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The Tauer Draw for Perfume Shrine:
The draw is worldwide. The winner from the draw can pick a generous perfume sample pack of ANY 5 fragrances from the TAUER PERFUMES range or Tableau de Parfums! [Just pick what you'd like to test out.]
I will read them all and pick a random winner whom I will announce tomorrow. Tauer will then contact the winner and send them their prize in the mail.
Tauer ensures that through their privacy policy they ship to the address given and do not contact the addressee afterwards nor use the contact information for any other purpose than sending the prize, nor forward the address to anybody else.
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Growing up, I really didn't enjoy Christmas. I lived in the desert, and my family had a way of making it feel like an obligation. All up until 3 years ago, when I had my first Christmas in Germany with my (now) husband and his family. We almost didn't make it because of the snow, and got in late on Christmas eve. Arriving in the thick of the festivities was magical, not to mention my first white Christmas! It was such a contrast from my upbringing in Arizona. I will always remember the first time smelling the pungent incense from the German smoking men and the spicy spekulatius cookies. By the time I was drinking mulled wine around the fireplace with the people I loved with the snow falling softly outside, Christmas finally felt right. It is a memory and a feeling I will never forget. Since then, Christmas has changed for me, and it truly is one of my favorite times of the year.
ReplyDeleteI live in Australia where Christmas is often hot (depending on which part of the continent in which you live). A few years ago, after weeks of heat and no rain, the rain finally arrived on Christmas morning. It was so lovely, and I have never forgotten how happy I felt as I stood in the kitchen preparing lunch, all the doors and windows open to the lovely smell of new rain.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little girl, we would cut our tree from a small pine stand that my grampa had planted. An Amish blacksmith lived across the field and the horses would come over to inspect our work. One year I got to ride one of the horses. I can still remember the fresh cut pine smell mixed with the smells of horses and snow.
ReplyDeleteI live in a place where Christmas is stifling hot, the worst was 45 degrees and we couldn't even use the pool.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite memories are from Europe and the sight of snow quietly falling through the night. I think it has its own smell too.
I think the best thing about Christmas is all the memories so it's hard to pick out just one...but one of the my Christmas favorites is the spice smells everywhere.
ReplyDeleteEvery year since I can remember my mother would let me help out during the Christmas meals/days and and the smells are still nostalgic - the cloves, cinnamon, orange peels, ginger, nutmeg. As I got older I'd get to help in peeling the oranges or adding spices and the smell would get on my hands and fingers...the whole Christmas season I'd smell of spices!
I remember a Christmas when my oldest cousin showed up at our house on Christmas morning. He came on his new bike, a present from "Santa" which he found next to his bed that morning. Like most small boys, I thought a chance to play with this much older boy (five years felt like a huge difference then) was almost as delightful as my own presents. Only much later did I find out that he had biked over without permission leaving anxious parents wondering where he might be! The bike, having just been given, was confiscated for about a month....
ReplyDeleteMemories of Christmas Eve church services with the pungent odor of pine trees and incense.
ReplyDeleteA hot Christmas day driving across town when everyone else was doing the same. All the fumes outside the car yet inside the car all the carefully prepared fruit & cream & so on making me sick from the smell as it when bad. Having lunch in an un-airconed house, where hot, stressed people cooked hotter food.
ReplyDeleteThen coming home, which had been sealed against the heat, and walking into to the cool, dark space rendolent of the real pine tree that was standing in the corner, darkly twinkling & restfully resinous.
I think my favorite memories are of the scent of freezing air and snow and evergreen trees, outside smells mostly. I loved, and still love, how snow swallows up sounds.
ReplyDeleteBest Christmas memory/memories are about one person, my grandfather. He created the whole Christmas for everyone in the family. Tons of decorations, inventive gifts and ways of packing them, candles all over the house, and the most beautiful Christmas trees I've ever seen. He was such a Christmas artist.
ReplyDelete:Maltesia
My favorite Christmas memories go back to childhood in New Jersey. We would go to midnight mass and then the whole family, even the out-of-town relatives woud gather at our house for a family /friends feast. Back in those days it was such fun to visit and see loved ones we didn't see all year.
ReplyDeleteMaking Christmas cookies with my mom and sisters! The peppermint smell of candy-cane cookies, ground walnuts or pecans in Russian Teacakes, almond and vanilla in Spritz--they all smelled sooo good, especially hot out of the oven :)
ReplyDeleteFavorite memory: arriving at the airport and seeing my family after a long flight + finals. Never gets old.
ReplyDeleteMy mother would serve oyster stew on Christmas Eve. It was a great luxury because we lived smack in the middle of the US, far from the ocean. However, as a kid, I couldn't stand the thought of eating oysters, so I would have something like a bacon and tomato sandwich (I like oysters now--they are very good here in Japan!).
ReplyDeleteI loved looking at the dining room table after it was all set and before we actually ate. The candles were lit and since my mother was a big fan of Waterford crystal, candlelight glistened and sparkled off he wine and water goblets. The table cloth was still pristine and my great grandmothers china was gleaming. The smells from the kitchen made my mouth water and everyone gathered and sat for a moment before the feast commenced just to take in the scene! Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite memories was just two years ago. My daughter was two, and we had one of the first white Christmases I ever remembering occurring at my parents' home - what a delight!
