For those of you who started your Christmas decorating right after Halloween, I know that you must be desperate to get the wait over! Christmas is only one day away! Hooray!
Actually, it’s today for my family. Tomorrow is my nephew’s birthday, so we celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve and celebrate him (and my middle son this year) on Christmas Day. You might would think that tradition started when my nephew was born twenty some-odd years ago, but no.
For as long as I can remember, my family has celebrated on the Eve of Christmas. I have a family of strongly opinionated and extremely excitable females who seem to marry very agreeable men. What these women decide regarding Christmas goes.
My earliest memories of celebrating Christmas involve the agonizingly long drive from Houston, Texas, to the small town in central Louisiana of my grandparents’ home, the roads growing increasingly windier the closer we came to our destination. My sister and I would be riding in the back of the station wagon, sans seatbelts, on top of the back seat, which had been laid down for our comfort (so we could stretch out and take a nap or play a game), and we would grab the loop on the back of the seat and pretend it was our horse’s reins. We would encourage him loudly and with great gusto to “go faster” and “giddyup!”
By the time we pulled onto the gravel road that led to the house, Grandma was stepping out of the door with a big smile on her face to welcome us, and we were just about beside ourselves with the anticipation of Christmas. She’d reassure us that she’d made us two chocolate pies (hopefully enough for everyone) as we threw ourselves into her embrace and then pushed past her into the house in our hurry to see the tree and all the gifts stacked underneath.
My aunt and uncle would be there, too, and in later years with their children.
In the kitchen, there would be a discussion late into the night between the adult females about when we’d open gifts. The children would sit up and beg from our places on the sleeper sofa: “Let it be tomorrow. We can’t waaaaitttt!”
So very early in my childhood memories, it was decided that our family would celebrate Christmas on Christmas Eve. In truth, none of us–children nor adults–had the patience to wait until Christmas Day.
I’m so glad my nephew decided to make his first appearance in the world on Christmas Day and not a day earlier!
