version is here it is i have my christmas pajamas on this is that nice this is the first time anybody showed up on channel seventeen with the bridge on resign i miss bill cale i'm the host of this program and  just would like to say i hope this is the last time anybody shows up at channel seventeen in their pajamas but after i saw the bills i took these off the channel seventeen christmas tree so that i could match your festive not so anyway so we're just going to tell you about christmas stories of family your incidents or whatever so if you want to share a good christmas story call or call it six two three nine six six eight six two t nine six six and joey were we go from here well i think with have to first of all imagine that tomorrow the days will start to get longer so that's the good news no more daylight ok light so but we really talked about christmas memories and you and i were filling each other with all sorts of stories about when we were kids and we tell i think for most part we can ok i remember in our family on thanksgiving night and on an uncle of ours who would be guests for thanksgiving dinner would pack up my brothers and sisters and me and take us downtown to city hall park where the crash would have just been opened and of course i think i don't you were probably maybe on the city council when we because of respect for other cultures decided that it wasn't really probably the best principal policy just to have a nativity scene on city property so we no longer have that but back when i was growing up there was never any thought to those sensitivities that i think it's good that we respect but i always remember that as a big kickoff to the christmas season ok so know you guys went down there the mare was there i don't think was the mayor was just our family and other people that there was you know that the lights had gone on in this beautiful life sized manger scene that would be on display in city hall park ok you know when you it come down the chimney and all coming like you know i never knew because we we always felt that he had to use a door at our house but whatever i always was very glad that whatever his method of entry although there w ok and the first thing in the morning when i was younger it was to find did he eat all the cookies and did he leave any message did he write anything back ok sometimes he did but i remember so many i remember one christmas we always you know we always had the big tree decorating and i'm not sure do you remember a thing that was called angel hair yes that you could put on the tree and what it actually was was fiberglass and everyone who handled it broke out with this her randall and it's a little cuts i do remember that and i think we only had angel hair that one it was it was probably flammable it was probably poisonous a little bit it certainly was irritating but you know it was marketed as the next best thing for a christmas tree you know so we had to have it well  two brothers one of whom was an altar boy and the other a choir boy ok so they always were committed to midnight mass where my sisters and i were delegated to be at home and go to bed early and be you know good children so it was always sort of a problem because i could hear my brothers going out to mass and coming back and there'd be all sorts of happenings downstairs but i was never privy to get up to stockings on christmas morning oftentimes santa claus would leave some really terrific treats that you did not see the likes of except if you had a very good hollowing load and you'd be looking at them and touching them but you couldn't eat them because you couldn't break your fast ok you had to you know you had to certainly wanted to go to communion on christmas morning and to do so you had to fast so that's another reason that i think ok well i don't remember my husband and i we we would have those adventures with our children getting a christmas tree and choosing a tree i remember one year poor tom got the tree on his own brought it home and there was a ultimately had to pass that on to another family and go out and buy the second one because it was breaking hearts all over the house but i don't remember us i just remember the christmas tree coming and whether my mom had just ordered it or my father sun that did not go over well but we survived on that if you have a story about your christmas give us a call it's six two three nine six six we're just rambling here and if you've got a story you want to share whether it's six two three nine six six well i really how did you a traditionalist as you were demonstrating yourself to be today ok miss pajamas how could you ever have bought it  a fake silver tree well i figured well you do use it for many years i mean there was a fig tree could you get a fake green tree maybe this was cheaper by a dollar and a half i like your honest and it was you know you'd send many out but it was such a pleasure to have the mailman come and there would be piles of cards and i remember the christmas cards at the at my childhood home would be in a big basket but when my father would come home from work that would be the first thing he did the cards that arrived that day would be held out of the basket for him to look at and read and that i meant so much to my with a bunch of different people families in laws and head and passing out caroling books and we all sang and it was great except the chill in the law children husband is still in the family the wife of the of my brother is not going to question for you i'm going to see if i get some pua you had the traditional christmas carol books who's the name of the insurance company that sponsored  parents especially the mother on christmas she would always deliver a case of coke two twenty one electoral votes in one of those old cardboard boxes was six and a half ounce coke bottles which was a treasure to the malay family and then we would spend the entire next day christmas at the farmer's house and that would include all the whole nice double mahoney's letty's melees lots and lots of cousins and those are the memories that we all cherish and they were very very beautiful beautiful christmas nights aren't they jab do you hear joy yes they were and all the girls were dressed in dresses made by margaret about shopping downtown joy well i've got a shopper but well back in the day i think people did church