Sean Quinn’s Christmas Memory

Sean Quinn, WFLS Promotions Director: A Christmas Eve tradition that my Mom still does to this day is the burning of two Bayberry candles.  The age-old poem states: “A bayberry candle, burned to the socket, brings joy to the home and wealth to the pocket.”  Each year, my brother and I were tempted to blow them out, but we knew better…Mom would always say, “Santa’s watching”…plus, we knew that Mom had a wooden spoon…it was the 80’s and that cup side hurt!  LOL!

After the candles were lit, the family gather around my Dad on the couch for the reading of “The Night Before Christmas.”  Then, it was time to put out milk and cookies for Santa and then off to bed!

Before Christmas Day even dawned, my brother and I would make our way to the family room to see what Santa brought.  But the rule was clear: only our stockings were fair game to open.  With all the Christmas lights turned on and the retrieving of Dad’s newspaper from the paper box—a unique Christmas morning ritual—the waiting game began.  We’d patiently wait for the rest of the family wake-up…sometimes this would be an hour or two.  I’m not going to lie…my brother and I would be quiet at first, but would begin to make noise as our patience wore thin.

Once we started to hear movement within the house, we knew the time had arrived!  But WAIT, the saga didn’t end there! Mom and Dad first needed their morning coffee fix.  Enter Mr. Coffee, the slowest brewer in existence, prolonged the anticipation.  Finally, with coffee in their hands, Mom and Dad would enter the family room and then it was game on!

Funniest Memory: One year after everything was opened, my Mom had a puzzled look on her face.  She was looking around the room and noticed something was missing.  She went up to her bedroom and came back down with two more shopping bags of presents…she forgot them.

Discovering my Mom & Dad’s present hiding places: Mom’s was easy, everything was in her closet.  One year, my sister found a spiral notepad that had a list of everything each of us were getting…one year, I found the envelope of receipts.  As for my Dad, we never quite figured out his hiding places were…one was in basement, where…to this day, we don’t know.  We believed he kept some stuff in the trunk of his car or down at his office…my gut feeling, says his office, as I’m 99.9% sure his Secretary did his wrapping.

MORE MEMORIES
Steve Water’s Christmas Memory
Tiffany Kay’s Christmas Memory
Bonnie Miller’s Christmas Memory
Jeff Cochran’s Christmas Memory
Debbie Patten’s (Market Manger) Christmas Memory