Special Christmas memories shine bright

SANDPOINT — Close your eyes, picture it. THAT Christmas.

The one where the snow glistened on the ground, crunching underneath your feet as you raced toward the hill to go sledding . The family is gathered around the kitchen table, laughing, telling stories, maybe a fire glows in the fireplace, keeping winter’s chill at bay. The magic of the season fills the air.

Laughter rings throughout the cold, still air as snowball fights break out, interrupting the important business of building a snowman. The wind whistles past your ears as you race your sled down a mountain of snow. Shivering with cold despite 20 layers of clothes like the little brother in “A Christmas Story,” you gratefully grab a steaming cocoa with marshmallows oozing into the rich chocolate deliciousness as you stumble inside, stomping the snow from your boots.

The tree — no matter whether it’s a freshly cut pine or artificial one with the lights pre-sprinkled throughout the branches — is laden with memory-filled ornaments, each with their own story of Christmas past; family and loved ones gathered around, carols playing softly in the background. Stockings truly are hung by the fireplace with care, a fire (real or electric) keeps the chill at bay.

Heading off to church for Christmas Eve midnight services, the world silent and quiet as you make your way there, Christmas hymns joyfully sung by those packing the pews.

Then, when all is done and the house is settling down from the hustle and bustle of the day, a plate of cookies and a glass of milk find their way onto the mantle. Each sound prompts a stealthy trip downstairs to see if THAT time it was Santa, making his lightning trek around the world.

That same sense of magic and wonder fill the Christmas memories of students at Sandpoint Waldorf School. For some, it is waking up — over and over again — checking to see if Santa Claus has visited; for others it’s a special Christmas breakfast, surrounded by family, laughing and telling stories.

Below, the students share their favorite Christmas memories, traditions and stories.

Grade 1

“My favorite Christmas tradition is having fun with my family and sitting at the dinner table and opening presents,” Lily.

“My favorite Christmas memory is last Christmas when my cousins and uncle came to visit,” Ella.

“Last year my grandparents came and I got my brother a firetruck puzzle,” Georgia.

“Opening presents and spending time with my family and decorating the tree,” Fetira.

“Sometimes we go to my grandparent’s house and sometimes they come to us,” Autumn.

“My mom and dad and me go to the movie theater on Christmas Day,” Libby.

“On my sixth Christmas I got to go to grandparents,” Lars.

“Opening presents,” Xina Pearl.

“Opening presents,” Lyra.

“Opening presents and seeing Santa,” Kyra.

“We got three Christmas trees this year!” Kai.

“I get things when Santa comes,” William.

“On Christmas Day we sometimes see family which is really nice,” Erin.

“Opening presents and spending time with my family,” Bella.

Grade 2

“Santa puts the stockings in the same place every year,” Winslow.

“Our cat and dog played together for the first time,” Rosie.

“When I was a baby, my mom got me a huge dinosaur toy and I fell on it and it was funny,” Makayla.

“Last year I was asleep and my brother woke me up and said “Elsa, it’s Criss-miss!”,” Elsa.

“I always sleep in on Christmas and my sister jumped on me with one of my presents and I had forgotten it was Christmas,” Paxton.

“Once I was at my grandma’s house for Christmas and her dog Rose saw me from down the hall and ran and she knocked me over,” Grey.

“Every year we get little ornaments,” Evelyn.

“Last year my grandma’s friend put snow on the stairs and we sled down them!,” Kaylie.

“Last year I dug a tunnel in deep snow,” Daniel.

“One Christmas, I went to the store with my dad and sister and I lost my tooth in the store. Then when I got home, I bit an apple and lost a second tooth in one day!,” Rowan.

“My grandparents come over every Christmas,” Anders.

“When we went to Dallas for Christmas, there was a pool and a hot tub and the pool was so cold so we would swim in the pool and then warm up in the hot tub. I also got a bow and arrow and got a bullseye on Christmas morning,” Marin.

Grade 3

“My family does this thing where the whole family comes to my house and does lots of crafts,” Bryson.

“My brother has a sleep over with me and my mom and dad read me The Night Before Christmas,” Cora.

“Every winter we celebrate Christmas and every Christmas we stay awake until 12:00am and then we go to sleep,” Madelina.

“Every Christmas we read a Christmas book,” Athena.

“Every year my grandparents come over to our house and open our presents after dinner. My mom and me decorate the Christmas tree and every time or two ornaments fall off the tree,” Phoebe.

“My favorite holiday is New Year’s Eve because I get to stay up til midnight,” Tracen.

“Every other Christmas we go to our Grandma’s,” Cadyn.

“Every year we always go to Grammy and Papa’s house after or before and stay for dinner and Christmas and open - Fate.

“Every year my family celebrates Christmas. We have presents that we open on Christmas morning,” Emi.

“In my family we celebrate Christmas. We have these ornaments that we always put up every year on Christmas. And our friends always let us get a tree,” Sage.