ReplyDeleteI remember my first Christmas in the u.s., I woke up feeling really hot and looked next to my bed to see my wrapped presents. I was realky excited even though we didn't have a tree then, not knowing the customs. it's my most vivid memory even today,
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Christmas memories is how my very large family would try our best to take a family photo by the tree. The designated photographer would do his or her best to time the photo just right, but something would always go askew. "Just one more!" became a holiday tradition.
ReplyDeleteLike many people, I don't have the happiest memories of Christmas. However, we ate wonderful food. One year we had the traditional Polish meal with twelve courses! The sheer decadence of it was pretty fun.
ReplyDeletewhen i was little we had a small real x mas tree and i had received gifts from my neighbors and it was just a really nice memory spending time with my mom and family .
ReplyDeleteThe fondest Christmas memories happened some 29 years agoo when I was still a student. My first boyfriend came to visit me in a bizzard. A mere journey of 20 miles took him half day to travel. When I saw him at the doorsteps, no word can describe my happiness.
ReplyDeleteI recall wearing gaultier2 one time to a Xmas party & people commenting like I smelled like gingerbread;)
ReplyDeleteAll Xmases are wonderful for me. My memories are more about the toys I received rather than anything else :-D ... like when I got a huge box of Caran d'Ache crayons (I can still remember the box; you could flip its cover backwards and it becomes a support so all the crayons stand as a painting in front of me), or the tin toy (they don't make these anymore; now they're design items...) Apollo rocket. Wonderful!!!
ReplyDeleteI have many happy Christmas memories from my childhood, celebrating with my grand parents and all our relatives. For us kids it was all about waiting for Santa - a slightly scary santa with a huge, white beard and (strangely enought) the same voice as my grand dad. For the grown-ups, it was all about food. If I think about scents, the orange/clove pomanders and the smoky scent of burning wood mixed with all the various food scents from the kitchen would make my ideal christmas scent.
ReplyDeleteBest ever Christmas memory was a mini-break in Paris after our December wedding. Candles, Christmas trees, Parisian bistros and lovely romantic walks along the river. We really didn't want to come home!
ReplyDeleteMy Christmas memories are my sister and I waking up, putting on our Santa hats, and waiting at the top of the stairs for my parents to let us come down. They had to set up the video camera and get things in order before we could come down, because there was usually one present that couldn't be wrapped and they didn't want to spoil the surprise too soon. :)
ReplyDeleteGrowing up in Greece, Christmas was all about singing Christmas carols on Christmas Eve, eating the traditional sweets, exchanging gifts and meeting with family. But I never experienced the build up to Christmas as much until I was a student in Germany, drinking mulled wine with a shot of amaretto at the Christmas market and eating lebkuchen and those spicy biscuits a previous poster mentioned. The snowy weather helped a lot!
ReplyDeleteOh Christmas is about family, lots and lots of food and relatives visitng each other!! The smell of Christmas is about the smell of the sweets mostly for me, then is when I know Christmas has arrived!!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of Christmas growing up was cooking with my mom. She was the keeper of the family recipes and I still smile when I break out my index cards and put together one of those recipes to celebrate the holidays.
ReplyDeleteoranges studded with cloves
ReplyDeleteAt Christmas I receive perfumes often as a gift. So each Christmas is scented differently. Yesterday I thought how my Christmas parties were scented few years ago - and it is enough to have the same perfume on myself to travel back few years ago. That is wonder that perfumes create!
ReplyDeleteI always relate the "Christmas is coming" feeling to the first bushel of cherries being available at the green grocer. For the northern hemisphere it's weird for summer fruits to evoke such strong reactions but for me the fragrant delicious friuts bring such aniti ipation of family and fun. It's a downunder thing!
ReplyDeleteI lived in the US for many years and missed home terribly.
One year I found a beautifully crumpled bag of plump cherries on my desk about a week before Christmas. A work colleague who listened closely to all my 'rabbiting' on about stuff I missed from home had scoured the city and found imported fresh cherries during the US winter just to brighten my day.
He's now my husband. We live in Australia and there are cherries on my table!
My favorite memory of Christmas past...
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, my beloved granny used to come from her hometown to spend the Christmas time with us. She always arrived several days ahead, carrying two big bags loaded with boxes of traditional Czech Christmas cookies, a bottle of home-made eggnog, another bottle or two filled with her delicious all-red-fruits-liqueur and, of course, presents for us. Poor thing, she travelled by train and her bags were sooo heavy...
We Czechs celebrate the evening of 24th December as our most important Christmas time. People should avoid eating meat, or warm lunch in general, if they want to see „a golden piglet” and become rich in the coming year. So I stuffed myself with granny´s wonderful little cookies with wonderful names like „little vanilla rolls“ or „bear´s paws“. My task was to decorate the Christmas tree (always a fresh spruce tree with its natural forest smell) with various decorated glass bowls, chocolate pralines in shiny metallic covers and with hand-made paper chains. I listened to various Czech Christmas carols played from gramophone plates. But my most favoured piece of Christmas classics was a „Czech Christmass Mass“ (Missa pastoralis bohemica), composed by Jakub Jan Ryba in 1796. It´s story is based on Christian theme of the birth of Jesus. You may think it is a pretty outdated thing but don´t be mistaken – this pastoral mass is been performed in many Czech churches on the day of 24th December every year.
