The Jam Art 10th anniversary collection
This afternoon.
Jam Art Factory is having a birthday!
Mark at Jam Art Prints writes:
To celebrate our 10 year anniversary of Jam Art Factory, we’ve a new collection of limited edition A2 giclée prints by 8 of our Irish based artists all based around the theme of Nostalgia on JamArtPrints.com. The A2 prints are limited to only 10. The A3 and A4 are unlimited digital prints.
We’d like to give away one of these prints in A3 size to the person who tells us their favourite childhood Christmas memory. Best answer wins!
Lines must close on Sunday at Middday.
The Jam Art print competitions runs here every Friday until Christmas.
Sponsored Link
There’s something about Christmas. There’s something about it that creeps inside and finds the child in you. I was having a look around the shops to see what Santa might be bringing the boys. There was this train set. Old style, black engines, maroon stripe, green and black carriages, all set up. And the sound it made, soft, it cut right through all the space 80s screeches in the place
– and I remembered another Christmas morning, waking up, the windows frosted over with cold. You could see your breath. And the thing that woke me was that sound and I didn’t dare hope, sliding out of bed, cold to the floor, and there it was going round and round on the bedroom rug. I ran down, could barely speak. Mam and Dad were sitting there.
The teapot covered in that knitted cosy and the smell of hot milky tea. “Dad, you’ll never guess what Santa brought”.
“Well doesn’t that beat Banagher, a train set, no less; isn’t Santa the smart fella”.
So last night, when I came home with the train set, Mary couldn’t believe it. “Ah Martin, sure that’s not what they wanted at all”.
“Santa will bring them what they want, I said”. This is from me. Put the kettle on, we’ll have a cup of tea.
My favourite memories of Christmas are usually centred around video games and me being a giant sap. The three that stand out concern the NES, the Gameboy and the Playstation 1. This is the NES one.
The NES was my first videogame system. I didn’t know about it when it released and I doubt my parents could have afforded one. But when the SNES was about to came out and my cousins were offloading their NES, I did every job imaginable during that summer holiday for my parents, neighbours, extended family etc, all to earn the money to pay for it and pay for it I did (came with Duck Hunt and a few other bits). Magic, pure magic.
At this time, we would spent alternating Christmas’ at home in Dublin or with the rest of my family in Cork. We were lodged with my Grandparents and it was jobs, jobs, jobs for all of us. Old country people, idleness was the Devil etc. They’re all dead now but I remember them very fondly. The idea of getting to play my new console was out of the question but on Christmas morning, set up in the back store room of my Grandparents house was our family telly (my Dad had snuck it down, tiny little Mitsubishi 13 inch), my NES (I must have been a dense child, I didn’t notice it being packed) and a new game from Santa, Wrath of the Black Manta.
For the rest of that morning, my parents ran interference on my Grandparents, telling them I was gathering turf from the shed, changing my socks, tidying the bed etc, so they wouldn’t wonder where I was and give me a job. It was only an hour or so before we were hustled off to Mass but that time was magical. Whenever the game was off, I was like a puppy to my parents, hanging around them, trying to help them with everything they were doing for the rest of the holiday as I knew the work that had gone into that Christmas.
Cards are wonderful i love them,especially the kid on the phone laptop on knee surrounded by bright colorful toys evokes Xmas memories & the ‘pissinginabucketintherain’ caravan one gave me a chuckle, but the one still engrossing me is the top one with lady spring-cleaning her flat/appartment/bedsit..you know it’s Dublin by the fanlight over the door & April sky,chimney shadows drawing the eye all around the frame, enchanting. Would like to enter the competition but the two stories above make a worthy play-off for the prize..
My fondest festive memory is from only a couple of years ago. I was sitting with my mother discussing childhood Christmases – perhaps a little jaded thinking of the sheer quantity of tat my young nieces and nephew would now receive compared to kids of yesteryear. The topic of my own gifts came up. Pride of place was the ‘Barbie Crystal Horse and Carriage’ of the early ’90s which I spotted in a catalogue, and I was insistent that it was the only thing I wanted. My mother may have made a few (forgotten) tentative overtures at the time…”are you sure?” but my mind was set, and I was delighted to unwrap it on Christmas morning, my parents proudly observing my reaction.
When I brought it up this time, the response was nothing short of weary. “Oh, Barbie!”
“Why?”
“I never had as much trouble getting a present. It couldn’t be found locally, your aunt couldn’t get it in Dublin, we rang stores all around the country and none of them had it. I was about to sit my driving test at the time and could barely steer, I was so worried. The instructor ended up asking me what was wrong and when I explained he had to tell me “Forget About Barbie!” and focus on the road!
Eventually your cousin’s wife found one in England, and they posted it over in time for Christmas Day.
Of course you had no idea. You were just delighted to see it under the tree.”
I was silent for a moment. “I really had no idea.”
Of course time passes, more Christmases roll around, and now I have a daughter of my own. She may one day be charmed by, or she may well scoff at the old-fashioned plastic horse, with its pink mane, and the shiny plastic lanterns on the carriage, as I dig it out of storage to show to her. At any rate, even if she enjoys playing with it as I once did, she will not have the special memory I now do, layered on top of my own childhood joy – the appreciation for my mother’s efforts to make sure I was not disappointed that Christmas Day.