street was the main shopping place in the whole area and you know there was no university mall there i got older and you know you might be in college or something you go and you you'd meet friends that you hadn't seen for a long time you might get detoured into maybe a little pub for a drink or two really to catch up with old times but you couldn't really go a block or two without just having a good visit with somebody and everybody was usually in good spirits and just felt like a real community and i was down last night with some of my grandchildren and it was so beautiful and yet walking four blocks up to the big christmas tree with the children i don't think i said a lot of us anyone because i didn't know anybody of course we were all bundled up because it's pretty cold sure but it is ten we've really grown as as a city and a town and which is good but it's not quite the way it used to be sort of a smaller community where you knew everyone before the show we were talking about assembly we thought  i was married to a man who always felt that he could probably wreck the eiffel tower with all knowledge and would often start with out the three packages with the forty eight nuts and bolts and all the other equipment so we did have some times that kest did our christmas spirit but overall it turned out well and sometimes by morning whether it one time when i was young maybe eight or nine my dad put me in the car christmas eve and said c'mon we're going to go get a gift and i had no idea what we were going to what we were yet and we ended up going to a store it may have been a games or something like that but it was our first color television oh wow imber i remember i was so surprised to get our first color television bring that back and set it up for christmas day but it wasn't so much the gift that i was impressed with the fact that my dad took me to i know in many french canadian families they had the meat pies to cheer that was so important to their culture in our house my father could never have christmas eve without oyster stew and he one night when i was asking about it they would have always tears as when he was growing up in underhill vermont on christmas eve and i always thought how did they ever get oysters under on christmas eve and then remember one green christmas growing up and i thought the world had come to an end and we had no snow on this christmas and it seemed so strange and i wish i could remember and i don't know if any of our viewers could remember what year that was i think i used to have a connection of old friend in new york who would call me and say i'm on to a pretty pony i think i can buy three next father's day as it would be because you couldn't get a carrier they'd be lines to get a cabbage patch doll o your and you know i think oh my poor little girls christmas just going to be horrible if i can't get this cabbage patch doll and finally i would score one or do something almost illegal to get one and then the joy of the cabbage patch doll would last fifteen minutes or so yeah morning and you just go i can't believe what i did not appreciate it but i think what it was but not quite as much you know i'm not sure i'm not sure what would have happened if the cabbage patch doll had not been under the tree you have a christmas story or christmas relives they're going to call it six two three nine six six now would you do on christmas day go father's sister's house and then we would end up at my grandfather's home which he lived with dr and mrs farmer i don't know and that's where we made all our mahoney cousins and we would dance and saying and be downstairs playing ping pong and just would have a fabulous fabulous christmas night with all our relatives ok and we had uncles who loved to sing and love to harmonize we always thought they were going to go on sullivan show but one uncle always had to have his head in so he could hear the r harmony that we hit we knew ed sullivan wouldn't like that so he kept he kept the group from going that nationwide but it was just a warm time you know and i think one thing we should talk about though bill tonight is i think you and i and so many others have such wonderful memories of this time of year but i think too many others don't you know i i remember when my children were small we we we adopted a single gentleman for christmas and we stopped at his home which was very humble on christmas eve and he was so happy that we came and we had bought some little gifts and  fruit basket for him and everything and he was warm and wonderful and told my children some stories and we left that man that night and i realized how little we remember some of those people who don't have families and who are struggling financially often times and some of our older people who have health issues and so i hope that we all will sort of remember those people remember the food shelf remember i think they're still taking turkeys i know that they like checks and cash and they can really spin that into more food than just if you bring cans but they welcome anything but i think it's a conceive or the christmas day just a five or ten minute visit to somebody who has baby no one or you have some related that's the perfect gift for that they may not remember it twenty minutes afterwards but least  there and it least you felt good you did something and they appreciated your visit so often that we do have to forget and it is a time where i feel as though we are we have the automatic wall echoing twenty four hours a day jobs at christmas time a little patrons jobs at the post office wow the christmas cards were a big thing so you had to put on additional mail carriers so that it had well it did very very well and you had to have some political connection in those days well maybe today but remember used to deliver mail in the borough and you couldn't come back before a certain time and when you're talking about we you're really only talking about your gender that's true that is hill and just like it was just wonderful i drive by that now if i'm ever up at mt st mary's i go there's not much of a hill there and along all lived across the street from there so we go there but also it's a slide down fletcher and there were so many burlington people that really didn't want that to happen and i guess in the theme of progress you can't compare a parking garage to a hospital flight