I am 62 years old. I lived in an upstairs room over my grandpa's general store in the NC foothills during my preschool years. Santa riding on a red fire truck would come thru my rural small town giving paper bags of treats to children. Our town was not big enough for a parade, but there was a fire truck. Santa even came into my upstairs apt. room to see me and my sisters one year when it was too cold to meet him outside. 🎅🎄🚒
As a small church pastor who had the "live animal debate" this year, and who is watching this video while eating the fruit from my son's band fundraiser... this is eerily accurate...
@@rexbeavers6746I'VE had Santa come to MY HOUSE on the fire truck to specifically deliver one of my presents as a kid! YUP! I'm a firehouse kid! All us firehouse kids, our firefighter Dads have an annual party AT the firehouse like the weekend before Christmas. Your parents pick something off your list or something else that's appropriate but generic for a girl of your age. That way when you sit with Santa you always get something that's is it what you want or relatable to you yk? Well one year I couldn't go to the party, AND I was little like around 5 OR 6 years old. I can't remember what I have but I think it was swollen glands. So of course their Santa is one of the fellow firefighters and he gets outta the suit and joins the party. Oh no no no! AS my Dad told me later as an adult they had to "PRACTICALLY POUR HIM INTO THE TRUCK" to get this done. 😂 My Dad told him to get himself right back INTO that suit cuz NO WAY was his daughter going to miss out on seeing Santa Claus. NOPE! He was refusing him on the whole idea of just bringing home my present because he said I was sick and very upset about missing the party.😢 Soooo...down the block comes the fire truck with Santa Claus on it to my house! I DON'T mean quietly either~he had them with the lights going AND the horns blasting. He wanted ALL the neighbors to know and see Santa Claus show up! I was shocked and heard I could barely speak. I was almost catatonic and was stuttering Santa.. s s s Santa y y you're here... Y y you're came to see m m me? He said of course I did! I heard you were sick and couldn't come to the party so I just wanted to give you the gift I have for you! Then he hugged me and I was crying soooo hard because I was just so happy! He said well I have to because I have to get back to the party and lots to do. He got back in the truck and they took off. By that time a whole bunch of the neighbors and the kids had come outside. They'd seen AND heard the truck and of course were worried someone was in trouble. I WAS like the most popular kid on my block the next day because Santa came to my house AND in the daytime AND everybody saw him there! SEE??? I TOLD YOU ALL THAT HE IS REAL! Sooo... THAT is why whenever I hear about Santa Claus on a firetruck I get excited for other kids to see that! It TRULY is one of my favorite memories of my childhood. It still brings tears to me eyes to think back about to how much my Daddy loved me especially since he's passed on 9 years ago. I'm adopted and 1 of 3 kids. My 2 brothers are my parents natural kids. Yes I am the youngest AND the baby~you know I AM a Daddy's girl! This is one of my favorite holiday memories and one of my favorite childhood memories because it reminds me how much my Daddy loved me so much. It remind me of how how special he was. Also his much he made sure to show me how he was going to make the best out of the holidays for me and not leave me out of anything. I CAN'T think of many Daddy's out there who will hand deliver Santa Claus to their daughters but he did! It's OVER 50 years now~I turned 59 in October. I still absolutely love this memory of US AND MY very own firetruck Santa Claus. 😉🎅💜🥰🎄🚒😎 #NYGenXBIKERLady #DaddysGirlFOREVER #EastMeadowFD #EngineCompany2 #HomeOfTHEBOYS #WW2ArmyAirCorpsMPsKid
I’m from the north , like the North north , is someone gave me fruit I would be offended and if their were like animals in our church , it would be the drama of the next 100 years.
Our little town is one of those places where there are "parade throws"--in other words, the parade riders throw goodies to you. Well, the weather was really BAD--cold and rainy--during one Christmas season so there was absolutely nobody watching on the parade route. Since I was tending a friend's store (no customers in that weather) that was on the parade route so I went outside to see Santa go by (yes, on a fire truck). And since I was the ONLY person out there, everyone riding on the parade threw everything at me. I was absolutely pelted with candy, leftover Mardi Gras beads, Christmas ornaments, and who knows what else. As I recall, Santa hit me with a small stuffed animal. I filled a whole paper sack with that stuff. It was the best Christmas parade ever.....even if I was the only one watching. Nice to know I wasn't on the naughty list. Not to sure about that cranky Santa, though.
Awesome! I came from a parade throws town too. No parade is worth going to if they aren't throwing beads and moon pies. I couldn't understand the macy"s parade hoopla. They weren't throwing random items from dollar tree.
@@profaneangel2556An old friend of my mother's went to the Macy's parade back in the 70's but she had never been to a parade outside of NOLA before. She was jumping up and down hollering "Throw me something, Mister!" for a good few minutes before she realized that no one else was doing that and that there was nothing to catch. She was really embarrassed. 🤣
We started going to a Christmas parade in a neighboring County (in Tennessee) in 2021 that is the first Saturday in December. For the last 3 years we have gone, it has always rained at some point either before or during the parade and all the candy lands on a wet road or in puddles of dirty water (yum). In 2021, a lot of the candy we collected from the parade was the clearance candy from the previous Valentines Day and Halloween. Of course, that didn't stop my kids from eating it as long as it didn't land directly in a puddle.😅 And it was that very time that I knew this parade would become a new family tradition. 😊
OMG. I went with Mom and my little sister to Chick-fil-A a few days ago and Santa came in on a firetruck. I am glad that the people at Chick-fil-A arranged that.
At our town’s Christmas parade a couple of weeks ago we had the Grinch riding on the Animal Control truck. I guess they finally got him. Also a local pest control company had someone dressed in a cockroach costume riding on one of their trucks. Nothing says Christmas in the South like cockroaches.
Have they made their way to Tennessee? Are they like a big ole beetle? I've had to air lift those hummers outta my kitchen where they've come in to die... @@asdisskagen6487
Santa on a fire truck was a northern thing too. One year when I was a kid and stuck inside with a case of tonsillitis, Santa saw me looking out of our living room window. That kind gentleman climbed down off the truck and came to our front door to give me some candy. I still cherish such a fond memory. 🥰🚒🎅🍬🤗🤍
Matt, don't forget the mixed nuts still in the shell. I'm not sure if it was just a '70s - 80s thing, but one of my ingrained Christmas memories is emptying my stocking... to find walnuts, Hershey kisses, and fruit. And if I was lucky, a Matchbox car (because Hot Wheels were the work of the devil).
Wife inherited a crystal hors d'oeuvre dish for the mixed nuts still in the shell after my mother-in-law passed away. I had no idea that's what the dish was for when it was first brought out in December.
Please, please tell me why Hot Wheels are evil. I could not find anything anywhere about this. My family always preferred Hot Wheels because matchbox never won any races we held and HW had way better designs.
Oh my goodness you killed me with the small church arguing about the cost of the new carpet. For 7 years, my dad tried to talk the church into getting a shed, and the number of times they argued about the price was insane. To date, they still don’t have that shed.😂
@@StormtrooperPrincess I just want a hood for the stove. Had a brother bring a "smokeless" flat top to make sliders. His sliders are, in fact, amazing, but the kitchen looked like Batman did a smoke bomb vanish by the time we got done.