“Most Christmas we go to our Gramma and Grampa’s house and have burritos and open presents,” Jude.

“Every year we celebrate Christmas and our family comes,” Eden.

“Every year on Christmas we make sugar cookies and we decorate them - Deacon.

“A holiday that my family celebrates is Christmas. If we are at our house, we put flour on the floor and in the morning hoof prints are in the flour with Santa’s foot prints by them,” Ellie.

“On New Year’s, we have a tradition that we go to our friend’s house and stay up until the ball drops,” Lila.

“For Christmas we usually have friends and family at our house and then we go to the movies and then we open presents. ,” Baden.

“On Christmas me and Hannah get up early and wait till the rest of the family gets up and then we open presents. - Elaina.

Grade 4

“One Christmas I went to Iowa. In my stocking was a Rubix cube,” Liam.

“Every time we have Christmas, we invite our friends Dan and Kate. We go outside and find a Christmas tree. We also find a baby Christmas tree for downstairs to go in my brother’s room or in my room,” Sierra.

“Last Christmas I went to my Oma and Iso-Isa’s house. My aunty Dee and Erling were there too. The cool thing about my Oma and Iso-Isa’s house is the tree had candles on it. When we go into the extra bedroom and the angels would light the candles on the tree and when they are done, they ring a bell,” Everett.

“Last year for Christmas I got a puppy. His name is Brutus. I also made a big ginger bread house. I got a fish too. His name was Blossom. We made a lot of cookies that had jelly in side of them,” Hanna.

“On Christmas I woke up and looked under the Christmas tree. There were twenty presents. I looked at all of them and there were three that were mine,” Jameson.

“Last year when I was 9 years old and my family decided to have Christmas at my grandparent’s house in Washington DC. We drove to their house. In the car I said it’s so green here! Winnie, my grandparents’ dog was so happy to see us. We decorated the tree. Me and my brother, Jasper, wen tto bed. My mom and grandparents wrapped presents. In the morning we opened them,” Opal.

“Last year I made cookies with my family. They were chocolate chip. We ate the cookies after they were done,” Brookelyn.

“When I was 7 years old and it was Christmas Eve, I was so excited. In the morning, I got an art set. I was excited. I couldn’t stop drawing,” Sage.

“One Christmas my mom gave me and my sister a parachute. Every day out mom wen tot the track, we would bring the parachute. One Christmas we went to our grandparent’s house. We stayed up all night but we eventually fell asleep. - Rowan.

“Christmas 2016: It was the biggest present I had ever seen! On Christmas I saw the gift. First it moved, then a finger poked through. Then my grandparents came out of it!,” Cody.

“When Christmas comes, we would go to my grandparents house, but one Christmas my grandparents came to our house,” Alex.

“One Christmas when we were late setting up the tree, our cat came in and knocked it over and broke my favorite ornament. It was red with crystals,” Nathan.

“When I was living in Maui, my grandparents came from Fresno, California and my grandpa dressed up like Santa Claus and before we opened our presents, he made us answer a question about a story from around the 1800’s. If we didn’t get the answer right, we wouldn’t open our presents and we would try again until we got it right,” Jacob.

Grade 5

“My favorite Christmas memory is when I got a big Lego set. And my first skateboard,” Oscar.

“My favorite Christmas memory is being with my family and being at home. Every year we eat monkey dough,” Josie.

“My favorite Christmas memory is being with those I love the most and having my grandparents and knowing that Jesus Christ was born and also my favorite Christmas memory is skiing and making a snowman and sledding and playing. I just love everything about Christmas,” Jerusalem.

“My favorite 2018 Christmas memory is when I took a bow off of my present and put it on my head, I was called Present Man TM. Also, I sit by my fire and drink hot chocolate and the marshmallows are so tiny. We go to my grandma’s house for dinner and the dessert is ice cream. After that, I get to hand out presents, of course, Mr and Mrs Reader, they don’t call me Santa Claus, they call me Gift Basket TM,” Baylee.

“One day before Christmas Eve, we were going to my Grandparents house and it was very slippery and two deer were in the road and my dad swerved and we did not hit the deer. Then there was a car wreck and my dad got out of the car to go help but they did not need help. We got to my Grandparents house and then the power went out for two days. On Christmas morning we almost had to make pancakes on the bar-b-que but the power came on just in time. We had the best Christmas ever,” Kahlina.

“My favorite Christmas memory is sharing presents with the others and getting presents, but presents isn’t the most important thing about Christmas, it is spending time with my family and celebrating Jesus’s birthday,” Avery.

“One Christmas, my sister and I got a swing set. While my parents set it up, my sister and I build a snow man. From what I remember, is was so big that my dad had to help us to start it,” Polina.

“My favorite memories of Christmas are waking up and knowing it is Christmas morning, going into my mom and dad’s room and waking them up. Then going downstairs and looking at the tree and seeing all of the presents,” Owen.