I loved my solitude when decorating the Christmas tree. The rest of the day was not that joyful as my dad used to be very nervous, constantly blaming me for spoiling the „proper Christmas atmosphere“. Luckily there was a traditional Christmas dinner to cheer me up – a fried carp with potato salad. Many people outside the Czech Republic dislike carp for its „muddy“ taste and lots of sharp bones but for us it is the most traditional dinner. After that, the bell rang and we hurried to the decorated tree, to enjoy our presents. So, let me stop here and wait if a miracle happens and one of the perfume samples finds its way to me...
My Xmas scents... I guess mandarines as it always was a December holidays treat. And vanille-like smell of old newspapers we rapped the glass Xmas balls in... Still love the last one in perfumes or wine ;)
ReplyDeleteMy very best Christmas, was when the only guy who ever loved me gave me a bottle of Avon's Hana Gas - it was So beautiful, and the bottle looked like a pagoda. Neither of of were Christian (I'm Jewish, he was Hundu), but that Christmas made me so happy. I think of him and that Hana Gasa more than 40 years later.
ReplyDeleteHmm. Didn't sign in when leaving cherry memory. Novice!
ReplyDeleteOne of the best was when my dad had bought all our Christmas presents on a business trip to Europe, but his baggage was lost. So the airline paid out a pretty packet, he bought great spendy replacement gifts here at home - and lo, the day before Christmas his baggage was found, and we got to keep the airline's payout - double Christmas gifts for all!
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite memories from the Christmas season is my Mom-Mom's Christmas tree. She always had a beautiful real tree, decorated with antique glass ornaments- the kind you can really say about, "they don't make them like that anymore." The smell of the tree, along with sweet treats baking in the kitchen, and that indescribable scent of my grandparents' home, is one of my most poignant and comforting memories ever.
ReplyDeleteI remember Christmases from the very early age, when I received a lovely dome, see-through Donald Duck umbrella for little girls, it smelled of PVC, but I love that smell.
ReplyDeleteThen as a child/teenager Christmas tree decoration stuck in my mind for my dad ever not being able to detangle the lights from previous year and also the ensemblance of the tree itself was a daunting task so we had to hear adult swearing oftentimes. At my grandma's house it was the annual search for and cleaning of a little side table on which we stood the tree. I remember and enjoy the preparation and anticipation time more than Christmas days. It smelled of cleanliness and the final stage smelling a wax candle for the Eve dinner, arranging the baskets with decorations for the tables, polishing of apples, making an advent wreath.
Thanks for the great chance to test Andy Tauer´s fragrances.
ReplyDeleteI remember a very funny Christmas Eve with my Grandfather. We played several rounds of an old tablegame called "Hotel", until he suddenly wiped the game from the table. Then he loughed and wished us a merry christmas.
I used to love Christmas. Everyone came to our house and it was just so much fun. It seems like a lifetime ago. My best Christmas memories would be helping my mom decorate and going to my aunts house around Christmas because her decorations were amazing to see.
ReplyDeletemy best Christmas ever was celebrated at my friend's house, in all ceremony and beauty, all the tree decorations and the traditional plates
ReplyDeletethe smell of the Christmas tree when entering her home from the freezing air outside was wonderful
Sharing a room with my 94 year old grandmother. Waking 05.30 to see her sat up in bed opening stocking
ReplyDeletepresents with the excitement of a child.
Merry Christmas!!
Ahhh Christmas, a time for slowing down and enjoying a break from work. The smell of cinamon and baking - bliss!
ReplyDeleteChristmas!!!!One of my favorite memories from the Christmas season is the first fragrance I got as present!I was only 7 years old!Ι remember that I was begging Santa Claus to bring me a little bottle!!This fragrance was Tartine et Chocolat Ptisenbon by Givenchy!Also the smell of home made sweets is a lovely memory!
ReplyDeleteDecorating the Christmas tree was what I liked best as a child. I used to do that together with my mum (well, she did it and I 'assisted' her). She put all the boxes with decorations on the table and the best moment was when we lifted the lids and I could see all those wonderful glass balls with their colours and sparkles. Each ball had its own little compartment in the box. Christmas itself: very long days in overheated rooms, overeating, and feeling sick.
ReplyDeleteMy husband left me at Christmas. A year later, I finished a clinical placement in Neurology and stepped onto a flight to Tokyo the next day. I didn't want to be in the same four walls and surrounded by the same reminders. As a lone young woman, Japan was an assault on the senses and I initially felt lost. After a couple of days I entered Senso-Ji temple. Women were rubbing their heads in incense-laden smoke and the smell of the coals, frankincense and herbs mingled with the unmistakable scent of snow in the chill air and just-baked aduki bean cakes. The air was intoxicating and instilled a sense of peace in me again. I will never forget it. Most of my perfumes now feature smoky notes and incense. I find those accents comforting in what can be a crazy world.