@@beckyowens2586 We NEED an updated fire suppression system, and a more modern stove & oven. People are talking about adding walk-in refrigerators and freezers. They'll "be cheaper than getting a standalone freezer" says the man who doesn't cook ever.
Church drama is crazy. I live in east-central Texas and I'm a Catholic, and the way the Catholic churches work around here is there's a Polish church, a German church, a Mexican church, and a Czech church. If you're not one of those, you're automatically Baptist, except for me. I've been going to the Polish church for about 15 years and my opinion still isn't squat on anything at all.
As a Texan, I’ve greatly enjoyed any number of Christmas tamales over the years, but I have to say, Christmas shrimp and grits does sound pretty awesome.
Love to see a christmas tamales recipe. I only do cast iron steak and watch die hard on Christmas day (shrimp and grits is in my arsenal, just never done it on Christmas)
@@zchris87v80 They're just normal tamales, it's not a special christmas recipe. Essentially everyone's abuelita gets half the entire family together to make tamales, and the leftovers are greatly appreciated by us gringos.
Suddenly I'm feeling proud of my small Northern town that had Santa arrive in town sitting in a sleigh...which was atop a flat bed being pulled by an oversize pickup truck.
The very first time I went to see Santa in my small town in the Missouri Ozarks, he came in on a fire truck. Unfortunately, I was a sensitive kid and it scared the bejesus out of me - so much in fact that I feared Santa for years after that.
I remember as a child when my hometown (pop. 500) got its first Christmas decorations. A larger town just up the road bought new decorations and gave the old ones to us. We were all AMAZED.
Hey now, you *can* get a Christmas miracle every once in awhile. When I lived in Biloxi, MS it snowed on Christmas Eve. Even stuck to the ground overnight. It was so magical, I still remember running out into the street with my brother at night dancing around in it... My mom was deployed to the middle east at the time, I was so sad she missed it, but I also took it as a sign she'd come home safely. Granted this was over twenty years ago now... So, probably unlikely to happen again. But ya never know :)
I was likely in the area when that happened! Did the gulf freeze a bit too? I have a distinct memory of the beach birds slipping and sliding over the ice, extremely confused about why they couldn't get into the water!
My parents, sister, and niece lived in Gulfport then. I went down from North Mississippi and was the envy of all my friends (really they were kind of peeved), because I had a White Christmas, and they didn't 😅
@@NicoleK8 I can't remember if the Gulf froze - we lived on the Air Force base so maybe the back bay did? But those were all high ranking officers' houses that were along the waterfront, I think my mom was only a Captain at that point so sadly I don't remember anything like that. But that's absolutely hilarious, I wish I'd seen it! 😆
@@robertlampkin9954 haha I love that! I just still remember this happening because we'd moved from Ohio to Mississippi and I was just getting used to the idea of "this place doesn't get snow" when, of all days, it snowed on Christmas Eve. It was just so... Magical ☺️ lucky you got to experience it too! I never realized it didn't happen up north; the irony, ammiright? Lol
Every Christmas my family and I gather around the basement door for the tornado warning. We've decorated the door very nicely. It's a very festive way to run for your life.
I remember my family having to wake up my great aunt, (originally from Alabama, who was visiting), to a Christmas eve tornado watch in central Texas. When we woke her up, she humoured us, but I don't think she really believed us until she could see the horizontal rain passing by our windows and see the radar, even though she was half deaf and half blind at that point. The sirens were blaring from straight winds and everything! I remember it feeling weird to be standing next to the Christmas tree, but be looking at the tv, to see tornadoes on the radar at the same time. Texas. **sigh** Since her passing, I always remember my great aunt at Christmas, and the time when a tornado almost got us all! (Though honestly, if a tornado had gotten us that night, it would probably have taken out my entire family, but magically swerve around my great aunt, leaving her behind as a most talkative, observant witness for the news. . . . she'd tell EVERYBODY about it, probably have her own hour long news special about it.🙃
For the record, my family and I were living in Galveston in 2002 when as to my wondering eyes should appear, 6 inches of snow on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Better was that it lasted about 3 days and one of our neighbors made a full-size northern-type snowman!
The oranges got me. I’m old and remember back when I was little there was always fruit in my stocking. Fruit, socks, underwear, and candy that had mysteriously been on the dining table the day before😂
At least your socks were in the stocking...mid to late 70s we used our clean socks as the stocking and couple years my parents used clean longjohn pants as theirs 😂😂😂
That skit literally made me remember the year where my grandfather brought three bags of oranges to a white elephant gift exchange. OMG that was amazing
Oranges, peppermint stick, brand new pair of socks, silver dollar. That was the gift from my great grandparents every year. One year my daddy explained that those were extravagant gifts when my Mamaw and Papaw were young. 💚 Good memories.
As a Texan. We rarely get snow, but we do celebrate Christmas Eve and celebrate till 4 in the morning. We’re making Mexican tamales in Texas with my fam bc we do a lot.
We have 19 lighted reindeer. When my husband is through decorating, I worry a plane is going to think we’re part of the landing strip. 🎉 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours.
I live in Massachusetts and Santa came to the town tree lighting ceremony on a fire truck. No parades here though, just huge trees with an absurd amount of lights and ornaments.
One of the local animal shelters had gracious donator pay for all adoption fees waived, and offered for a $100 donation, that special kitten or puppy could be delievered by santa and an elf on christmas eve
In Katy, TX the Fire Department would drive around Neighborhoods with Santa on the Fire truck. You had to check Face Book to find out when they would come through your neighborhood. The first year I thought the whole neighborhood was burning down.
Haha, I'm a youth pastor at a small church, and Matt, you hit the nail on the head with that. My daughter and her husband live in Dahlonega, and we make sure to come down to see the lights there. Merry Christmas and God blessings to you and your family!
Wonderful! Instead of Fire Truck Santa, we here in Grangeville, Idaho have "Back of the Parade Float" Santa who travels around town with a PA system that offers Christmas carols as he rides along on many of our chilly Idaho nights. Our neighbor kids never miss getting outside to see him roll by! Thanks for sharing your Southern Christmas fun with us! It is indeed the "Spirit of the Season."
OMG! Santa driving down the road on a random Saturday is so on point! We would hear the firetruck horn and jump up to run outside to the dirt road and wave and shout and have Santa (and sometimes Mrs. Claus) on the firetruck pelt us with candy. I thought it was just some weird thing that only happened here. When I'd tell people "in town" about it they would just stare.
Oh my gosh - I laughed from start to finish. The Christmas Parade. The live animals - or not. The ambrosia. The schools our church kids attend haven't done oranges in awhile (too healthy?) they push popcorn (years ago, my daughter's school pushed cookie dough, that had more chemicals than a Pfizer pharma factory).
As a New Jersey native, it always kills me a little when there's no real snow down here (GA) during December. I miss it so much. But, based on how Georgia has handled slight sprinklings in the past, the entire state would enter DefCon5 if we got any real snow. Also, thank you everyone for supporting your local marching bands and our fundraisers. We, too, wish we didn't have to do stuff like this to raise funds for our programs but alas...
Santa Claus on a firetruck is also a big deal in small Northeastern towns. As a kid I thought it was because that was the closest thing to a sleigh they could get, until I found out (at least in my town) it was to keep kids and drunk parents from rushing Santa.
