As Christmas draws near, Comox Valley residents are getting ready for the festivities. The Record strolled down Courtenay鈥檚 5th Street to hear people鈥檚 best Christmas memories.

Jayne Fogarty and Peter Smallwood

J: 鈥淲hen I was about 14 or 15, my mom decided after all the years of live Christmas trees, she wanted us to have a fake tree. She didn鈥檛 want the mess, or any of that. My dad and I were like 鈥淲HAT!鈥� and we ended up going into our backyard which was a quarter acre in downtown Toronto. There was a blue spruce that he was going to be taking out in the spring anyway. We cut the blue spruce down, so it ended up being a good Christmas because we had this beautiful blue spruce as our Christmas tree.鈥�

P: 鈥淚n 1968 my parents moved from Scarborough to a little town in eastern Ontario and we moved on Christmas day, in the middle of the night. It鈥檚 something that really sticks out in my mind, that鈥檚 for sure.鈥�

J: 鈥淢y sister lived in that town for a brief time. And he and I dated, and then my sister moved from that town. And our parents didn鈥檛 want to drive us the two hours, I was in Toronto. (So we broke up). But it was our first kiss, our first hand-holding, all that stuff. And we realized we never let go. 鈥�

P: 鈥淲e found each other 46 years later again, and last year was our first Christmas together.鈥�

Bonny Kane

鈥�(My daughter) was born Dec. 21, 1980. She was a lovely child, and I got home in time for Christmas. We had a great big Christmas dinner. All the family was there, it was just a really nice family.

鈥淪he and her family live here with my grandchildren. And probably my great-grandchildren shortly. Mind you there鈥檚 only four of us. We鈥檙e down from a lot to four鈥�. my husband passed away, my mother just passed away, so we鈥檙e dwindling. The kids gotta鈥� start having kids soon [breaks out in laughter].鈥�

Natasha McLean

鈥淎s a kid, my dad got me one of those Nokia little pink flip-phones and put it under the tree and called it. So when I was like 13 or 14 I remember the phone did the 鈥榙adadada鈥� [think Jurassic Park when the phone is chiming from the dinosaur dung].鈥�

鈥淥ne of my worst Christmas memories would be also, very young, I wanted this blue puffy vest from The Gap. And I opened it and I鈥檓 like, 鈥極h my gosh! Santa got me this!鈥� and then my younger brother who鈥檚 four years younger, was like 鈥楴o, we got that for you at the mall with dad!鈥� So my younger brother ruined Santa for me.鈥�

鈥淥ne of my favourite Christmas memories would be this upcoming Christmas (too). It will be my son鈥檚 second Christmas. And we got the in-laws here (from Ontario) to celebrate.鈥