ReplyDeleteI loved to go caroling when I was a kid. In my small hometown, where everyone knew each other, we'd often be invited in to have treats after we sang. Music is still one of the very best parts of the Christmas season for me.
ReplyDeletemy best memory is Christmas dinner with host family in OK
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid, I played handbells at Christmas time in my church. There were nine of us, all young girls, who played a beautiful set of English handbells. Our coach was a nice, elderly man with a wry sense of humor. The people in church loved to hear our handbell team play the Christmas carols.
ReplyDeletei live in london, uk but both my parents, who are now retired, come from greece and romania respectively. a few years back, i have travelled from london to middle of transylvania, through blizzards, 2ft snow and taking all sorts of impossible methods of transportation to be with them for Christmas. i have shown up at their door on Christmas eve, unexpectedly, they did not know i wax coming. the surpise on both my parents faces was the best gift i have ever gotten and it still my fondest Christmas memory.
ReplyDeleteI still think back to infant school, carols, cold noses, tinselly trees - tha magic never tarnishes
ReplyDeleteI had parents who stayed together "for the sake of the kids" there was always tension in our house and a feeling things werent right - except for at christmas when it was all forgotten hoorah! i did enjoy christmas as a child but not as much as i love it now i have my own children
ReplyDeletesamantha_ripley@hotmail.co.uk
Early on I realized that there was no Santa Claus ... but my parents made Christmas nice and warm. Now, I try to do the same for my family.
ReplyDeleteChristmas, when I was a child, was about my grandmother: her silk dresses, her veil of Chanel No5, baking and eating her beautiful cakes and pastries, and singing carols at the old, wooden church. Whenever I smell No5, I'm reminded of this holiday, her, and warmth, no matter where I am. Magic.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite Christmas memories was the first time I was allowed to help my mother bake our traditional molasses cookies! They were a bit laborious to make, but they smelled so wonderful! I finally felt like a grown up, getting to participate in one of the holiday rituals.
ReplyDeleteMy family was small and isolated by distance from the rest of both my parents' families, so it was a big deal every year when my paternal grandmother drove from Michigan to spend the winter with us in Florida. She usually arrived the week of Thanksgiving and that marked the start of the holidays for us.
ReplyDeleteMy first year living in New England with my beau. I was so uncertain about how Christmas time would be with his family, where I fit in. But they welcomed me with open arms, treated me like one of their own, and we shared so many fun, happy holiday moments. I'm still so grateful to have them.
ReplyDeleteGrandmother`s Mincemeat pie - being used by father to bait mousetraps!!! She had a FIT at him!!! :-)
ReplyDeleteAs a child, my favorite presents were books. I'd select one, find a hiding place and read, until the smells of turkey cooking and mince pies, and the voices of my arriving cousins drove me to more social pursuits.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the draw.
ReplyDeleteI'm so unoriginal here, but nothing smells like Christmas as a real Christmas tree...though I now use a fake one for "green" reasons, I just loved the smell of the real thing!
My favorite Christmas memory is opening a present containing a plastic bottle of bubble bath that looked like Cinderella. Hey, I was five, but I still remember how excited I was!
ReplyDeleteChristmas means a lot of good memories, but what I miss from childhood is the perfectly fresh christmas tree. We still buy one, and are fortunate to have room for a tree of well over 2 meters, but it doesnt have the same fresh scent of spruce as one cut just a day or two before beeing decorated.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memories are all related to my childhood, that time when I believed in Santa and everything about Christmas was magical. The scent of pine always brings that feeling back.
ReplyDeleteI have celebrated Christmas in so many places an climates all over the world, because our family was always moving....one of my favorite memories was being in Hawaii for Christmas. We decorated an indoor plant, wore beautifully scented leis of plumeria and grass skirts. We were together, it was lovely
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory is probably my first one. It was the only Christmas that I remember my mother, my father and me celebrating the holiday together as a family.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory is from only seven years ago. My husband and I were married on Christmas Eve. A small inn, beautifully decorated for the season, just our families present and the justice of the peace was a dear friend of mine. My husband-to-be played the lute as I walked into the room in a burgundy satin gown and then we spoke from our hearts to each other as our "vows". There wasn't a dry eye in the room. We still refer to it as the perfect wedding and a perfect day.
ReplyDeleteMy first job out of school was in a department store. Christmas Eve morning we'd all come in extra early for the company Christmas Breakfast (before a very long and busy day!). The store manager, dressed as Santa, would dish out little gifts to all the staff. One year I was given a bottle of Vanderbilt! Times and my tastes have certainly moved on but Vanderbilt - that very bottle! - is still my Christmas Day perfume.
ReplyDeleteI'm Jewish, so most of mt "Christmas memories" are non-existent or of feeling left out.
ReplyDeleteIn Germany the decorated Christmas Tree traditionally will be kept secret from the smaller kids right until Christmas eve. When it gets dark somebody will chime a bell and they are allowed to enter the room, all dark except for a tree ablazing with candles and as tall and big as the room possibly permits. That moment, when you see the first glimmer of the candles....heavenly.
ReplyDeleteI love winter time because I prefer scents more suitable for this time of the year.I love the spirit of Christmas the moments you spend with your closest people.Also the times when you are among the crowd shopping and searching for presents.