THAT’S WHYYYYyyyy??? 🤦🏻♀️ I thought the same thing about the sled 🛷 🚒 I’m questioning my entire reality rn. What else have I been wrong about all these years??
In my town the fire dept. are the ones who do the parade. Like it’s the Fire Dept. Christmas Parade and Santa is played by a guy who used to be the fire chief, so that’s why Santa is on a fire truck where I live 😅
I actually had to do a double-take on that Christmas parade image just to see if it was my hometown Main Street. Then I remembered that's what ALL small towns in the South look like.
Where i live in Maryland (yes i know it is debateable if we are in the South or not) Santa rides on the fire truck and the kids decorate their bikes and ride behind to the local elementary school - six to eight blocks. That's it ... That's the parade.
I live in Mobile, AL but I went to school in Tuscaloosa, AL (Roll Tide!). The drive between the two was mostly 2 lane highway and went through a dozen or so small towns. It never failed, no matter what day I came home for Christmas, I was stopped in the little town of Linden, AL for the Christmas parade. I just got out of the car and went up to the parade to watch Santa come down the street in a fire truck. When the parade was over, went back to car and on my way again. Good times.
My mom always got the oranges and other treats from whatever church Christmas play we attended and put them in our stockings. She somehow managed to do with without us realizing where it came from lol.
Aw I love that you mentioned Dahlonega! My parents live close to that town and they really do go all out for Christmas. And my husband and I would always find ourselves at Waffle House on Christmas morning for breakfast. We live in Chicago now and are ready to come back to Gods country!
Oranges, apples, and nuts are traditional gifts given to friends and companies you do business with. I spent 13 years living in Germany during the 70's and 80's. My last Christmas in Germany, I was a 21 year old working as an Asst. F&B Manager at an American Armed Forces Recreation Resort about 50 miles southeast of Munich. During the week leading up to Christmas, we ceived at least 40 crates of oranges and a few dozen apples and nuts as gifts from all of our civilian delivery companies. We gave every employee a full paper grocery bag full of those. It was craziness because we had our normal order of those fruits for our guests and employee's delivered during that week...
This is so true! Santa is popping into random local shops in my town (south Alabama), and he's already had his fire truck ride in the Christmas parade.
So very accurate! My husband is a retired 1st Responder. As a child our daughter got to ride in our small town Christmas parade on the fire truck with Santa. She also rode several years in various convertibles because she was a winner or runner-up in several beauty pageants such as the "Little Pine Seedling" with Miss Pine pageant winner - yep that's a thing - "Little Miss" Lincoln Co to the Miss LC, etc. , In small towns lil girls for these contests are at a premium. But not a toddlers/tiaras sitch & it was all for charity so... Also, it was so warm inour part of Georgia (2hrs from Dahlonega) we ran the a/c. Last year, it was 15°. You must be mentally and wardrobe prepared to wear either shorts & sandals or boots and scarves...maybe within 24 hrs. Merry Christmas from Georgia!
"They spent at least two business meetings arguing about the cost of the new carpet in the sanctuary." 😂 This is very, very accurate. Much love from Tennessee! ❤
We had a full church vote about whether to buy the house adjacent to our church. Never mind the fact that the house was landlocked - that it the church owned ALL the land surrounding the house.
How cool! I'm in Rhode Island, so we usually have a white Christmas, but not always. Our mall Santa's have been posted up for a while now. Petsmart and Petco also have Santa there, too, for the pet pictures. We have Santa on a fire truck up here, too. Sometimes, there will be a grinch in another fire truck as well! I've never seen or tried ambrosia, but I do love the little Debbie Christmas tree snacks too!
The ambrosia that I grew up with was made with coconut, maraschino cherries, canned Mandarin oranges, pecans and sprinkled with a spoon or two of sugar. No mayo, salad dressing or whipped cream
Every Christmas season, we would wait all day listening for firetruck sounds.... it either meant, Ethel is on fire, or Santa Claus is on that truck driving thru neighborhoods, tossing out candy!
The oranges reminds me of when I was kid. We would go to my grandmas church and watch the Christmas program and they would give the kids a brown paper bag filled a quarter full with peanuts and an apple on top. This was in Nebraska so not peak orange season.
In Texas the tamales will be wrapped in corn husks. If you want tamales wrapped in banana leaves like what is depicted in the video, you have to go to Mclard’s BBQ joint in Hot Springs Arkansas. Merry Christmas 🎄
Santa use to come through out neighborhood riding on a trailer... pulled by the fire truck pickup. Firetrucks were there too. Santa gave out candy canes.
Literally just went to the small town parade and saw santa on the fire truck on saturday and then had a flashflood festivus on Sunday! 😅 My closest neighbor gets my trash can for Christmas because it floated over there from my yard. Enjoy that new can Virginia🤣
@@asdisskagen6487 😂You’re right! I need to get the rain boots on and go retrieve it! Also, the fact that you knew what kind of can it was tells me you also live in the country 🤣
For towns that light up for Christmas, you should have mentioned Macon, GA. Huge Christmas light event with 10s of thousands of people walking around downtown each night to enjoy it.
The few times I had ambrosia it was made with whipped cream. For a long time I didn't know some people made it with mayo. Never tasted it that way, sounds strange to me.
Just moved from Gwinnett area to small town in LA (Lower Alabama) and you are on point. Just had pur Christmas parade couple weeks ago....and yup Santa was on the firetruck. I like ambrosia so dont knock it and the fruit....reminds me of my youth.... we'd get small trinkets and a orange and apple in our stockings...err rather we used clean socks and my parents used long john bottoms 😮. St least the locall grocer has a nativity scene in the front of store 😊. Merry Christmas🤴 🎁🎄🕊️
In Pennsylvania Santa still comes the second Saturday morning before Christmas on the fire truck, sirens screaming, through all the streets and courts in the township!
I met Santa *and* Mrs. Claus at the local Food Depot a few days ago. They were all dolled up in their finest North Pole wear, sitting on the bench at the front door, hanging out and chatting with whoever stopped to say hello. I didn't see the firetruck bring them, and I'm guessing the fire truck showed up to get them after I left.
Was it really them or was it that one couple in your town that looks so much like Mr and Mrs Clause that they just dress like that all the time (even if for 9 months it's khaki shorts and some manner of Christmassy looking Hawaiian style shirt) and around December they just start hanging out in public all the time because everyone pays attention to them? Cause we have those here too. Though I'm in the Florida panhandle so you're just as likely to see them at the beach, white hair glowing and matching green thongs.
If any of you missed Santa on the firetruck, while Ace is a good place to start looking, I recommend going to Cracker Barrel. You're guaranteed to find him there ordering the baked potato and Mac and cheese
Our neighborhood houses the extended family of the mayor. Every year, "Santa on a Firetruck" makes a housecall to our street so we don't even have to leave our porch. Our kids get a kick out of Santa throwing cheap candy. 😂😂😂
My hometown is so close to our next town over that they do one joint parade the first Saturday in December. And it includes just all the middle and high school marching bands and a large number of local Boy Scout troops just perched on a trailer pulled by one of the leader’s old Dodge’s. As someone who was both on one of those trailers for several years and watched them for several other years, it’s always a Dodge despite most leaders driving F-150s. That or they Jerry rigged the trailer to the church van and used that for the parade.
