Christmas Traditions
AKAtude, you got me all excited---thinking about my Christmas past. I remember that as a child, my Santa gifts were unwrapped. They were always large toys...they we nearly impossible to wrap. For example: a bicycle.
I remember that as my family put up the Christmas tree, we would watch Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Charlie Brown's Christmas,the Night Before Christmas, and the Grinch who Stole Christmas. On the average, it would take about two nights to assemble the tree. About three of these would come on one night (on CBS), and then the other two on the next. I just enjoyed that!
On Christmas Eve, my dad would read the story, The Night Before Christmas to my lil' sis and I. He would then tell us to go to bed, and not peek out of our eyes until morning. My mom would place homemade cookies and milk near our bedroom window--because we wanted to be certain that Santa was properly fed so that he would leave all of our requested gifts behind.
As a child, all of the family on my mom and dad's sides would get together to exchange gifts and eat a hefty meal. It was so much fun. My grandparents lived one block away from one another, so it wasn't a big hassle for us to travel. We always went home with three lawn bags of gifts. We were set with enough toys for the year!
Now, I still go home for Christmas. We still get up early, exchange gifts, and listen to Nat King Cole, Mahalia Jackson, little Michael Jackson ("I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus"), Kirk Franklin, and others sing the holiday tunes to us. We still hang out with immediate family members as well. We have alternated this pattern however. Since my sis' and I live in different cities than my parents, we decide to stay home 1 year and another year go celebrate with the family. We have to maximize our family moment.