ReplyDeleteThe smell of the Christmas tree is the strongest olfactive memory related to Christmas for me.It was my "duty" to decorate the tree and I loved to spend hours arownd it.
The memories of my 2 daughters growing up.
ReplyDeleteEvery christmas eve Santa used to "visit" whilst they were having a bath & leave them a pair of pyjamas.
we always took a photo of them standing beside the tree in their new pyjamas before they went off to bed. I was looking through old photos at the weekend & found all the pictures we'd taken & it transported me right back to all those christmases past.
One of the most vivid and scented memory of Christmas time is when once my mom decided to bake biscuits and to give them as a present. I still remember the buttery smell coming out of the oven topped with spicy notes. Spiced biscuits do make my Christmas!
ReplyDeleteThe smell of Christmas for me has always been Pine needles heated and set alight by the flame of a candle. That was alright on Christmas Day but later on, when the christmas tree still stood in the drawing room let's say on the 27th December, this activity turned a bit frightening because the pine twigs just caught fire so easily. And we wouldn't want to set the house alight, right.
ReplyDeleteI love Christmas time. I love snow at Christmas time, christmas lights, visiting family and friends. The closeness of family.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the drawing!
One Christmas I was sick with meningitis and was quarantined away, so my family saved Christmas until four days later when I got out of the hospital. The little ones had opened their presents but the older kids and adults waited for me.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmases were always the ones when we would go up to my Uncle's ski lodge near Lake Tahoe. It was a huge, often mostly empty, lodge owned by a number of different families and it was like having my own hotel to play in! It was 5 floors and the women's and men's levels were on different floors. The dormitories had about 20 bunkbeds each. My sisters and I would run around choosing different beds to sleep on each night. We would saucer down the snowy path that led up to the lodge. The kitchen was massive and so fun to cook in. I'm full of great memories now. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteI suppose I must have like Christmas as a small child. I haven't in a very long time though. These days I don't do anything in particular and it means just time off work.
ReplyDeleteI do quite enjoy visiting the Christmas markets though. And I enjoy all the smells.
Thank you for hosting this draw and thank you Andy for organizing it yet again!
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ReplyDeleteI remember the Christmas I was finally gonna catch Santa and hid under a chair all night. Of course, I fell asleep and the presents were there when I woke up. Sneaky old man! :)
ReplyDeleteScented Christmas memories will always be the scent of Pizzelles . My grandmother, then my mother and now I make these anise flavored cookies every year. My mom & grandmon are gone, but they are with me as I make theses lovely Italian cookies.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of Christmas' past is when some of the adults get up early to do a wonderful, snowy walk through the country roads and just talk and laugh before heading back to my grandma's house for the rest of the day's chaos! It's such a quiet, lovely time!
ReplyDeleteOh, sitting around the table as a little girl with my large family, waiting to eat the huge turkey, and getting excited about what presents we might have...
ReplyDeleteChristmas is hard for me every year since I am a single mom. My most treasured memory was a few years ago being extra resourceful in finding unique and great gifts for my kids when I didn't have any money. Things are still tight, but it gets better every year. My goal is to be able to adopt a family next year so I plan to start saving for that :-)
ReplyDeleteMy Christmas memory is of being the first one up in the morning, sitting on the staircase and looking down through the branches of the tree standing next to it. I could just see the gifts lying under it and would wonder which were mine and what was in them!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of Christmas past is the time I passed in Stockholm, three weeks with cold, snow, christmas lights, cinnamon in form of cinnamon rolls or "kanelbullar"...what a lovely place to be.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the draw!
I don't remember how old I was, maybe 5 or 6, that year I found presents under the Chistmas tree every morning during a week after Chrismas... It was so unexpected and wonderful. Thanks to my mom for that (and for everything else).
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memories are of my mom's nine brothers and sisters and their families all crowded into my grandmother's house for a delicious Christmas meal, jokes and lots of scrunching together. We kids always sat under the tree and we ate last but we got the best leftovers in the world! I miss all the love in that little house.
ReplyDeleteI have a sound memory, instead of a scent memory... Every year I join my former Handbell Choir to ring on Christmas Eve. It's one of favorite parts of Christmas (and about the only time I go to church all year).
ReplyDeleteIt is cold. So cold the car squeaks and groans as we make our way to my favorite bakery. We park and dash inside to the scent of baking bread and cinnamon. Mmmmmm - Merry Christmas!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory was the Christmas that saw my whole extended family flying out to London. My mom had just gone into remission, and was celebrating by treating the whole family to a holiday trip to London and Paris. There were 11 of us in all. It was such a wonderful trip, and we had so much to celebrate. Plus, I got to visit the Lutens store in Paris, and picked up two bell jars - Chergui and Cuir Mauresque.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory was the Christmas that saw my whole extended family flying out to London. My mom had just gone into remission, and was celebrating by treating the whole family to a holiday trip to London and Paris. There were 11 of us in all. It was such a wonderful trip, and we had so much to celebrate. Plus, I got to visit the Lutens store in Paris, and picked up two bell jars - Chergui and Cuir Mauresque.