Also, our Christmas Parade was first postponed, the just canceled because of the rain! I was really excited to be in it this year with the high school marching band. Luckily, we're gonna be in the Rose Parade, so that may make up for it. OMG. I just listened to his comment about the band selling oranges and the like. We do that fundraiser every year. I usually don't participate, though.
Some towns down here really know how to do it right; they don't actually take down the Christmas decorations. Ever. They just light 'em up right after Thanksgiving.
I have lived in several festive neighborhoods where most (if not all) neighbors leave their lights up year 'round and just turn them on for various holidays. 😂
My favorite tree that stayed up all year was in Fairhope, Alabama where they just took the Christmas ornaments off in January and put on Mardi Gras beads with purple, green, and gold ornaments. Then eggs for Easter and red/white/blue patriotic for May through September. It was so festive and fun.
I LOVE ambrosia...... cannot get enough of it up here in yankee Montana.... and YES I lived in a small town where Santa was on the fire truck and it WAS the only rig in the parade....
I live in a small suburb south of Houston. We have a firetruck that goes through the subdivision on the last Saturday before Christmas, siren and lights and Santa. My son and his family were on the truck since the son was a volunteer. It's just fun to see. We also got a white Christmas in 2000, it snowed an inch here, which is awesome since we're 15 miles from Galveston.
The Christmas parade reminds me of what we do in my hometown here in the UK, just swap the emergency service vehicles for an endless stream of tractors, decorated with lights, beeping their horns to the tune of Christmas carols. Seriously, this year I saw fifty tractors, with police escort, cruising past my church after the carol service. You think Santa on a firetruck is weird, try Santa, two dozen elves, two dozen reindeer, and one guy who forgot to dress-up driving tractors through the middle of town. The whole thing took about half an hour to pass, and I swear it held up traffic for another two. I am fairly this is just something that happens in my hometown, I've never seen anything like it elsewhere, and I imagine other British people in the comments have no idea what I'm talking about.
Love it! I learned a lot from this video (not a southerner). But I was surprised he left out that I thought southerners always have *multiple* Christmas trees inside the home? Maybe he was just doing towns in general. 😂
❤🎄🌟...Merry Christmas!! Lol.. some of my fondest memories are the midnight drives. My parents would make after work to my grandparents for Christmas morning, the little towns along the way with their street, decorations, the courthouse lights showing the way to my grandparents and glory of Christmas day. Thank you to the small towns that still make the attempt to celebrate the true joy of Christmas... and thank you for met and his humor
I am 62 years old. I lived in an upstairs room over my grandpa's general store in the NC foothills during my preschool years. Santa riding on a red fire truck would come thru my rural small town giving paper bags of treats to children. Our town was not big enough for a parade, but there was a fire truck. Santa even came into my upstairs apt. room to see me and my sisters one year when it was too cold to meet him outside. 🎅🎄🚒
That'sreally kind of sweet.
As a small church pastor who had the "live animal debate" this year, and who is watching this video while eating the fruit from my son's band fundraiser... this is eerily accurate...
Here in South Carolina I walked myself to the flea market and got oranges and apples to pass out to my neighbors
Haha too funny! All you’re missing is Santa on a fire truck
@@rexbeavers6746I'VE had Santa come to MY HOUSE on the fire truck to specifically deliver one of my presents as a kid! YUP! I'm a firehouse kid! All us firehouse kids, our firefighter Dads have an annual party AT the firehouse like the weekend before Christmas. Your parents pick something off your list or something else that's appropriate but generic for a girl of your age. That way when you sit with Santa you always get something that's is it what you want or relatable to you yk? Well one year I couldn't go to the party, AND I was little like around 5 OR 6 years old. I can't remember what I have but I think it was swollen glands. So of course their Santa is one of the fellow firefighters and he gets outta the suit and joins the party. Oh no no no! AS my Dad told me later as an adult they had to "PRACTICALLY POUR HIM INTO THE TRUCK" to get this done. 😂 My Dad told him to get himself right back INTO that suit cuz NO WAY was his daughter going to miss out on seeing Santa Claus. NOPE! He was refusing him on the whole idea of just bringing home my present because he said I was sick and very upset about missing the party.😢 Soooo...down the block comes the fire truck with Santa Claus on it to my house! I DON'T mean quietly either~he had them with the lights going AND the horns blasting. He wanted ALL the neighbors to know and see Santa Claus show up! I was shocked and heard I could barely speak. I was almost catatonic and was stuttering Santa.. s s s Santa y y you're here... Y y you're came to see m m me? He said of course I did! I heard you were sick and couldn't come to the party so I just wanted to give you the gift I have for you! Then he hugged me and I was crying soooo hard because I was just so happy! He said well I have to because I have to get back to the party and lots to do. He got back in the truck and they took off. By that time a whole bunch of the neighbors and the kids had come outside. They'd seen AND heard the truck and of course were worried someone was in trouble. I WAS like the most popular kid on my block the next day because Santa came to my house AND in the daytime AND everybody saw him there! SEE??? I TOLD YOU ALL THAT HE IS REAL! Sooo... THAT is why whenever I hear about Santa Claus on a firetruck I get excited for other kids to see that! It TRULY is one of my favorite memories of my childhood. It still brings tears to me eyes to think back about to how much my Daddy loved me especially since he's passed on 9 years ago. I'm adopted and 1 of 3 kids. My 2 brothers are my parents natural kids. Yes I am the youngest AND the baby~you know I AM a Daddy's girl! This is one of my favorite holiday memories and one of my favorite childhood memories because it reminds me how much my Daddy loved me so much. It remind me of how how special he was. Also his much he made sure to show me how he was going to make the best out of the holidays for me and not leave me out of anything. I CAN'T think of many Daddy's out there who will hand deliver Santa Claus to their daughters but he did! It's OVER 50 years now~I turned 59 in October. I still absolutely love this memory of US AND MY very own firetruck Santa Claus.
😉🎅💜🥰🎄🚒😎 #NYGenXBIKERLady #DaddysGirlFOREVER #EastMeadowFD #EngineCompany2 #HomeOfTHEBOYS #WW2ArmyAirCorpsMPsKid
I’m from the north , like the North north , is someone gave me fruit I would be offended and if their were like animals in our church , it would be the drama of the next 100 years.
Replying to heathermichael3987
!!!!
Our little town is one of those places where there are "parade throws"--in other words, the parade riders throw goodies to you. Well, the weather was really BAD--cold and rainy--during one Christmas season so there was absolutely nobody watching on the parade route. Since I was tending a friend's store (no customers in that weather) that was on the parade route so I went outside to see Santa go by (yes, on a fire truck). And since I was the ONLY person out there, everyone riding on the parade threw everything at me. I was absolutely pelted with candy, leftover Mardi Gras beads, Christmas ornaments, and who knows what else. As I recall, Santa hit me with a small stuffed animal. I filled a whole paper sack with that stuff. It was the best Christmas parade ever.....even if I was the only one watching. Nice to know I wasn't on the naughty list. Not to sure about that cranky Santa, though.
I’m DYING 😂 OMG hilarious
Awesome!
I came from a parade throws town too. No parade is worth going to if they aren't throwing beads and moon pies. I couldn't understand the macy"s parade hoopla. They weren't throwing random items from dollar tree.
