The tradition of my family, from the time I was little.

Much to the dismay of my parents, no doubt.

Never before and still do so to this Christmas Season. Jesus wasn’t born on Christmas Eve. And no one should give gifts on Christmas Eve, so decrees BOSSHOG by Gawd.

donation to the Food Bank with the money I would have spent on them.

And such a generous gesture makes for a Very Merry Christmas in your home.

We kids would sit on the stairs and it was really annoying becaus we could hear our parents talking, but they wouldn't get up until 8:00! Then we were allowed to have our stockings, but nothing else until we at least had cereal and the parents had coffee. THEN we got to have presents! Ater that. a serious breakfast, usually pancakes and bacon.

I followed kind of the same ritual with my kids. They got their stockings while we had coffee. I put the breakfast casserole (assembled the day before and refrigerated) into the oven, and we had presents. By the time we finished, the casserole and the cinnamon rolls ( which I'd excused myself to put into the oven) would be ready and we'd sit down to breakfast.

My wife's birthday is the 24th and mine is the 29th. We both agree we were screwed as a kid. Lots of Birthmas gifts.

So, we don't give each other Christmas gifts other than small token ones.

But we each get Kick Ass Birthday gifts.

we used to celebrate her birthday at Thanksgiving.

When my older brother was little, Mom was concerned he’d be so excited about his new toys that he wouldn’t eat breakfast. She had some bananas on the counter, and made him eat one and drink a glass of milk before opening presents.

That became a tradition. We’d stand around the kitchen at 6 AM eating a banana and drinking milk. Then Dad would go into the living room and plug in the tree lights, and the orgy of greed was on. Oddly, I can no longer eat bananas.

My wife’s family opened Christmas eve, so after we got married, we’d go to her parent’s house on Christmas eve, and open after we got back from the midnight service. Then we’d get up Christmas morning and open at our place, and then drive to my Mom’s house and open again.

Then transition to Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve gifts for my birthday, and Christmas day for Christmas gifts. My parents were really good about differentiating them.

younger we let them pick one gift from under the tree that they could open on Christmas Eve.

Family gathering/ exchange gifts, eating prime rib or beef tenderloin....Christmas Day morning for children...

I favor having a Gorganzola sauce to go along with the beef...medium rare...always.

About 7:00 pm by the lights of the Christmas tree. It was beautiful. It was a really special time for me because my birthday is on the 23rd, more gifts on Christmas Eve, and Santa left gifts under the tree for us to find on Christmas morning. The only downside was that I had to wait a full year to receive gifts, but it was worth it!

and my brother's is two days before Halloween. Go figure.



Edit to add - he's a Trumper, so that kind of speaks for itself.

Fond memory

AND decorated the tree so my brother and I didn’t see any of that before Christmas morning and we had to wait on the stairs for the rest of the adults to get up before we were allowed to go into the living room.

When I was about 11 (my brother 17), we started being allowed to open one present before going to bed and when we got up in the morning we were allowed to open our stockings on our own, but had to wait until everyone else was assembled in the living room before we started opening all the other presents.

I used to stay up half the night wrapping and stuffing the kids' stockings. I would wake them up in the morning with the announcement that "he came!" and I never saw kids get out of bed and be wide awake faster. They would look over all the stuff that magically (me) appeared overnight and I would tell them they could get started by going through their stockings. We would then eat breakfast and open the presents under the tree in turns. A whole lot of work but I sure miss those days.

… and the rest on xmas morning. It seemed to dial down the craziness amongst us four kids.

I got sort of laughed at for always carefully unwrapping my presents, instead of ripping the wrapping off! 😄