ReplyDeletewalking into the room where the Christmas tree and all my presents were on Christmas morning. I now use pine scented candles to try and recreate that magic.
ReplyDeleteI remember the smell of the kitchen when my Mother was making the Christmas cake. I loved to help her by tasting the ingredients first.I love to wear spicy perfumes at Christmas , Im sure that that those memories influenced me.
ReplyDeleteThe scent of Christmas for me is inextricably linked to childhood when I stayed in the grandparents' country home. In the evening the house was spreading the scent of orange peel placed on the fireplace after dinner. There was the warmth of family, the joy of holiday season and that wonderful aroma in the air.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a little girl, my mother came with my siblings to take me for the Christmas holidays from the residential school which I was attending. I had not seen them in what had seemed forever. We traveled all day by many buses to arrive at my grand uncle's home, carrying in our hands for the whole journey an enormous box with an enormous cake. That night we ate goose and many other tasty dishes I no longer remember. When the cake box was opened we children saw the possibility that the world was finished - the cake was crawling all over with ants. Once the ants were cleared off, we lived again our blessed lives. This happened in a small village in Kerala, India and possibly there was not an oven to bake a cake in for a fifty km radius. Decades later when I visited one of my cousins, now a grown up like me, she showed me they still had in their possession the heart-shaped, lace-decorated base of the cake that we had carried to their home that Christmas.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was 7 I wanted to get a guinea pig. Santa Claus (dressed neighbor) visited us that Christmas, but he didn't bring guinea pig with him. When he left, a doorbell rang few minutes later. We opened but there was no one at the door, but on the floor stood a cage with a guinea pig in it. It was one of the happiest Christmas moment
ReplyDeleteThe memories are many and fond ones. Being a child and the memories of opening presents, the anticipation and suspense of what the presents are. The family get togethers and the big dinners!
ReplyDelete@muslimahi (twitter)
far_h AT yahoo DOT com
My favorite Christmas memory is the first christmas at my grandparants'. The first Christmas I remember.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memories are actually the events and evening leading up to Christmas. The memories that really stick with me are many different year's worth of ornament- and cookie-making. Painting wooden wise men, making stars from salt dough, baking cookies and making candies from favorite family recipes. Picking out and wrapping presents for everyone - making my allowance and paper route money go as far as it could. The prickly process of threading popcorn and cranberries into a garland. Those times spent with parents and siblings are the things about childhood Christmases that I remember and miss the most.
ReplyDeleteMy family's Christmas is spent almost exactly the same every year and it is extremely difficult to discern one memory from another. For me christmas is very strongly linked to being together with my family and traditions.
ReplyDeleteWaking up to the scent of fir tree, rice porridge spiced with sugar and cinnamon, visiting the graves of loved ones and lighting a candle for each, church and the smell of old books and old ladies' perfumes, all the delicious food and finally the fire blazing in the fireplace as we give out the gifts.
Our family would always go to my Grandparent's house for Christmas dinner. Dinner would often be a goose or pheasant that my Grandfather hunted himself. Then wonderful presents and fun!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of a past Christmas would have to be when I was in high school and went caroling with a group of my friends. It was cold and snowy, but we seemed to make a lot of people happy and we had a great time.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was kid,the greatest moments of Christmas were all about decorating Christmas tree, later the main was to find some nice present for myself(read fragrance for myself). Today is my turn to come home with Christmas tree so my greatest moments from the past today belong to my son and I really enjoy in his happiness about it. I love Christmas time. I like avoiding shopping fever and make as much as possible together with my family(cookies,decoration for Christmas tree etc.).
ReplyDeleteBest Christmas memories are with my grandfather. I wish he was still around. He was the definition of 'love'.
ReplyDeleteMy parents were lapsed Jews but one tradition they kept was the annual Christmas Day trek into NYC's Chinatown. We would stuff ourselves on Chinese food then Dad would let us buy something bright and tacky from one of the visually loud knick knack shops.
ReplyDeleteOne year when I was seven we went to Rockefeller Center after dinner and joined with a bunch of spirited singers shouting out the classics at the top of our lungs. The air smelled of cold, damp air and burnt pretzels - heaven.
When I was little my uncle would say that he was going to look for Santa and then he returned dressed up as Santa to give us kids presents. We really believed it was the real deal for a while, and even after we discovered the mystifaction, we still pretended to believe it, let the grownups have their fun. :) We had to sing songs or recite poems in exchange for our presents. Christmas will always smell of oranges to me, since those were rare and only available around that time of the year where I grew up!
ReplyDeleteMy Christmas memories are about my grandpa bringing us a NY tree every year.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of Christmas is waking up to mom's made from scrath cinnamon rolls all gooey with cream cheese icing.Then while we're still on a sugar high we take turns opening gifts (and drink our coffee).bookwyrmsmith at live dot com
ReplyDeleteMy favorite childhood Christmas is an unusual one: we got the house glowing, did lots of cooking and were waiting for our invités while a big monster-snowstorm hit. We were so busy preparing that we did not hearor see the forecasts. The phone started ringing with excuses and explanations... We laughed a lot and spend a very quiet Christmas, followed by a hell of a party, two days later, when the roads were cleared!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory is going to the tree lighting downtown and shopping downtown at the same time. I loved the window displays and the arcade shopping center. It all felt very magical! I wish we still had that type of feeling these days.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memories from when I was growing up include making cut-out cookies, getting the Christmas tree and then decorating it, opening Christmas presents with the family on Christmas Eve and then on Christmas Day, helping Mom with the dinner meal.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is a time of the year that I dread - the stress of the shopping, the compulsory happiness, the family you'd much rather avoid seeing. I've rediscovered the magic of Christmas through my son's eyes, and my best memory was the first Christmas we had with the man who later became my husband. We were staying at his mother's and his uncle had dressed as Santa to give his present to my son. I'll never forget my little boy's eyes then.
