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When we were little kids our family followed the French tradition. Midnight Mass on the 24th followed by a 2AM seafood feast and a stocking or container of some type filled with small presents from Pere Noel. Big dinner on Christmas day but more focused on the birth of Christ than on presents. The tree went up on Christmas Eve and stayed up until the day after Twelvth Night (Kings Day).
The main gift giving was on Twelvth Night to celebrate the arrival of the three Kings who brought gifts to the Christ Child. This was called Petit Noel and was our big day of anticipation.
We still keep the same schedule with the tree and the seafood feast after midnight mass but have pretty much shifted the gift giving to Christmas morning.
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