When I was a child, Christmas EVE was the big day for my family. As evening began, we would all pile up in our Dodge van, and go look at Christmas lights, and look for Rudolph's nose. But, at the last moment, Daddy would have to stay behind. I remember being sad that Daddy always had to miss the lights! LOL.
We would drive around town, looking at all the light displays. Every once in a while, one of my older siblings would point at a red flashing light in the sky, and tell me that that was Santa and his reindeer! (you gotta love airplanes on Christmas Eve! LOL)
After quite a while, we would finally drive back home. Daddy would meet us at the driveway, and tell us that we JUST MISSED SANTA! He was JUST HERE! He tried to keep Santa a few minutes longer, but, Santa being Santa, had to leave before the kids saw him ;)
We kids would run into the house, and look at the tree in awe! Presents were PILED EVERYWHERE! (remember, Im the youngest of 8, so even if we each only had 2 gifts .. that was a lot of gifts! HAHA!)
Daddy would look at the gifts, and hand them out one at a time, to make sure that each of us had at least one gift in hand before everyone began opening gifts. After what seemed like ages, all of the gifts would be opened, and we were mostly too excited to sleep! But we knew that we already had our gifts, so we didnt have the problem of having to WAIT! lol.
Christmas morning would be spent playing with the gifts that we had opened the night before.
As a child, I didnt think much of the fact that we did our Christmas on Christmas Eve. It was just how things were done at our house and that was that. Later, I learned that it was mostly because Daddy just couldnt wait! LOL.
The first Christmas after Tom and I were married, we spent Christmas with his family. His family lived only 25 miles away from my family at the time, so we were able to go to my parents for Christmas Eve, and enjoy a "normal" Christmas with my family. BUT ... we then went back to his folks house, and for the first time I could honestly remember, I actually had to go to sleep on Christmas Eve, with a hole tree of WRAPPED PRESENTS .. and WAIT till MORNING to open most of my gifts! OMGoodness, I hardly SLEPT that night! Here I was, a few weeks away from being 21, and I was experiencing my first Christmas MORNING Christmas! I felt like a 5 year old child!
I was one of the first to wake in the morning, out of sheer anticipation! Eventually, the household woke up, and we were able to open the gifts. What a fantastic time we had!
Tom and I have chosen to have the tradition of waiting till morning to open our gifts. We open ONE gift on Christmas eve, which tends to be Pajamas. We then make cookies for Santa, wearing our new PJs. We set out a plate with cookies, and a cup of milk. We also make sure to set out a plate with carrots for the reindeer. Then, we all head off to bed, to wait until morning to open our gifts.
Our house does not have a fireplace, and our kids were afraid that Santa could not come to our house due to there not being a chimney for him to come down. SO, we have a magic fire place. We have a Christmas theme fireplace gate that we put up against a wall, with cardboard 'fire' within. We hang our stockings above the magic fireplace, and my kids just KNOW that since Santa is magic, that he can for SURE come here in a magic fireplace! :)
When our children wake in the morning, they wake to find that indeed Santa WAS able to come through the magic fireplace! The stockings are piled FULL, too full to still hang, so they are neatly lined up on the floor against the fireplace. there are piles by the fireplace, one for each family member. Some gifts, ones NOT from Santa, are all wrapped nice and pretty. But, Santa doesnt wrap the gifts that he brings to our family.
The kids are always excited to note that the plate of cookies and plate of carrots are mostly eaten up, with a thank you note from the big guy himself!
This Christmas, we will be going to Tom's parents house. This will be the first time since we became parents that we will be away from home for Christmas. I am so very excited that we will be able to have Christmas with my in-laws! What wonderful memories that will be made! My kids will spend their first Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa B's house! WOW!
I look forward to the opportunity we have to have "Grandparent Christmas" traditions!
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