ReplyDeleteLast year: my favorite neighbours made a Christmas breakfast (for me, an agnostic Jew) and my boyfriend (an atheist Hindu). It was wonderful - and he gave me Tauer's Un Rose Chypree as a gift!
ReplyDeleteMost cherished memories from my childhood Christmas at my grandparents house in Karystos.Playing with my cousins,listening to old
ReplyDeletepeople stories.Despite the cold,
the atmosphere is warm inside,deliciously fragranced with home baked cookies
my fav memory from the Chrismas past is when my dad dressed as a Santa Klaus and brought presents. I did realized it was my dad, but still was so much looking forward to this... Now this tradition is in my family and my hubby is our Santa Klaus for children! Thanks, Radmila, rada76@Mail.ru
ReplyDeleteMy husband, small child, and I spent a Christmas in a little hill town in Spain. We had very little money. Our tree was a piece of driftwood, and we each had one present. Along with everyone else, we went to midnight mass, somewhat bewildered -- we're not Catholic. The moment mass was over, the town spilled out onto the dark plaza, where gypsies sang and everyone danced to ringing tambourines.
ReplyDeleteAbout 15 years ago, a news crew from a local television station rang our doorbell and asked if they could shoot us having a big family Christmas. They were doing a piece on people who had to work on Christmas day, and they used us for contrast!
ReplyDeleteChristmas memories of when our family had the opportunity to actually spend time together. My father was always at work (before I woke up and arrived after after I went to sleep).
ReplyDeleteA million years ago when I was in school, a beau gave me a bottle of Chanel No.19 for Christmas.
ReplyDeleteIn my eagerness to open the bottle, it landed on the floor and shattered. My dear, no longer here,
mum quietly went to the store and replaced it. I've never forgotten that kindness.
In the country I live, there were times when we were not able to have as much as we wanted and the best Christmas gift in the childhood was tangerines, because Christmas was the only opportunity to taste them. So for me Christmas always smells like tangerines... I haven't smelled any of Your perfumes, which is a disappointment, but there is one smell that reminds me a little bit of Christmas when I wear it - Galimard "Journal Intime".
ReplyDeletespending time with my family
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory is the year we decided to go to Morocco for Christmas. What a wonderful country and a very different place to be on Christmas day.
ReplyDeleteNot Christian, so no direct memories, but I remember everything quieting down in the streets, enjoying the twinkling of thousands of tiny lights on Christmas Eve and feeling like winter was magical and holy, and hearing some of the music really moved me (Silent Night, O come o come Emmanuel). I also liked having vacation, and going to the movies with my Dad and stopping for ice cream and cocoa after and talking for a long time about everything.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory is actually with my ex's family back when we were still together, since my family doesn't really celebrate Christmas. We made traditional German jelly donuts with his family and his mom gave me a pair of fairy wings to wear for the night just for fun. :)
ReplyDeleteOur Christmas celebrations were always the same during childhood, and lasted until New Year. As a teen I enjoyed very much the baking and even the hours of polishing brass candlesticks and silver in the weeks before Christmas. I still have certain cookies and meat dishes I cannot do without during Christmas and some of it has to be made by me,to get into the spirit of the season.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite memory of Christmas happened in 2009. My dad was the first one to call and wish me a Merry Christmas. It was before everyone else had got up and we just sat and talked for a while. It was so sweet and wonderful and only more poignant because it ended up being his last Christmas.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite was midnight church services in a little chapel in the woods. In the middle of the service you could see snow start to fall through the glass windows behind the the alter. Amazing and lovely.
ReplyDeleteI've always had a real tree at Christmas, so the smell of the particular sort of tree we always choose is always linked to Christmas for me.
ReplyDeleteBest Christmas was actually last year's Boxing Day sales (well technically that's the day after Christmas) when I scored loads of fragrances at huge discounts!
ReplyDeleteA good christmas for me is waking up, hugging with my parents, and the breakfast after. Ahhh, the memories.
ReplyDeleteSpending Christmas with my Mom, Dad, Son and then Husband, I can't do that now.
ReplyDeleteNow that I am so entranced with perfume, I am looking back with more fondness to the Christmas I received my first bottle of perfume. It was carnation.
ReplyDeleteNot living far up enough, so no white Christmases for me usually. Visiting the extended family over Christmas ages ago, in Denmark, we had a blast albeit with no snow. On the way back, I finally saw snow. It was soooo beautiful.