@@profaneangel2556An old friend of my mother's went to the Macy's parade back in the 70's but she had never been to a parade outside of NOLA before. She was jumping up and down hollering "Throw me something, Mister!" for a good few minutes before she realized that no one else was doing that and that there was nothing to catch. She was really embarrassed. 🤣
We started going to a Christmas parade in a neighboring County (in Tennessee) in 2021 that is the first Saturday in December. For the last 3 years we have gone, it has always rained at some point either before or during the parade and all the candy lands on a wet road or in puddles of dirty water (yum). In 2021, a lot of the candy we collected from the parade was the clearance candy from the previous Valentines Day and Halloween. Of course, that didn't stop my kids from eating it as long as it didn't land directly in a puddle.😅 And it was that very time that I knew this parade would become a new family tradition. 😊
@@peachykeen7634That's taking the Lord's name in vain.
OMG. I went with Mom and my little sister to Chick-fil-A a few days ago and Santa came in on a firetruck. I am glad that the people at Chick-fil-A arranged that.
Shouldn’t Chick-fil-A have Jesus on that truck?
@@donjackson5522 True.
Maybe Jesus was Santa's co-pilot!
Jesus, take the reins!
@@donjackson5522 Jesus is on the Rescue Truck - 'cause you know, Jesus Saves!
@@donjackson5522 Clearly Santa had Jesus take the wheel.
At our town’s Christmas parade a couple of weeks ago we had the Grinch riding on the Animal Control truck. I guess they finally got him. Also a local pest control company had someone dressed in a cockroach costume riding on one of their trucks. Nothing says Christmas in the South like cockroaches.
Sad, but true. "Palmetto" bugs my ass; those are cockroaches that fly.
Have they made their way to Tennessee? Are they like a big ole beetle? I've had to air lift those hummers outta my kitchen where they've come in to die... @@asdisskagen6487
@@asdisskagen6487 Palmetto bugs are the closest thing I ever want to get to Australian wildlife.
@@LabCat SAME 😂
I laughed out loud at the mental image of the Grinch on the animal control truck 😂
Santa on a fire truck was a northern thing too. One year when I was a kid and stuck inside with a case of tonsillitis, Santa saw me looking out of our living room window. That kind gentleman climbed down off the truck and came to our front door to give me some candy. I still cherish such a fond memory. 🥰🚒🎅🍬🤗🤍
Aww that's an awesome memory.
I love the last line “It’s kinda like the North Pole, but we shoot the deer”. You helped me smile and laugh today! 🦌❤😂 Merry Christmas Matt!!
😂😂😂😂❤
The ending was perfect!
What do you think all the elves and Santa eat. Got to keep the reindeer population under control.
Aww he gave us a shout out - Grapevine, TX!
Matt, don't forget the mixed nuts still in the shell. I'm not sure if it was just a '70s - 80s thing, but one of my ingrained Christmas memories is emptying my stocking... to find walnuts, Hershey kisses, and fruit. And if I was lucky, a Matchbox car (because Hot Wheels were the work of the devil).
Wife inherited a crystal hors d'oeuvre dish for the mixed nuts still in the shell after my mother-in-law passed away. I had no idea that's what the dish was for when it was first brought out in December.
Why are Hot Wheels the work of the devil? I never heard that before.
Hot wheels can lead to hot chicks, and you know... IDK, just guessing here @@Darapsa
Please, please tell me why Hot Wheels are evil. I could not find anything anywhere about this. My family always preferred Hot Wheels because matchbox never won any races we held and HW had way better designs.
An apple, an orange, a handful of mixed nuts, and hard candy (both wrapped and hard ribbon candy)
Sixty years ago when I was a little boy, I got to ride on the fire truck with Santa.
❤❤❤
Oh my goodness you killed me with the small church arguing about the cost of the new carpet. For 7 years, my dad tried to talk the church into getting a shed, and the number of times they argued about the price was insane. To date, they still don’t have that shed.😂
I am on our church council, and our current $ discussion is updating the kitchen. Hoo, boy, do some of them have grandiose ideas about what we need...
@@StormtrooperPrincessToo much HGTV. People start believing the fantasy.
@@StormtrooperPrincess I just want a hood for the stove. Had a brother bring a "smokeless" flat top to make sliders. His sliders are, in fact, amazing, but the kitchen looked like Batman did a smoke bomb vanish by the time we got done.
@@beckyowens2586 We NEED an updated fire suppression system, and a more modern stove & oven. People are talking about adding walk-in refrigerators and freezers. They'll "be cheaper than getting a standalone freezer" says the man who doesn't cook ever.
Church drama is crazy. I live in east-central Texas and I'm a Catholic, and the way the Catholic churches work around here is there's a Polish church, a German church, a Mexican church, and a Czech church. If you're not one of those, you're automatically Baptist, except for me. I've been going to the Polish church for about 15 years and my opinion still isn't squat on anything at all.
One of the towns around me mixes it up. Instead of riding in the fire truck, he is in a bass boat on a trailer.
As a Texan, I’ve greatly enjoyed any number of Christmas tamales over the years, but I have to say, Christmas shrimp and grits does sound pretty awesome.
Love to see a christmas tamales recipe. I only do cast iron steak and watch die hard on Christmas day (shrimp and grits is in my arsenal, just never done it on Christmas)
I'm from Texas too, but my relatives are from Louisiana, so I get tamales and jambalaya. It's a win-win!
@@zchris87v80 They're just normal tamales, it's not a special christmas recipe. Essentially everyone's abuelita gets half the entire family together to make tamales, and the leftovers are greatly appreciated by us gringos.
@@mattkuhn6634 Tamales & gumbo here.😁
No tamales.
Turkey, cheese, and baked bean burritos with "stuffing".
Suddenly I'm feeling proud of my small Northern town that had Santa arrive in town sitting in a sleigh...which was atop a flat bed being pulled by an oversize pickup truck.
🦌🦌🦌🦌🎅 awesome!
🦌🦌🦌🦌🛻
Happy to hear rednecks are everywhere. I'm sure everybody loved it though, just like Southern rednecks do.
U damn near south
The very first time I went to see Santa in my small town in the Missouri Ozarks, he came in on a fire truck. Unfortunately, I was a sensitive kid and it scared the bejesus out of me - so much in fact that I feared Santa for years after that.
I remember as a child when my hometown (pop. 500) got its first Christmas decorations. A larger town just up the road bought new decorations and gave the old ones to us. We were all AMAZED.
Bless their hearts! Unless the decorations were ugly, but then I suppose the thought still counts. 🤪
Hey now, you *can* get a Christmas miracle every once in awhile. When I lived in Biloxi, MS it snowed on Christmas Eve. Even stuck to the ground overnight. It was so magical, I still remember running out into the street with my brother at night dancing around in it... My mom was deployed to the middle east at the time, I was so sad she missed it, but I also took it as a sign she'd come home safely.
Granted this was over twenty years ago now... So, probably unlikely to happen again. But ya never know :)
I was likely in the area when that happened! Did the gulf freeze a bit too? I have a distinct memory of the beach birds slipping and sliding over the ice, extremely confused about why they couldn't get into the water!