“My favorite Christmas memories are waking up and knowing that it is Christmas morning, going downstairs and looking at the tree and seeing all of the presents,” Vaughn.

“Every Christmas Eve I find it hard to sleep so my favorite Christmas memory would be that one Christmas when I couldn’t sleep at all and me and my younger sister woke our mom up. She went downstairs and brought us one little present and hot cocoa and we all sat on our beds and drank it,” Trace.

“My favorite Christmas memory is the time I had my grandparents come and I got a big Lego set and had dinner with my family,” Hudson.

“My favorite Christmas memory is when my whole family on my mom’s side was at my house for the first time ever and we had a huge Christmas tree,” Izzy.

“My favorite Christmas memory was last Christmas, me and my brother had a snowball fight,” Jonas.

Grade 6

“My favorite Christmas memory is Christmas Eve dinner,” Hope.

“My favorite Christmas memory is going to my grandma’s house for Christmas,” Clarity.

“Opening presents!,” Hana.

“Opening one gift on Christmas Eve,” Camille.

“Christmas,” Avery.

“Christmas Day snowball fight,” Brent.

“Waking up at 3am,” Jasper.

“The excitement!,” Charlie.

“Waking up at 3 in the morning!,” Brady.

“Waking up in the morning and seeing all of the presents,” Madisen.

Grade 7

“My favorite Christmas memory is skiing with my family on Christgmas,” Max.

“My favorite Christmas tradition is going into the wild to find out Christmas tree,” Isadora.

“My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating our tree and smelling it,” Ava.

“My favorite Christmas memory is making and sewing stockings,” Ivy.

“My favorite Christmas memory is last year when we decorated the tree, we also were putting up the tv and putting together a couch and my cats loved the tree. It was hilarious,” Beverly.

“My favorite Christmas tradition is opening one present on Christmas Eve,” Vivian.

“My favorite Christmas tradition is making Christmas cookies - Aiden.

Grade 8

“My favorite thing about Christmas is waking up early and waking up everyone else in the house. Then opening stockings and presents, and eating French toast for breakfast, and getting to spend time with family,” Terra.

“One of my favorite family Christmas traditions is waking up to the smell of breakfast casserole, and squeezing fresh orange juice to go with the glutenous, cheesy eggy breakfast. I also really enjoy being with my family who I love so much,” Grace.

“My favorite part of Christmas is opening presents in the morning, looking into the stockings and going outside to sled in the snow with my family,” Katya.

“One of my favorite Christmas memories…one year my brother and I decided to stay up all night, but at around midnight I got really tired and told my brother to stay up while I went to bed. After a while my brother started crying because he was so tired but I told him he had to stay up so he did. My parents came in the morning, woke us up and told us that we had to stay in our room until 8:00am because we had stayed up so late,” Briar.

“One of my favorite Christmas traditions is opening stockings on Christmas Eve and eating oatmeal Christmas morning. One of my favorite Christmas memories was waking up at 5:00am with my brother, putting underwear on our heads and waking my parents up. After opening presents, we snuck onto the carport and slid off the roof into a huge pile of snow,” Katelyn.

“One of my favorite Christmas memories is when my dad and I drove up to Schweitzer to get our Christmas tree. It was all snowy and beautiful. We drove up a remote road and hiked and tripped and stumbled through the deep snow to cut down our tree and loaded it on the car. We drove down and set our tree up. It was perfect,” Neva.

“One of my most memorable traditions when Christmas comes around is on Christmas day, after waking up to breakfast and unwrap our presents, my family goes skiing on Schweitzer Mountain. The days are usually full of cocoa and the lodge’s hot fries, sometimes a blue sky lights up the snow. Then afterwards, we warm up our runny noses in our fire-warm home,” Mya.

“One of my favorite Christmas memories is every year my family and I go to my great grandma’s house for Christmas Eve. Every year we play a kind of white elephant game. One year my brother ended up with a fake stuffed lobster that sang and danced. It was horrible, he would not stop playing with it. Thankfully it ran out of batteries and was never seen again,” Ani.

“One of my favorite Christmas memories is every Christmas because of my family traditions. We always have the same breakfast that we have every year and where we sit in the living room and open our stockings. That is my favorite Christmas memory and tradition,” Anonymous.

“My favorite thing about Christmas is eating prime rib on Christmas Eve and opening stockings on Christmas morning,” Kasten.

“My favorite Christmas tradition is eating lobster on Christmas Eve,” Klein.

“My favorite Christmas tradition is having a pajama party with my family on Christmas Eve and getting to open new pajamas from my grandma on Christmas Eve,” Kaiya.

“My favorite Christmas memory is when I went to a Christmas party and did a white elephant gift exchange. My cousin and I exchanged the same gift, a full art set, but I ended up with it. We drew something together after the party ended,” Ada.

“One of my favorite Christmas memories is two years ago, my grandpa got me a bike that I still use today,” Ethan.

Caroline Lobsinger can be reached by email at clobsinger@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @CarolDailyBee.