ReplyDeleteChristmas when I was a child was always magical.... not always a White Christmas, but often enough so I remember it fondly. Santa came every year, and always knew exactly what I wanted! :) My parents always had a lovely tree, my dad cut wood for the fire and my mom made homemade cookies.
ReplyDeleteltrittipoe(at)yahoo(dot)com
One of my Christmas memories is the year when I was 10 I had a sledding accident and spent the 7 days before Christmas in the hospital. I wasn't sure if I'd be home for Christmas and I was worried that Santa wouldn't find me in the hospital, plus I was so lonely missing my family and all the pre-Christmas school, Sunday School, and Girl Scout activities. Late on Christmas Eve, my neurologist came and examined me and told my mother I could go home if I promised not to run around or jump or climb on anything. Of course I said I promised and going home never seemed so magical, then or since.
ReplyDeleteVery simple: being reunited with my dog.
ReplyDeleteMy favourite Christmas memories are all from my childhood - I spend every year at my grandparents' and there was always snow. We decorated the tree with some really old, family ornaments and every year, we added some new ones too.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago I was brand new to fine fragrances. I received two Lucky Scent gift cards for Christmas. That was the beginning of many purchases.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was young, my Dad went to medical school 3 states away. Christmas had an added bonus of my Dad being able to come home over the holidays! There were treats abounding, including pink divinity, spritz cookies, and pecan pie, traditions I still carry on today.
ReplyDeleteI was 6 and my father told me the story of The Little Matchstick Girl. I wept unconsolabley all night Xmas eve and will never forget those less fortunate than me when gifting during this season.
ReplyDeleteOh my, I still weep at the thought of this story.
ReplyDeleteI remember the smell of hugging my mom when she came in from the cold. There was a mix of that snowy scent mingling with her handmade wool sweater,a little B.O, Chanel N 5, and the pine tree by the door,
ReplyDeleteMy grandma knew how to do Christmas the best, she was a true Southern belle. Her beds were the coziest, I thought her house was the prettiest house in the world (truly something right out of the pages of Southern Living). She lived right on the Chesapeake Bay and it always smelled like salt air with a hint of crab. And her cooking was heavenly; angel biscuits with Smithfield ham, deviled crabs and coconut cake. Try as I might I don't think I will ever be able to throw a Christmas like her.
ReplyDeleteOne of my childhood wishes was to sleep under the Christmas tree. Of course, my parents would never let me. So, my first Christmas with my beloved, we made a little nest under the fragrant, twinkling tree. Pure bliss!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the generous offering!
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory has to be what my father did when we were very young - we had a porch attached to our house and the second story of the house overlooked the porch's roof. My father, who was a talented woodworker, made hooves out of wood and put "reindeer tracks" all over that roof to show that Santa's sleigh had been there! He even put down some grain (we kept goats) the night before for them to eat, then in the morning it would be gone, with just a few bites left. We just KNEW Santa existed, and we must have been the last kids to stop believing in Santa Claus. Now that was truly Christmas magic! :-)
I really love the magic of waking up on Christmas morning to see presents under the tree. Even after we were old enough to know about Santa, I still loved the suprise, and love that our parents always made sure there were surprises in the morning. It's truly magic!
ReplyDeleteSnow lightly falling
ReplyDeleteMemories of Christmas past
Family, presents, cheer.
Mine is waking up from a nap as a little boy and seeing the tree all decorated with lights. My mom had worked while we were sleeping!
ReplyDeleteI grew up in between Germany and the United States, as a military brat. My mother wholeheartedly embraced both cultures, even though the German was all on my dad's side, a couple generations back. On top of all this, my mom was terminally ill through most of my childhood, but trying her very best to forget that, especially at Christmas. While we lived in Germany, she went a bit hog wild buying Christmas ornaments and decorations -- for the tree and for our house. She bought four or five wooden pyramids, and an Advent wreath, and a ton of wooden and pewter ornaments for our tree, of the sort that are tougher to find in Germany these days, due to the ubiquity of plastic ornaments. My strongest memory is of one night during a Christmas season after we moved back to the States, shortly before my mom died, when she lit all the pyramids and all the candles in the living room and turned off all the lights, and had us lie on our backs and stare at the patterns on the ceiling.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite Christmas memory is so simple. I grew up in sunny Southern California and always had Christmas festivities with the family. When my job forced me to relocate to the East Coast, I was disappointed that I would miss X-mas with the family. However, walking up to snow falling and seeing my lovely little Washington DC neighborhood peppered in white snow was breaktaking. My new surroundings, the crisp air and snowfall created a sense of well-being and joy.
ReplyDeleteI loved looking at Christmas lights as a child, the different colours, shapes for me it was magic. Now as an adult I still enjoy looking at Christmas lights sparkling against the snow.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in about the fourth grade, I got a tiny bottle of Fifth Avenue from a family friend for Christmas. I had never thought about perfume before, but I was the happiest about it and actually still kind of love the scent though I don't wear it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a child, the night before 6th January my parents, my brother and me used to go pick grass for the camels of the Three Wise Men that that night would bring us presents.
ReplyDeleteWe left water for them too, and liquor and pastries for the Wise Men.
Next morning it was exciting to see if them had eaten something!
That's a typical Spanish tradition.