Everything came from Santa, and was wrapped with gift cards - except for things that family mailed from Europe that I managed to spot before mrs. hamburger could hide it.
<sniff>
Get home safe and sound, ralphb. That will be a present for all of us.
Noddy24 wrote:Boomer--
You're making the traditions that Mo will tell his kids.
As long as the theme is love, you won't go wrong.
Enjoy.
<sniff again>
It is very cool to hear about all of these different traditions. Thank you all for sharing them with the rest of us.
My experience was quite a bit like cjane's.
I should poke around and find a photo of me with my ukelele, ready to perform my Christmas Eve pre-gift mmmmmm recital.
I always had to sing, play an instrument ... perform in some way ... I think one year I recited a Hallowe'en poem
When I was little Santa gave the big stuff. The night before we all stayed or tried to stay up till 12 family came over we had coco and they told christmas stories to us kids there was all sorts of candies and cookies, eggnog and hot toties for the adults to drink and they told of all their fave christmases of past. at 12 we all opened our gifts that were given by family, parents, and so on. Then we all went to bed and in the morning there was what santa left. My Hubby is different in his family they didn't do any of that they just went to bed early and woke up to gifts from santa. Then had Christmas dinner with the family. Yeah it's ok that way but I can't say I don't miss the Christmases I was use to. Anyhow good topic nice to see how others do it
When I was small all the big gifts came from Mum and Dad and all the little things came from Santa....I would get up early and go and wake my little brothers and we would run out to the fireplace and see our stockings stuffed full of little toys...then we would go and check outside to see if the reindeer had drank any of the water we left outside in a bucket,
then run into the kitchen to see if Santa had eaten his cookie and drink his bottle of beer!!
some years the cookie didnt get touched...hmmm now I know why!
Ah, thanks for bringing up the cookies for Santa tradition, KiwiChic. We did that too. We'd write a note to Santa, thanking him in advance for the presents, and leave some Christmas cookies and a glass of milk. (Hmm, maybe Santa would have preferred some bourbon?) We would also put out some (uncooked) oatmeal on the back walk for the reindeer. I have no idea where we got the idea that reindeer might eat that! Cookies, milk, and oatmeal would all be gone in the morning.
We celebrated much like edgar's family. All the wrapped gifts (the family's gifts to each other and gifts from friends) were opened on Christmas Eve..."so there will be plenty of room under the tree for Santa," Mom said. Our parents got us stuff like pajamas and books. Santa brought us all the really cool stuff. And, OF COURSE it wasn't wrapped! Santa didn't have time to wrap millions and millions of presents...he and the elves barely got them all made in time for Christmas, right?!
(No packaging on Santa presents either, boomer. Remember, the elves made 'em, not Fisher Price. One year Mom forgot and left one gift in its box for my brother, and for years he thought that Santa must've had an elf named Milton Bradley. It's been a family joke ever since.)
Boomer--
With your idea of a Christmas Tree, Mo may have some confusion between Santa and Paul Bunyan.
Yeah, our tree is something alright.
Really though some of my favorite Christmas memories are of decorating the tree.
My parents would take a picture each year and you can witness our growing taller by the height of the higest ornaments on the tree. There were the clusters at the very bottom, then sparse, then very sparse, then empty. They were lovely trees.
They were gaudy in a way only a child could adore.
Now I go to Christmas parties and people have had their trees "done" or they bought them at charity auctions and stuff. Thats all nice but a kid decorated tree is the loveliest of all.
My wife and I decorate the tree. As the kids get older they will help more and more. Our favorite tree so far is the first one. That was our wedding tree.
Christmas 06 will be as big and round as I can find.
This years my wife said she went went out looked at a tree and said "that's good enough"
I just hope the little guy enjoys this years. Luckily our daughter is too small to know anything is going on.
My wife said when the oldest two were growing up they put out cookies and milk for santa and carrots and veggies for the reihndeer. We will probably do that with the younger two.
LOL I remember the first Tree we had as a married couple. We were not going to get one and a friend of mine on the Cb radio was driving truck and bringing christmas trees in to town. He asked me if I was already for christmas and I said well no we don't have kids so we didn't really do anything and he said oh now we all must have christmas. So he brung us our first tree. Now when they are on the truck they are all wrapped up and you can reall tell their size. So he just pulled one off and was back off to do his delivery. We got the tree inside and undid the ties and stood it up and it was the biggest tree you ever did see lol. We lived in a one bedroom little house and this tree took up the entire living room. If you sat on the couch it's branches sat on your lap haha. Soo I had another friend with 6 kids that I knew could not aford a tree and Tim and I drug it over to her house. The miracle of that christmas was that the next day wile the lady we gave it to was driving she past a christmas tree lot and on it was one small tree all alone. The people were all packing up to leave and she stopped to ask how much they would sell her that tree. They told her she could have it. It was perfect for our little house and very cute. The feeling of giving was there that year and it felt good. The miracle of giving has fallowed us over the years. Things just come up that are so deep and meaningful, different ways of giving other than just the normal gift to one another.
You've obviously got some good Karma, DB!
DB--
Merry Christmas and the happiest of New Years for you and your family.
Last night my wife set up the tree. Our little guy saw it in the morning and said Mommy look what santa brought! The, he looked under the tree and said: "mommy santa forgot the train." My wife told him if he was a good boy santa would probably bring the train tonight. I'll be a good boy all day mommy!
When I was growing up, the stuff in the stockings was from Santa and everything else was from someone specific. That's what we've been doing. Although sozlet has been asking Santa to bring her ice skates, and I plan to get them, and not sure yet how I'll handle that (so, happy to see this now for ideas). I think I was just planning on putting her name on it, no "from". That's wussy, though. Hmmm...
We used to get a reasonably major gift from Father Christmas, and a similarly major one from mum and dad (combined).
Christmas stockings here are generally just for crappy stuff.
My family used white, full length nurses' stockings, hanging by the chimney with care.
There was always an apple, an orange and a tangerine--and a silver dollar in the toe. There was always a box of Animal Crackers to be eaten with orange juice for breakfast.
Stocking stuffers were spaced, toe-to-thigh with layers of chocolate and nuts.
Favorite candies and foods were always included.
When my boys were tiny, Santa used to bring the older boy boxes of frozen spinach (as well as the more traditional loot). The younger brother got out-of-season tomatoes and they were both blissful happy.
Oddly people who had an unhappy childhood objected wildly to giving children wholesome spinach and tomatoes on Christmas morning. People with happy childhoods understood.
I'd always get smoked oysters. Dunno how wholesome, but man I loved 'em. (A rare treat.) Plus the orange, sometimes a pomegranate, nuts, and little this 'n' thats -- hair ornaments, jewelry sometimes, nice-smelling soaps, fancy shampoo samplers, etc.
Oh that father time reminded me that some times santa didn't come at all. Some times we had to wait for the Three kings. As we are of spanish descent my mother wanted us to also know of our culture. Some times both would come, the Three kings seemed more real to us as they were mentioned in the bible bringing gifts to jesus. It was kind of nice having both though cause Santa seemed to have better toys lol.