My parents, sister, and niece lived in Gulfport then. I went down from North Mississippi and was the envy of all my friends (really they were kind of peeved), because I had a White Christmas, and they didn't 😅
@@NicoleK8 I can't remember if the Gulf froze - we lived on the Air Force base so maybe the back bay did? But those were all high ranking officers' houses that were along the waterfront, I think my mom was only a Captain at that point so sadly I don't remember anything like that. But that's absolutely hilarious, I wish I'd seen it! 😆
@@robertlampkin9954 haha I love that! I just still remember this happening because we'd moved from Ohio to Mississippi and I was just getting used to the idea of "this place doesn't get snow" when, of all days, it snowed on Christmas Eve. It was just so... Magical ☺️ lucky you got to experience it too! I never realized it didn't happen up north; the irony, ammiright? Lol
I remember that!
Every Christmas my family and I gather around the basement door for the tornado warning. We've decorated the door very nicely. It's a very festive way to run for your life.
I remember my family having to wake up my great aunt, (originally from Alabama, who was visiting), to a Christmas eve tornado watch in central Texas. When we woke her up, she humoured us, but I don't think she really believed us until she could see the horizontal rain passing by our windows and see the radar, even though she was half deaf and half blind at that point. The sirens were blaring from straight winds and everything!
I remember it feeling weird to be standing next to the Christmas tree, but be looking at the tv, to see tornadoes on the radar at the same time. Texas. **sigh**
Since her passing, I always remember my great aunt at Christmas, and the time when a tornado almost got us all! (Though honestly, if a tornado had gotten us that night, it would probably have taken out my entire family, but magically swerve around my great aunt, leaving her behind as a most talkative, observant witness for the news. . . . she'd tell EVERYBODY about it, probably have her own hour long news special about it.🙃
😂😂😂
I was a Santa Claus chauffeur on a fire truck years ago. I got a picture of me on his lap too and I was 6'2" hillbilly Nam vet! God Bless Your Hearts!
Oh! You nailed it. Especially the broken city light display. We have electric light candy canes with 50% of the lights burned out.
Montana has most of that AND beautiful snowy Christmases, if you like all the kinds of people, please come live here, we need people...
For the record, my family and I were living in Galveston in 2002 when as to my wondering eyes should appear, 6 inches of snow on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Better was that it lasted about 3 days and one of our neighbors made a full-size northern-type snowman!
What's the difference between a northern-type snowman and a southern-type snowman? I'm curious. ^^
The oranges got me. I’m old and remember back when I was little there was always fruit in my stocking. Fruit, socks, underwear, and candy that had mysteriously been on the dining table the day before😂
Lol
At least your socks were in the stocking...mid to late 70s we used our clean socks as the stocking and couple years my parents used clean longjohn pants as theirs 😂😂😂
@@bethshadid2087 Dad’s socks were our stockings haha
That skit literally made me remember the year where my grandfather brought three bags of oranges to a white elephant gift exchange. OMG that was amazing
Oranges, peppermint stick, brand new pair of socks, silver dollar. That was the gift from my great grandparents every year. One year my daddy explained that those were extravagant gifts when my Mamaw and Papaw were young. 💚 Good memories.
I was in high school in the late 80s…and we were selling oranges even back then in the marching band in Georgia! Every. Year! 😄
🍊🍊🍊
As a Texan. We rarely get snow, but we do celebrate Christmas Eve and celebrate till 4 in the morning. We’re making Mexican tamales in Texas with my fam bc we do a lot.
We have 19 lighted reindeer. When my husband is through decorating, I worry a plane is going to think we’re part of the landing strip. 🎉 Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and yours.
I live in Massachusetts and Santa came to the town tree lighting ceremony on a fire truck. No parades here though, just huge trees with an absurd amount of lights and ornaments.
One of the local animal shelters had gracious donator pay for all adoption fees waived, and offered for a $100 donation, that special kitten or puppy could be delievered by santa and an elf on christmas eve
Awww. Hopefully, those pets get a good forever home.
Hahaha. Last weekend we heard a ton of sirens and it turned out to be Santa Claus on a fire truck. It happens in PA too. 🤣
A Christmas Navel or Satsuma was ALWAYS a treat! Nothing like shucking a sack of oysters on Christmas Eve. 😀
Will never experience a white Christmas but have indeed experienced a tornado warning 😂
The closest we had to a white Christmas was that big hail storm! We just pretended it was "snow". 😀
If you live 'just north enough,' you can get either one
In southwestern VA, we have been blessed with "Thundersnow" which is exactly what it sounds like; a snowstorm accompanied by thunder. 😳
@@asdisskagen6487 I'm probably right below you, geographically
@@cindy844 middle GA so I haven’t experienced snow since around 2011. I don’t count sleet or ice which we get every 3 years or so.
In Katy, TX the Fire Department would drive around Neighborhoods with Santa on the Fire truck. You had to check Face Book to find out when they would come through your neighborhood. The first year I thought the whole neighborhood was burning down.
Same here in Round Rock.
We have Santa on fire trucks here in NJ too. Pretty sure that's an everywhere thing... Well, except the places where it's Santa on a boat.
Haha, I'm a youth pastor at a small church, and Matt, you hit the nail on the head with that. My daughter and her husband live in Dahlonega, and we make sure to come down to see the lights there. Merry Christmas and God blessings to you and your family!
We live in Dahlonega and do Christmas big! Also, we had a white Christmas in 2020 up here in the north Georgia mountains - pretty crazy.
Love that both of you can spell that town's name! See, Southern literacy is a thing. Just a different thing.
@jcheatham we're in Blairsville, and yes, we had an amazing white Christmas in 2020.
Wonderful! Instead of Fire Truck Santa, we here in Grangeville, Idaho have "Back of the Parade Float" Santa who travels around town with a PA system that offers Christmas carols as he rides along on many of our chilly Idaho nights. Our neighbor kids never miss getting outside to see him roll by! Thanks for sharing your Southern Christmas fun with us! It is indeed the "Spirit of the Season."
I like the lake santa, on the other side of lake CDL. 😊
OMG! Santa driving down the road on a random Saturday is so on point! We would hear the firetruck horn and jump up to run outside to the dirt road and wave and shout and have Santa (and sometimes Mrs. Claus) on the firetruck pelt us with candy. I thought it was just some weird thing that only happened here. When I'd tell people "in town" about it they would just stare.
"When I'd tell people "in town" about it they would just stare."
Don't worry about it, they weren't on the right list, so they never saw Santa. 😉
My daughter was in the marching band and sold the citrus fruit. I have to say, I love the Florida Indian River fruit. 😂
Oh my gosh - I laughed from start to finish. The Christmas Parade. The live animals - or not. The ambrosia. The schools our church kids attend haven't done oranges in awhile (too healthy?) they push popcorn (years ago, my daughter's school pushed cookie dough, that had more chemicals than a Pfizer pharma factory).
😂😂😂
I can relate to most of these. Especially the apples and oranges in my stocking. I grew up in Oklahoma raised by transplanted Yankees from New York. 😂
As a New Jersey native, it always kills me a little when there's no real snow down here (GA) during December. I miss it so much. But, based on how Georgia has handled slight sprinklings in the past, the entire state would enter DefCon5 if we got any real snow.
Also, thank you everyone for supporting your local marching bands and our fundraisers. We, too, wish we didn't have to do stuff like this to raise funds for our programs but alas...
I appreciate this hard-hitting documentary style format. "Yeah, yeah, that checks out."
We Celebrate and Rejoice in The Birth of OUR Lord and Savior Jesus.
Christ Is King
✝️☦️🇺🇸☦️✝️
Merry Christmas and
God Save The South !
