Pardon Me For Asking: Carroll Gardeners Remember Christmas In The Neighborhood

Yesterday, I asked my readers to send in some of their past Carroll Gardens Christmas memories. The first such great reminiscences started coming in. Below are a few of those sent in by readers. Please, everyone, send in yours. And send photos too.

From Gina:

We always bought our Christmas trees on the corner of Union and President. My father, two brothers and I would make our annual trek usually the first week of Advent. Pop would lets us pick the one that would grace our living room but he would always have the last say on the one that sat outside in our front garden. Down President St we would go, carrying our precious cargo with Pop and the brothers doing most of the carrying. I can remember Pop smiling down at me as I tried to help and now looking back, I know that all I did was hinder them, but they acted as though without me, they couldn't manage to bring those dang trees home!
Wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a New Year filled with health and happiness.

From Concetta:

I remember (and miss) the xams lights in almost everyone's windows! How my mother would prepare the seafood for our xmas eve dinner. The delicious honeyballs! The wonderful feeling of visiting friends through out the neighborhood sharing deserts, wine and champagne! Also, how the ships would sound their horns at the strike of midnight on New Years Eve and how the neighbors would all come out and bang on pots and pans--what fun!

From Never Wrote, But Always Read

Katia, here's our Holiday Memory:
I remember my friend (now "Mrs D.") baking and singing with her mom while the rest of us neighborhood girls would laugh and dance and act goofy. Our doors were never locked, especailly around this time of year, and we all wandered into each others houses to see whose mom was making what. We'd have soup in one house, snacks at another, dinner at yet another but always had dessert with "MrsDee" and her family.
(Although I'll admit we'd have dinner there many nites, too.)

There were 6 or 7 of us noisy girls who would torment each others moms & dads. And if one of us had an older brother we'd tease each other and dance around with Misteltoe - holding it over each others' head. I'm lucky to be able to call "MrsDee" my friend and I miss living in the neighborhood, especially at Christmas time.

From Stephen

"I can remember being married in Carroll Gardens 25 years ago. Oh my goodness we wore the worst clothes ever... my friend Terry should have taken me to the side and given me some advice. It was a summer wedding, but wait there is a Christmas connection to be made. The reception was held in a tenement backyard and Christmas lights were strung from clotheslines. Sharon's relatives from Bayonne were invited and they were knocked over by Carroll gardens... they felt at home at once. Of course we had to have our own special day, and what has ended up to be a fairly unique marriage was celebrated with fruit tarts instead of a traditional wedding cake. The colorful fruit tart has become a symbol for us. So to celebrate almost any holiday (Christmas included) the fruit tart is there and Carroll Gardens is in our hearts."

Please , dear Reader, take a moment to jot down your own memory. You don't need to be from Carroll Gardens. Just share a bit from your first Christmas in the neighborhood or in Brooklyn.

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