then it was home for Christmas dinner- lots of food needed to feed a family of 12. It seems like there were always small children in our house ---when the last one was born the first one was 17 and gone to university. At one point my parents had 5 children under the age of six. I do remember the Christmas of 1973.......my baby sister was 4 months old when my brother came home from his first semester at MUN. I and some school friends including my friend Tana had just come back from a 2 week Mediterranean Educational cruise. We were also very fortunate that we had our maternal grandparents live with us. Talk about built in babysitters. Talk about great- they were always there for us when our parents were away. Now a days young couples fly the grandparents across the country to babysit. Having our grandparents live with us was amazing; someone else to go to if you wanted money when Mom & Dad weren't around. It didn't matter that our dad had a store-because we never spent our money at Green's Store- we used to go across the road to Jim's Store or next door to the Rexall drug store and buy comic books for 10cents and a bag of Adams or Scotties potato chips for 5 cents. All I needed was for grandmother to give me a quarter and we had it made- you could get a lot for 25 cents. Now my grandfather Roberts was not as generous with his money as Nan was. I could hear the change jingling in his pocket and he would almost have to be begged to part with it- but Nan now she was different. My Grandfather Green- now he was pretty generous when it came to handing out coins, I never minded asking him for 25 cents to go to Jims. The hustle and bustle of Christmas on our street was wonderful- all the businesses would have Christmas lights up and I dearly loved the Christmas music that used to be played over an outdoor speaker on top of Jim’s Store. It seemed to be a very busy time- people lined up in the stores making their purchases for the special ones in their lives. Traffic slowing to a crawl as drivers tried to get in and out of parking spots. When I reflect on that time, it seems lots of snow and extreme cold were things that were a part of our normal winters, unlike now when it seems to be something we need to analyze to death and no longer like. Looking back on my childhood- is something I always seem to do at Christmas time. Today is what we call “Old Christmas Day”……I put my reflections of Christmas pasts to rest until next year. By Barbara Green- Noble Burlington, NL   Submitted By: Barbara Green