God save the world ❤
I grew up a Southern Baptist, a business meeting meant somebody was getting fired.
We had the fire truck with Santa stop by our house last night! 😂
Love living in the South! Merry Christmas 🎄
Santa Claus on a firetruck is also a big deal in small Northeastern towns. As a kid I thought it was because that was the closest thing to a sleigh they could get, until I found out (at least in my town) it was to keep kids and drunk parents from rushing Santa.
Santa is a hot target in December. Gotta keep him out of harm's way.
THAT’S WHYYYYyyyy??? 🤦🏻♀️ I thought the same thing about the sled 🛷 🚒 I’m questioning my entire reality rn. What else have I been wrong about all these years??
In my town the fire dept. are the ones who do the parade. Like it’s the Fire Dept. Christmas Parade and Santa is played by a guy who used to be the fire chief, so that’s why Santa is on a fire truck where I live 😅
@@wmbookworm96 it’s not a real Christmas parade without a drunk Santa 🎅🏻 #traditions
@@CSIPiper I've never seen our Santa drunk, but he sure does ride the fire truck.
I actually had to do a double-take on that Christmas parade image just to see if it was my hometown Main Street. Then I remembered that's what ALL small towns in the South look like.
Where i live in Maryland (yes i know it is debateable if we are in the South or not) Santa rides on the fire truck and the kids decorate their bikes and ride behind to the local elementary school - six to eight blocks. That's it ... That's the parade.
I moved from the North a year ago, and I LOVE Alabama!!
And this is so accurate!!! Every small town has a parade. It's crazy!!
Welcome to Alabama!
@@tracisnow4897 Thank you. It's everything we wanted, and more!!
Please don't ruin Alabama by voting here the way people up north usually vote. 🤢
Or California.
Where at in Alabama, Roll Tide or War Eagle?
I live in Mobile, AL but I went to school in Tuscaloosa, AL (Roll Tide!). The drive between the two was mostly 2 lane highway and went through a dozen or so small towns. It never failed, no matter what day I came home for Christmas, I was stopped in the little town of Linden, AL for the Christmas parade. I just got out of the car and went up to the parade to watch Santa come down the street in a fire truck. When the parade was over, went back to car and on my way again. Good times.
My mom always got the oranges and other treats from whatever church Christmas play we attended and put them in our stockings. She somehow managed to do with without us realizing where it came from lol.
Aw I love that you mentioned Dahlonega! My parents live close to that town and they really do go all out for Christmas. And my husband and I would always find ourselves at Waffle House on Christmas morning for breakfast. We live in Chicago now and are ready to come back to Gods country!
Oranges, apples, and nuts are traditional gifts given to friends and companies you do business with. I spent 13 years living in Germany during the 70's and 80's. My last Christmas in Germany, I was a 21 year old working as an Asst. F&B Manager at an American Armed Forces Recreation Resort about 50 miles southeast of Munich. During the week leading up to Christmas, we ceived at least 40 crates of oranges and a few dozen apples and nuts as gifts from all of our civilian delivery companies. We gave every employee a full paper grocery bag full of those. It was craziness because we had our normal order of those fruits for our guests and employee's delivered during that week...
Thank you so much for mentioning boiled custard! I’m from TN and that’s what I grew up on.
What part of Tennessee for you? I'm from West Tennessee now I live in middle Tennessee.
@@Denise-ob8dk middle Tennessee. I don’t live there anymore, but everytime I go back for the holidays, I go out looking for it.
This is so true! Santa is popping into random local shops in my town (south Alabama), and he's already had his fire truck ride in the Christmas parade.
So very accurate! My husband is a retired 1st Responder. As a child our daughter got to ride in our small town Christmas parade on the fire truck with Santa. She also rode several years in various convertibles because she was a winner or runner-up in several beauty pageants such as the "Little Pine Seedling" with Miss Pine pageant winner - yep that's a thing - "Little Miss" Lincoln Co to the Miss LC, etc. , In small towns lil girls for these contests are at a premium. But not a toddlers/tiaras sitch & it was all for charity so...
Also, it was so warm inour part of Georgia (2hrs from Dahlonega) we ran the a/c. Last year, it was 15°. You must be mentally and wardrobe prepared to wear either shorts & sandals or boots and scarves...maybe within 24 hrs. Merry Christmas from Georgia!
"They spent at least two business meetings arguing about the cost of the new carpet in the sanctuary."
😂 This is very, very accurate. Much love from Tennessee! ❤
We had a full church vote about whether to buy the house adjacent to our church. Never mind the fact that the house was landlocked - that it the church owned ALL the land surrounding the house.
How cool! I'm in Rhode Island, so we usually have a white Christmas, but not always. Our mall Santa's have been posted up for a while now. Petsmart and Petco also have Santa there, too, for the pet pictures.
We have Santa on a fire truck up here, too. Sometimes, there will be a grinch in another fire truck as well! I've never seen or tried ambrosia, but I do love the little Debbie Christmas tree snacks too!
Ambrosia is delicious. Just don't add the mayo :-)
@@debgordon6542 Wait....he wasn't joking about the Mayo?? I thought he was.
The ambrosia that I grew up with was made with coconut, maraschino cherries, canned Mandarin oranges, pecans and sprinkled with a spoon or two of sugar. No mayo, salad dressing or whipped cream
@vivilynnheath5107 Oh wow. So it's changed a bit with different generations.
We love u matt....merry Christmas to you & ur kin...roll tide😊
This is so perfect I had to share here in South Carolina. Thank you Matt!
Every Christmas season, we would wait all day listening for firetruck sounds.... it either meant, Ethel is on fire, or Santa Claus is on that truck driving thru neighborhoods, tossing out candy!
Even in the midwestern states of Kansas and Missouri these are facts 😂
The oranges reminds me of when I was kid. We would go to my grandmas church and watch the Christmas program and they would give the kids a brown paper bag filled a quarter full with peanuts and an apple on top. This was in Nebraska so not peak orange season.
In Texas the tamales will be wrapped in corn husks. If you want tamales wrapped in banana leaves like what is depicted in the video, you have to go to Mclard’s BBQ joint in Hot Springs Arkansas. Merry Christmas 🎄
Santa use to come through out neighborhood riding on a trailer... pulled by the fire truck pickup. Firetrucks were there too. Santa gave out candy canes.
Literally just went to the small town parade and saw santa on the fire truck on saturday and then had a flashflood festivus on Sunday! 😅
My closest neighbor gets my trash can for Christmas because it floated over there from my yard. Enjoy that new can Virginia🤣
Hey, those county sanitation trashcans aren't cheap! You are indeed a generous neighbor! 😂
@@asdisskagen6487 😂You’re right! I need to get the rain boots on and go retrieve it! Also, the fact that you knew what kind of can it was tells me you also live in the country 🤣
My town up in Connecticut does Santa On A Truck. They did it yesterday. The firetruck drives down all the streets and Santa tosses you popcorn balls.
Another home run, Matt! Thank you! 👍
Merry Christmas, Matt! Matt and FAMILY! Love you!
"But we shoot the deer" 😂
For towns that light up for Christmas, you should have mentioned Macon, GA. Huge Christmas light event with 10s of thousands of people walking around downtown each night to enjoy it.
Wait for it... that last line was the best!
