My parents were married in 1959. My mother was nearly 30 and my father was 29. These days that wouldn’t even raise an eyebrow but considering that the average age of marriage in 1959 was 22.8 for men and 20.3 for women, my parents were late to the marriage game. Which meant they were also behind on having kids. My grandmother told my mom she better hurry up before she got ‘too old’, so hurry they did. They had 4 kids in 5 years!
Maybe that’s where our Christmas tradition came from. My parents were just too tired.
Weeks before Christmas, the tree went up and GASP! yes,it was an artificial tree, decorated with tinsel, colored lights and lots of ornaments. Presents were neatly wrapped and placed on the white fluff which acted as snow.
Around 7pm Christmas Eve, my mom and dad would encourage us to hurry upstairs to wait for Santa. We would run upstairs, jump into our beds and try to sleep. But we never could fall asleep. We were too busy listening for Santa!
Finally we would hear my dad shout ‘Good bye Santa and ‘Merry Christmas!’ And then call up to us to ‘Hurry and look up to see if you can see Santa and his sleigh.’ The four of us would come rushing down the stairs as the door slammed and bells jingled. Inevitably at least one of us would swear we saw him! ‘There he goes!’ we would cry out and then the real fun began.
With Christmas music playing in the background, each present was labeled with one of our names and each was opened with all of us watching. None of that grab the gift with your name on it and everyone opening theirs at the same time.
No, this was an event in our unconventional house and the moment of your present opening was meant to savor and last. OOH’S and AHH’s all around! A hug to the gift giver for a present that was usually signed ‘with love from Santa, Mom and Dad.’
We had pizza and soda as the unwrapping continued and the person distributing the presents wore a Santa hat and was in charge of handing the gift to the right person and collecting the wrapping paper to throw it away.
This would continue until the last gift was opened. ‘Merry Christmas, thank you’s and I love you’s’ to all and to sleep we went.
In the morning, Christmas morning, my brother, my sisters and I would leap from our beds very early to play with our new toys. And my parents, well, they got to sleep…
Embrace your traditions with your family. No matter what they are.