I feel lucky. In my family, Ambrosia was made with whipped cream, not mayonnaise.
I'm glad you said something; I was beginning to get paranoid that I've been making ambrosia wrong my whole life. 😂
The few times I had ambrosia it was made with whipped cream. For a long time I didn't know some people made it with mayo. Never tasted it that way, sounds strange to me.
Its not bad but it actually calls for Miracle Whip. I'd rather have the whipped cream
Matt, that ending was priceless! Thank you.
Just moved from Gwinnett area to small town in LA (Lower Alabama) and you are on point. Just had pur Christmas parade couple weeks ago....and yup Santa was on the firetruck. I like ambrosia so dont knock it and the fruit....reminds me of my youth.... we'd get small trinkets and a orange and apple in our stockings...err rather we used clean socks and my parents used long john bottoms 😮. St least the locall grocer has a nativity scene in the front of store 😊. Merry Christmas🤴 🎁🎄🕊️
I have always made ambrosia with whipped cream. I was afraid to ask where they mayonnaise comes in. Have I been making it wrong my whole life?
@@asdisskagen6487 I've never seen it made with mayonnaise, just Cool Whip or real whipped cream. It's really good!
I live in a small Florida county and I recently got a flash flood and the Christmas parades are exact like you said.
In Pennsylvania Santa still comes the second Saturday morning before Christmas on the fire truck, sirens screaming, through all the streets and courts in the township!
I met Santa *and* Mrs. Claus at the local Food Depot a few days ago. They were all dolled up in their finest North Pole wear, sitting on the bench at the front door, hanging out and chatting with whoever stopped to say hello. I didn't see the firetruck bring them, and I'm guessing the fire truck showed up to get them after I left.
Was it really them or was it that one couple in your town that looks so much like Mr and Mrs Clause that they just dress like that all the time (even if for 9 months it's khaki shorts and some manner of Christmassy looking Hawaiian style shirt) and around December they just start hanging out in public all the time because everyone pays attention to them? Cause we have those here too. Though I'm in the Florida panhandle so you're just as likely to see them at the beach, white hair glowing and matching green thongs.
With visions of Santa in a thong now stuck in my head.
If any of you missed Santa on the firetruck, while Ace is a good place to start looking, I recommend going to Cracker Barrel. You're guaranteed to find him there ordering the baked potato and Mac and cheese
I am here for the Boiled Custard supremacy.
Our neighborhood houses the extended family of the mayor. Every year, "Santa on a Firetruck" makes a housecall to our street so we don't even have to leave our porch. Our kids get a kick out of Santa throwing cheap candy. 😂😂😂
This is too accurate, especially the Santa on a firetruck and treating Christmas as a Thanksgiving sequel.
Can still remember the smell of my stockings at Christmas, oranges, apples, and candy canes!! Merry Christmas everyone!! God Bless.
I can confirm here in Arkansas it’s supposed to rain all day with a high of 65 on Christmas 😅
Same here, but in Aiken, SC, it’s with horses.
York, South Carolina here ❤
My hometown is so close to our next town over that they do one joint parade the first Saturday in December. And it includes just all the middle and high school marching bands and a large number of local Boy Scout troops just perched on a trailer pulled by one of the leader’s old Dodge’s. As someone who was both on one of those trailers for several years and watched them for several other years, it’s always a Dodge despite most leaders driving F-150s. That or they Jerry rigged the trailer to the church van and used that for the parade.
Small town Arkansas here, and I literally saw Santa in our local Edwards food giant 2 days ago lol, when he said that I lost it!
How timely! Santa rolled through the neighborhood just last night ... Yep, on a fire truck.
Also, our Christmas Parade was first postponed, the just canceled because of the rain! I was really excited to be in it this year with the high school marching band. Luckily, we're gonna be in the Rose Parade, so that may make up for it. OMG. I just listened to his comment about the band selling oranges and the like. We do that fundraiser every year. I usually don't participate, though.
My sister and I sold band fruit to Johnny Cash some 34 years ago. True story.
@@lynnhawkins952What a memory! How cool!👍🏻
Yoooo, good luck in the Rose Parade! What an accomplishment! Have a blast and enjoy every moment 👏🏼👏🏼
@@Dawn_Hannah Yeah. It's gonna be fun. My feet are gonna hurt afterwards, but I'll feel accomplished.
Johnny Cash in Hendersonville? @@lynnhawkins952
The oranges thing hits pretty hard, even for us northern mid-west folks.
Tearfully preparing for when 2023 is looked back on as "the good old days"
Good luck and God bless
Some towns down here really know how to do it right; they don't actually take down the Christmas decorations. Ever. They just light 'em up right after Thanksgiving.
I have lived in several festive neighborhoods where most (if not all) neighbors leave their lights up year 'round and just turn them on for various holidays. 😂
My favorite tree that stayed up all year was in Fairhope, Alabama where they just took the Christmas ornaments off in January and put on Mardi Gras beads with purple, green, and gold ornaments. Then eggs for Easter and red/white/blue patriotic for May through September. It was so festive and fun.
I LOVE ambrosia...... cannot get enough of it up here in yankee Montana.... and YES I lived in a small town where Santa was on the fire truck and it WAS the only rig in the parade....
You speak so much TRUTH. Bless your heart, that comes with a lot of holiday spirit. Have a good’un
I live in a small suburb south of Houston. We have a firetruck that goes through the subdivision on the last Saturday before Christmas, siren and lights and Santa. My son and his family were on the truck since the son was a volunteer. It's just fun to see. We also got a white Christmas in 2000, it snowed an inch here, which is awesome since we're 15 miles from Galveston.
The Christmas parade reminds me of what we do in my hometown here in the UK, just swap the emergency service vehicles for an endless stream of tractors, decorated with lights, beeping their horns to the tune of Christmas carols. Seriously, this year I saw fifty tractors, with police escort, cruising past my church after the carol service. You think Santa on a firetruck is weird, try Santa, two dozen elves, two dozen reindeer, and one guy who forgot to dress-up driving tractors through the middle of town. The whole thing took about half an hour to pass, and I swear it held up traffic for another two.
I am fairly this is just something that happens in my hometown, I've never seen anything like it elsewhere, and I imagine other British people in the comments have no idea what I'm talking about.
In Scotland that’s just Saturday night.
@@donjackson5522 LMAO!!!
Sounds fun!
Wow!! Now that’s different, but I like it!!😂
My farming home town in Cali did the same thing
Love it! I learned a lot from this video (not a southerner). But I was surprised he left out that I thought southerners always have *multiple* Christmas trees inside the home? Maybe he was just doing towns in general. 😂
😊 It was always a treat to get oranges in our stockings. Grandma always gave us oranges and underwear 😂
Still haven't made it to a full on Southern Christmas, but I have had a birthday party at a Waffle House.
U almost there 😅😅
My god, this is so incredibly accurate. Especially the Christmas parade.
I think they used to have tamales at Christmas time here in Northeast Louisiana, but at least where I live no one seems to really make them any more.
❤🎄🌟...Merry Christmas!! Lol.. some of my fondest memories are the midnight drives. My parents would make after work to my grandparents for Christmas morning, the little towns along the way with their street, decorations, the courthouse lights showing the way to my grandparents and glory of Christmas day. Thank you to the small towns that still make the attempt to celebrate the true joy of Christmas... and thank you for met and his humor